Flying out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota is most convenient for us…it is a small airport and only an hour away. Unfortunately flights out of Sioux Falls are almost always higher priced. The last time we flew out of FSD, we had some free airline vouchers to use…this time we would be footing the whole bill and I did not want to pay as much for airfare as we did for a week long cruise!! Instead we decided to fly out of Minneapolis/St. Paul…a three and a half hour drive but worth it to save around $400 total!
We definitely wanted to fly a day early and I was able to find a direct flight on Northwest Airlines with very convenient times. I suppose we could have gotten up really early to drive to “the cities” for our flight, but with all we were saving on the flights we just decided to drive up the night before and not have to rush. The Wyndham Hotel offered a “park ‘n fly” option where for the price of a one night stay we could leave our car for a week while we cruised.
Our son had gotten married the week before the cruise and it occurred to me that we would be at the hotel near the airport on Friday night when the “newlyweds” would be flying in from their honeymoon. They had previously made arrangements for a friend to pick them up, but hey…we were going to be there and we could get them!
Bob took the day off on Friday and we left home around 10 a.m to head to “the Cities”. Our son had left his car at a friend’s house north of Minneapolis so we swung by there to pick it up before heading to the Wyndham Hotel.
Our son's flight was due around 6 p.m. so our plan was to pick them up, go out to eat and then send them on their way home. At precisely 6 p.m. a huge thunderstorm struck the Twin Cities. We waited and waited and finally around 7 p.m. we got a call…”Mom, we are in Duluth!” Their flight had been diverted. Not knowing when they would finally arrive, Bob and I drove over to the Mall of America, grabbed a bite to eat and enjoyed shopping in one of the world’s largest malls!
The call finally came around 10:15 p.m. that they had landed. The mall is right by the airport so we buzzed over and picked them up. By then they were exhausted and just wanted to get back to their apartment…an hour away. They came back to our hotel briefly and then took their car and left. I was disappointed we didn’t get to spend more time together but glad we did get a brief visit before we left on the cruise.
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