Flying Home and Follow-Up

Like I mentioned in my last post, we had planned on staying the entire week, but Thursday rolled around and Winter Storm Jonas was hitting the news. It was starting to look like we had to fly out that day - or not fly out at all. So as much as it sucked to cut our trip short (Thursday was the day we were going to ski!), we bit the bullet and decided to travel back home.

On our way to the airport (we drove to Washington D.C. for more flying options), we stopped a great local diner (whose name escapes me).

Me and Ashlie at the diner

Once we'd made it to the airport, the best flight option we could get was a flight to Phoenix through Houston. It became apparent pretty quickly that we'd miss our connection to Phoenix, but this was the last option flying out west and we needed to beat the storm! Once in Houston, we walked off our plan and straight on to another one to Las Vegas. (Which is not an easy feat when you're travelling with five people on standby.) We had an hour or two layover in Vegas (slot machines! in the airport!) and then we finally made it back to Phoenix. Three hours of driving, eight hours in the air, and we were finally home, thank goodness!

All buckled up!

Layovers... fun... :P

I only had time to lose about $2 on these before the plane boarded. :D

Because we had to cut our vacation short, we decided to do a "paint and sip" while back in town. We found this great place called Uptown Art in Chandler, AZ that teaches you how to do a painting and provides all of the materials. Plus, you can bring your own wine (or whatever) to drink while you're painting. It was a pretty good wrap-up to our trip.

It was sort of funny though, because they teach you how to do a set painting, but give you freedom to tweak it if you like. As you can see, all of our paitings are unique... but everyone else in the class followed the directions pretty closely. Which is a pretty good indicator of the type of friends I have - quirky and creative. :)

Do any of you have a great local paint-and-sip? Or, anyone in the Phoenix area have suggestions for more great local places to go?