Canyons & LA

Arrived in Denver; Saturday, June 10, 2017

Starting day of this trip. We were up early and started walking the dogs shortly after 8:30am because (1) it was cooler (2) there would be some “fairy walk” event in town and we did not want to run into too many people. Glad we did our walk before taking the “kids” to the kennel. I was feeling very depressed thinking of sending them to the kennel ….

Before bringing the dogs in around 1pm, we cleaned the dogs’ basement and finished the last minute stuff (always have these last minute work no matter how much in advance I start packing). Heart broken handing the dogs to the kennel people. After we got home the kennel called saying that Iubi had bad diaherra. I was so worried! All because of the antibiotic Dr. D gave him! Hope he will get over it soon!!!

We then took the 4pm Logan bus from Framingham to the airport. Had dinner at the Legal Seafood place in terminal C. As I feared, our 7:30 Jet Blue flight was delayed till 8:30 – does Jet Blue ever fly on time nowadays?? Hate it!!

The flight was smooth and we got the “even more room” seats which were really nice! We arrived in Denver around 11pm local time (Boston time 1am). Then the trouble started….

We made a reservation for the rental car at Thrifty – AmEx Platinum travel helped us do it and it was the only one that would not charge us a drop-off fee because we were driving from Denver and drop off in LA. Others would all charge a $1000 fee. This was the first time we rented from Thrifty. We waited for and got on the Thrifty/Dollar shuttle, but it took us to Hertz. The driver was nice but he spoke English with such a heavy accent that we could hardly communicate with him. He said Thrifty was closed so we had to get our car from Hertz and he left us. But Hertz said they did not have a car and we must go to Thrifty or Dollar, so we took the Hertz shuttle back to the airport terminal and then waited and took the Thrifty shuttle again. This time it was another driver who also did not speak/understand English too well. He wanted to take us to Hertz again! We said NO and we forced him to take us to the Thrifty/Dollar building. The building was dark, nobody was there except a security guard who told us that the employee did not show up, so even though they’re supposed to be open 24 hours, today they’re closed! UNBELIEVABLE!!! I must say that in the 40-or-so years I’ve been in the US, this was the first time with a rental car company that I’ve ever run into such things! Bob tried to call Thrifty office, they tried to call the local office but could not reach anyone, and told us to go back the next day …. It was almost 1am local time, 3am Boston. So we took the Thrifty bus back to the airport terminal, waited and got on the Marriott shuttle and got to the hotel around 1am. By 2am we were in bed, but I was so upset and so worried that we would not be able to get our reserved car that I could not fall asleep. I thought I might get a heart attack or a stroke and told myself not to worry. No use …. Too upset and worried to sleep.

What a start of a trip! I wished we had not made the trip!

First View of Arches N.P. Moab; Sunday, June 11, 2017

Even though we set our alarm for 8:30am, we were up before 7. Bob did not sleep well either – he was worried that they might give our car away because we did not pick up the car last night as reserved even though it was the rental car company’s fault. He tried to call Thrifty last night and the guy said they would have to charge us more. Huh??!!!

We took the hotel shuttle to the airport then the rental car shuttle to Thrifty. Now they were open, with people! After much explanation, we finally got our car! Phew!!! I must file a complaint after we get back!!!

We were on the road! The drive from Denver was nice – really pretty sceneries! There were the snow capped Rockies in the faraway background. I had forgotten what it was like driving in Colorado – the last time we were here was 25+ years ago, with our daughter, after visiting the Littles.

We stopped at a place outside of Denver and had breakfast. Then we drove to Vails and stopped for a while to look around. Bob got his clipper sunglasses because he left his at home. There were some nice shops in the Lion Village which was part of Vail downtown, I guess. It was warm/hot and we did not walk too much, because we were both tired since neither slept well the night before.

