Why go to Chicago?

It was time to visit Chicago again.  My old roommate was having a college reunion party and he throws great parties.  There was no way I was going to miss it.  I made my plane reservations and like a good TravBuddy, I updated my profile page with my Chicago travel dates.  A TravBuddy, marksreynolds, saw my travel plans and suggested we have a meetup in Chicago.  Sure, sounds like a good idea.  I have to tip my hat to Mark because he did a hell of a great job with inviting people and planning the event.  There were 32 people confirmed for the Friday dinner meetup.

Slowly creeping towards the Hawaiian Islands was Hurricane Felicia.  At one point it was a category 4 hurricane!!  Thankfully the hurricane started to break apart as it got closer.   The hurricane became a tropical storm, but that can still wreak havoc.  I spent part of the weekend preparing for the worst - I trimmed back tree branches, cleaned the gutters, took down the patio furniture, tied down large potted plants, replenished the emergency kit and a whole bunch of other time consuming chores.  The weather forecasters predicted the storm would pass over Honolulu on Tuesday evening - the day I was leaving.  Great.

Tuesday morning brought some dark skies and a little bit of rain but it quickly blew away.  Where's the tropical storm?  Apparently a strong west wind broke up the storm 200 miles from shore.  The result: my flight was scheduled to leave at 4:20 pm but it was now delayed for a 5:20 pm departure.   Bye bye Honolulu!!