We finally have our honeymoon!! After 15 years of marriage!
Since we were married we need had our so called honeymoon getaway because Abbey's parents and brother were in town. It was not point leaving them behind by themselves since they don't anyone and can not drive in the US. After that, we were quite busy with school and didn't have much money. Later on we started a family and we really didn't have any time to go anywhere. So finally after 15 years Abbey want to get away and enjoy time away from the kids and get to experience something fun!
Originally Abbey asked me to plan it and I told her that she's the picky one and she should plan. My criteria is we can drive anywhere within 4 hours or fly anywhere within 4 hours. So it's not too far from home in case something happens. Since our kids are much older now 13, 11, 9, we are fortunate that my parents are in good health and live closeby that we asked them to watch our kids for a four day get away from Wednesday to Saturday. It took Abbey a while to think about where to go, so she decided to go to Rhode Island since it was a small state and close to waters.
Our adventure had been pretty incredible from booking plane tickets, to hotels, to car rentals. While we were looking where to go for the weekend of our anniversary, suddenly there was an email from Southwest promoting their special pricing flying to various locations. And just like that Abbey saw round trips to Rhode Island for $49 for each person each way!-booked! Then we have to think about places to stay each night we're there, she had credit card points but that only gave us 2 nights. Interestingly enough one of guys that play basketball with me heard my conversation about booking hotels in RI. He happens to work in the hotel business as a manager for a hotel chain and he booked us that one night we needed to stay. He even booked the room with a jacuzzi! Then down to finding ways to get around, and since it's a small state but we want to go to many places, the most economical thing to do is rent a car instead of using taxi and uber. While it took me a couple days to look for good prices for car rental, the weird thing was that the prices of car rental fluctuates throughout different time of the day, even on the same website. I saw a good deal at night thinking to book it in the morning but by the morning time it went $20 and so I was mad so I called the company and they said they can't control online prices. As the day progress, the prices keep climbing! I was not happy. But for some reason I checked the price again around 1:30pm, the prices dropped even less than night prices! I booked it immediately!
So our trip is all set! tickets booked, hotels booked, and car rentals booked. On the day of the event, I left work half and hour early but apparently my parents have been at my house since noon. They already cooked food for us. The kids came home, we quickly ate with them and off we went! Since my parents have moved to an apartment, they now live closer to the subway. My mom even went to the rental office and got us a temporary parking permit so we can park there, take the subway to the airport to catch the plane at Reagan Airport! I miscalculated the time and the subway took longer to get there and I expected since it was rush hour. We thought we were late for the flight but luckily the flight was delayed for one hour. So at this point we made to the gate on time. The flight was supposed to leave at 8:30pm but 8:30 came and gone and they still weren't boarding people. Then they made an announcement that due to insufficient flight attendants for that flight, they are flying other attendants in from another area and is waiting for that plane to bring the flight attendants on board. Finally close to 10pm, we boarded the plane and get ready to take off on the tarmac. We actually waited on the tarmac for another 45 mins to leave the airport. Then the plane captain announced overhead that there was heavy fog in Rhode Island and only two planes were able to land and that's after they circled the airport a few times. He mentioned that the airports ILS (instrument landing system) was not working at the airport. Without the ILS, planes can not see where to land. After that announcement, it literally took the captain 5 minutes to turn the plane around on the tarmac to the gate. At the gate, the captain announced that he heard some more planes just landed at RI airport and he was going to try again. Within minutes everyone's smartphone received the same email stating that the flight was canceled due to extremely heavy fog and without the ILS, no one can land. They not only cancel our flight, they canceled all flights going to RI. So that means everyone must leave the plane to get back to the gate waiting area. It took hours for us to talk to the desk people and while we were on line, Abbey also called the main line since their computer systems were down and they were having a hard time rebooking everyone's flights.
After the computer system came back up, they told us that they still can't book us since the computers think that all passengers are already on the plane going to RI. So we waited for hours and they finally get our names onto other flights. They said the next flight out to RI was at 12:30p the next day, which is no point for us to go back and forth. I asked if they have offered hotel stays for customers and everyone was told that since it's weather related they cannot do anything. So I asked again if there's any other flights from closeby airports to RI, they said BWI at 5:45am and 7:30am. At the time, it was around 12:30am at Reagan airport. So I asked if they have any ground transport to BWI and they said yes but we would have to pay for ourselves. It was getting more and more ridiculous. But while we were thinking about how to get to BWI, another passenger was waiting to figure out how to get home to RI. It was her connecting flight home and her husband had all her luggage on another flight. She wanted to get to BWI too but don't want to go there by herself. So after we chatted for little, we offered to split the ride with her to BWI. She said she didn't have any cash so Abbey offered her a ride anyways. So we decided to get Uber us over there, but someone the account was not working on our phone. We asked her if her phone has the Uber app and viola! - her phone does have the app and it worked! She didn't want to stay at the airport so she Ubered to her hotel close to the airport. We chatted all the way to her hotel and when we wanted to pay her back, she said don't worry about it and even paid for our ride all the way to the airport! We decided we didn't want to book a room since we will only be sleeping in it for 3-4 hours, so we decided to sleep on the hard seats at the airport.
When it was around 4:00am we checked for our 5:45am flight and still didn't have any gate numbers, Abbey was worried thinking that the fog was still there and they flights are still canceled so she called the main number again. After we checked in, we finally have the gate and the flight went smooth and we arrive at Rhode Island one hour later. So after we arrived at the airport it was perfect timing for us to pick up the car at 7:00am. Originally I booked the car rental and if things were on schedule, I would be going to the airport the next morning to get the car but since we slept at the airport, we just went straight to get the car that morning upon arrival. We we arrived at the hotel, we were so tired sleepy that we just sleep until the afternoon. Gladly we didn't plan for that day. We finally went to get some food. After researching, Abbey found a Ramen noodle place-of all things to eat at RI. The noodles were just ok but was too expensive for what it is. Then we went to a big park and enjoyed ourselves walking around the park, and even rent a motorboat to ride around the lake! After that we went to Little Italy to walk around that neighborhood too! There were some really good places to eat. The original place Abbey wanted to eat was already fully booked, so I decided we should go to another restaurant called Siena. I am glad we went there, the food was really good and the dessert was incredible.
The next day Abbey booked us an all day tour of RI from Providence to Newport. There was only 5 people on the tour since it was off season. During the summer tours, that bus can hold 35 people. The tour guide definitely know his history and know all the places in Providence and Newport. Before we started the tour, we were driving and happen to pass by a Chinese grocery store. Boy did we buy a whole lot of Chinese junk food and drinks!
It was a nice tour and we end up spending the rest of the day in Newport. Newport is a small quaint town surround by the Atlantic Ocean. Abbey really loves small little towns with small little shops where she can keep looking for unique hand made things.
Since we have a car rental and we had a hotel room in Newport, We spent the next day walking Newport all over again. Abbey loved the surrounding, the waters, boats and walkways. The weather was perfect; not hot and humid but warm with cool breeze and sporadic rain to keep it cool. The food there was just was good!
Happy 15th!!