Our destination was Moab, Utah, where we would spend a couple of days visiting the Arches national park. We reached Arches before we arrived at Moab which was about 5 miles from Arches. It was shortly before 5pm. Unfortunately Arches was going through some road construction and it would close at 7pm. We went in with only some time to see a couple of the arches – the Windows. I was absolutely impressed with the Arches park! Just absolutely grand and beautiful! The vast spread of sandstone structures, with shapes only mother nature could create over millions of years! If we could have been there during sunset, it would have been a heavenly experience! But we didn’t have such luck! The weather was quite hot and it was a sunny day without any clouds. It was not crowded at that time, but enough people to make taking photos impossible. I also did not have the right lenses with me so I just took a few snaps. We would just have to make this trip a scouting trip and come back again!

We came out of Arches a couple of minutes before 7 and less than 10 minutes later we got into Moab. This was the center of the services to Arches. I bet most people were here to visit the park. We found our hotel – Homewood Suites by Hilton. It turned out to be very nice! The room was more spacious than most of others we stayed in. It had a kitchen with a regular sized frig. Clean, comfortable. Great!

After settling in, we went out and got some fruit before heading to dinner. We had found a Thai restaurant called Arches Thai on Yelp with very good reviews. It was a few minutes walk from the hotel and it had a long waiting line. Luckily we got in rather quickly and the food was fantastic! Among the best Thai food we had anywhere!

After walking back to the hotel, I got my cameras set up for the next day and we washed and went to bed before 11pm. Alarm was set to 5:15am because we wanted to be among the first ones to enter the park which opens at 7am.

Day 2 Visit to Arches; Monday, June 12, 2017

The alarm woke us up at 5:15am. It was painful to be up that early, but we both did. The hotel provided free breakfast starting at 6am. The breakfast was really quite good for a free one. I was very impressed.

We left the hotel 20 minutes before 7 and got to the park a couple of minutes before it opened. There was already a line. But as soon as the door opened, the line moved fast. Strangely they did not charge anyone the entry fee, not sure why.

We stopped at a couple of sites to take pictures before we reached any arches. Today we visited the following arches:

- The Delicate Arch upper and lower viewpoints. That was one of the most beautiful arches and often shown on various magazines. Unfortunately it was way too far from the view points. To get any good photos, one must hike the 3 miles to it. We would do it next time when we come. It’s a MUST.

- The Sand Dunes Arch. The path to it reminded me of Petra in Jordan. Quite pretty! It was amazing how find the sand is along the path and it was harder to walk on it than on the beach.

- The Broken Arch. It was not far from the Sand Dunes arch and to get close to it, we walked about a mile each way. The walk was relatively easy, until we got to it and we actually climbed the pretty steep slap of sandstone underneach the arch to the other side. A kind German guy held my hand and helped me up that steep slab. I was very thankful! It seemed that the people visiting the park were all quite nice to each other.

- A few other arches along the way which I did not know the names. There were more than 3000 cataloged arches in the park! There were a few famous ones such as the Delicate Arch and the Landscape Arch. Unfortunately the road was closed part of the way so we could not get to the Landscape arch and a few others near it. NEXT TIME!

We were so very glad that we got up early and got in early! By the time we left, it was a lot more crowded and the weather got a lot hotter! It was windy today. Even though the wind was welcome to alleviate the heat a bit, the sand and dust were quite annoying. Again the sky was blue without any clouds, the sun was strong and harsh. Not good for photos and I did not get any decent one L

We decided to go back to Moab and have lunch which we had at Arches Thai again. Loved it! Then we took a stroll around town and I poked into a few stores to look at the T-shirts. Nothing worth wasting the $. We were thinking of driving to Canyonlands which we actually went through 25+ years ago, even though I did not remember much about it. After looking online at the pictures, we decided to skip it this time. We would rest until before 5pm and go back into Arches again. There might be less people by then. BTW when we left the park before noon today, the line of cars into the park was SO LONG!! We would never come back in the summer! Have to be in the fall!

Bob took a long nap, I wrote my diary and dozed a little on the sofa. Around 4:30, we got in the car and drove to the Arches again. We decided to explore the Windows arches again – we were so excited yesterday when we first got to the park and did not really see much.

