What’s up everybody?
Cooler weather is blowing in. Little flakes of white are flowing through the air. Lights are being strung with care and the homes are filling with the smells of home cooked treats. Yes my friends, the holiday season is upon us and in full swing. Not so much at my house as we have both been really busy with work and haven’t really had much time to do a whole lot. Hopefully, that will all change…..hopefully.
With the holidays comes holiday travel. I never really had to travel very far myself, for most of my family has lived within about a twenty minutes drive from me. The farthest I’ve ever had to travel was a four hour car ride to see my grandparents, so nothing to extreme in the grand scheme of things.
This has completely changed now that we have moved out to the Chicagoland area. With busy schedules and limited vacation time, we really have to plan out our trips. Especially if we want to see our families. A drive that once just took a few minutes is now about a twenty two hour drive. A trip that would take about two days. Unless you are hardcore and drive it in one day. Its possible but I wouldn’t recommend it. So the best option for us, to get the most out of our trip, is to fly.
I don’t know about you but I have always found flying to be very stressful. Trying to figure out the most efficient way to pack to utilize the most amount of space. How to get to the airport: have a friend take you, drive yourself (which comes with its own stresses), schedule a shuttle or cab, Uber. So many options. Once you are at the airport nothing but lines and don’t get me started on security. It seems like a major stress filled ordeal from beginning to the end. When you throw in the holidays that stress is elevated to new heights.
I know what you are thinking. Is there a point to all his rambling? Well, yes there is. A lot of people, including myself, get caught up in the hustle and bustle of trying to catch their flights. If you can slow down for just a moment you would be surprised about what you can find. This is not true for all airports, but I would say for most of them it is.
Not too long ago we were put into position that was not ideal in any way, shape or form. We were catching a flight out to Houston and unbeknown to use the airline had bumped our flight to takeoff earlier then expected. We didn’t find out until we reached the airport and tried check our bags, where they told us that our flight had just taken off and we had missed it. We were in quite the predicament. We grabbed our bags and beelined it to the nearest counter, hoping they could help us out. Luckily for us, the counter wasn’t very busy and the intendant was in a good mood and happy to help. We were on a tight schedule and had to get there before the next morning. She diligently look through all available flights until she found one that would work. Unfortunately it was taking off around 6 p.m. Our original flight was supposed to leave around 7 a.m. We had no other option we had to take it. We found us the closest bench and went over what to do next. Option 1: Catch a cab back home and come back closer to our flight or Option 2: Just hangout at the airport until our flight took off.
Well we didn’t want to add an extra expense by catching a cab back home and then catching another one to come back. It adds up. Option 2 made the most sense to us. So we sat on our bench for awhile and finally decide that we could continue to sit here or we could head through security and hangout in the terminals. We gathered our bags and jumped in line, made it through security without incident and found a quite little place in the food court and had breakfast. A bagel breakfast sandwich from Great American Bagel Company, just incase you were wondering.
What to do? What to do? What can we possible do to kill the rest of the time that we had left? Well we were in a airport might as well have a little adventure and explore all the nooks and crannies that O’Hare has to offer. To be honest you may not think that there is a lot to see in an airport but you would be surprised. O’Hare has several glass display cases that has various types of displays in them. The one that sticks out to me, had some cameras and other gear that was used to film the documentary “Chasing Ice”. At least I’m pretty sure it was “Chasing Ice”. It basically talked but how they used the equipment and what it took to make the documentary. It was interesting and informative. They do change these displays to keep them fresh and interesting.
There is an exhibit just outside of the Delta terminal that stuck out to me the most. Sitting on top of a podium is a fully restored World War II era Grumman F4f-3 Wildcat. This aircraft was pulled from the bottom of Lake Michigan where it crashed and sank after a training accident in 1943. After it was recovered, Air Classics Museum masterfully restored it back to it original appearance. This aircraft is significant as it is similar the one that Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry “Butch” O’Hare flew during World War II. Whoo that was a mouthful. As you probably guest he would eventually lend his name to one of Chicagoland’s famous airports. He had flown several mission during the war. On his final mission, which he would earn a Medal of Honor for, he went up against a squad of Japanese torpedo bombers. His fighter went down and the search and rescue teams were unable to find him or his craft. It was suggested by Colonel Robert R McCormick, of the Chicago Tribune, to remain the airport in his honor. On September 19, 1949 Orchard Field Airport was renamed O’Hare International Airport in his Honor.
To all those poor souls that have to travel over the holidays, I hope that you get a chance to slow down and take it all in. You never know what you can find.
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at the Adventure Diaries.
Until next time. Thanks for stopping by.
Josh and Erin
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