It turned out that there were two windows arches, the north window arch and the south window arch. We only saw one yesterday. The other one was next to it, but one must walk around the path and then there it was! I could not figure out a good angle to take any nice shots, very frustrating! We also saw the Turret arch in more details. Wanted to climb over to the other side to get a better light angle, but the wind was too strong so we gave up. I was hoping we could make another trip to the Delicate arch in the afternoon light, but we ran out of time.

Back to Moab. Tried the SiChuan Restaurant for dinner. The food turned out to be very tasty! Too bad we will leave tomorrow. But it’s good to know that next time we come back, there will be good places for meals!

Arrived in Page for the Antelope Canyons; Tuesday, June 13, 2017

We are in Page now – got in shortly before 5:30pm local time MST which is an hour behind Moab. It was about a 6 hour drive and Bob did it all the way.

We had a decent night’s sleep and were out of the hotel after 9am. The weather was nice today, cooler than yesterday and there were clouds in the sky! We went to Arches again and straight to the Delicate arch. We wanted to take the 3-mile hike to get a close look at that arch.

The hike was not too bad, 3 miles round trip. It was rated somewhat difficult. To me, all was ok until the very last stretch near the arch. It was the slanted and somewhat narrow slab path, and the bottomless abiss below that really scared me! Unfortunately, to get to the right light, one had to walk on the rather steep slanted slabs. Bob did not go and I would not want him to try! I finally asked one kind man to hold my hand and helped me get on the slabs, and I sat on my butt and scooted most of the way. I was so envious watching the young folks run on the slope without any fear! For me, I was totally psyched out and did not know how to get back. A young French couple saw me and offered to help me. They were so very kind!! They each held one of my hands and led me back to safety! I was so very touched and so grateful!!!! God bless them! The girl told me that they were from the mountain area of France and were used to this kind of place so walking on the slope was nothing to them.

I think I might have nightmare tonight thinking of that slope! But it was well worth it!! The arch was absolutely beautiful!! We must go back! To avoid climbing that slanted slab path, we should go there in the late afternoon light.

By the time we walked back to the parking lot, it was past 11am. We then drove back to Moab, hoping to have lunch at Arches Thai. But it was closed, so we went to the SiChuan restaurant and had an ok lunch. Then we got on the road.

The 5+ hours drive was really quite boring, because most of the way did not have anything interesting to see. We were going to drive through the Monument Valley which was on the way, but somehow missed it. No big loss – we were there 25+ years ago and seeing it once was good enough, I think.

Before reaching our hotel the Hampton Inn, we stopped at the Adventurous Antelope Canyon Tours office and chatted with one of the guys there. We would be there tomorrow morning for our 10:15am photography tour.

The Hampton Inn was fine, not as spacious as the Homewood Suites in Moab, but also not as expensive (the other one was $350 per night!). Quite adequate, no complaint so far. After settling in, we went out for dinner. There were a couple of oriental restaurants but the reviews were mediocre, so we decided to go Mexican and went to El Tapatio. Quite good! After dinner we took a walk around town. It was not even as good as Moab! Only a short street of very boring basic stuff. Oh well!

Oh, one good thing about this hotel is that it has guest laundry!! Yeah! I am just about running out of socks! Will do it tomorrow.

Upper Antelope Canyon; Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Up before 7. The weather forecast said the high today would be 95! Ugh! And tomorrow it will be 100!!

Before we headed to the Adventurous Antelope Canyon Photo Tour place where I booked 4 months ago our photographers’ tour starting 10:15am today, we took a ride to the Carl Hayden Visitor Center which was right by the Glen Canyon Dam. We got a very good view of the dam, quite impressive. Got some information on how to visit the Rainbow Bridge National Monument, etc. Then we went to the photo tour place.

There were already a lot of people there. I reserved slots for both Bob and me for the 10:15am photographers tour, but they had a very strict rule that every participant MUST have a tripod and a DSLR camera. Even though I brought my two Canon 1DX, I only brought 1 tripod. So Bob could only take the regular tour at 10:15 while I took the photographers tour. It actually worked out well and saved us a little $ ($120 vs $60).

The photographers tour was treated specially and we got more time in the canyon. Even though our group had only 4 people, somehow quite a few other photographer groups joined together in the canyon. Even though the guides blocked off the path for the photographers, it got quite crowded. And I had never taken photos under such pressure! I wish I knew my tripod and camera better!! The canyon was absolutely AMAZING!!! Much more beautiful than Petra which had the treasury that was the most impressive part. I am SO very glad I took the tour even though my results were very disappointing!! I fumbled with the tripod and the camera at times. At each spot, we had between 1.5 and 3 minutes. The guides were very nice and kind, but there were just too many people and it was already not easy to block off the other groups so the photographers can shoot. And the people in the so called photographer group were of vastly different levels even though everyone had a tripod. Some did not even know what is shooting manual. Oh well ….

Our guide Brandon told me that the 2:30 photographer group would have a lot less people. You would not get the sun rays through the slots, but you get to see a further section of the canyon. I debated whether to take that tour, but decided against it because I really wanted to look at my photos and get more fluent with my camera and tripod! Let me treat this one as a scouting trip and we will be back for sure! I DO love the canyon!!!

We left the tour spot around 12:30pm. Bob returned a lot earlier than I did and he waited in the car. BTW – we had to take a very bumpy and dusty ride from the tour office to the canyon, worse than the African massage.

What should we do in the afternoon? We had a number of ideas and ended up the following:

Went to Safeway and got a couple of frozen dinners for lunch – there really was nothing in town that appealed to us.

Did our laundry after lunch (in the room).

Went out around 4pm, intending to take a look at the famous Horseshoe Bend. It was SO HOT! My arms physically hurt under the blazing sun. We turned back after climbing 1/3 of the way. Nothing was worth that kind of heat and pain!

We then drove towards Lake Powell. Went into the WahWeap national park by lake Powell, but did not see much.

We drove to Ken’s Lower Antelope Canyon office where we had booked a tour for tomorrow morning, to scout out the location. Talked to a couple of guides who told us to get there as early as 8:30am. I called their office and was told that the light was best between 10:15 and 11:45am which was why I booked our 11:20am tour. The guides told me the woman who answered the phone knew nothing. So, tomorrow we will be there at 8:30am.

I read from online that there was a good spot for sunset called Studhorse Point which would require the Indian Navajo permit. The information center told us to buy the permit at the Chapter House Building at LeChee. So we drove there and found out when/where to get the permit. Will do more research of the spot and get the permit tomorrow if we decide to go.

Drove back to the hotel then out again to town and had dinner at the Great Wall Chinese restaurant – reading from the reviews we knew it would not be good, but it was worse than expected. Bob said it one of the worst he had. To me, it was edible. I did not want to have too much meat which was why I did not want to have the barbecue or the Mexican. This place really did not have anything worth eating, except the Mexican. Sigh ….

Back to the hotel after dinner, then out again less than half an hour later, to the Horseshoe Bend for the sunset. The mile long walk was a LOT more pleasant than this afternoon! But by the time we got to the rim where people watched the sunset, it was a bit late and people all lined up along the rim of the cliff. I took a few photos using the Sony pointnshoot and my iphone. The ones by the phone actually were not too bad.

So that was the first full day at Page. The Antelope canyon made all this worth the trip! Need to be back, NOT in the summer. And I definitely need to learn to take better photos!

Lower Antelope Canyon; Thursday, June 15, 2017

Up before 6am – I guess we were still in EDT and it would be 9am at home. Big sunny day, without a shred of cloud in the sky and it looked HOT from inside. We planned to go to Kens Lower Antelope Canyon early and see if we could catch an earlier tour. Not quite sure.

We got there around 8:20 and we did get into an earlier tour, 8:40am. And it turned out that we’re really lucky to have moved to an earlier tour. It was so hot today and it was quite brutal to wait under the blazing sun in line to get into the entrance! The line was not too long yet and we got into the canyon around 9:40. The line behind us was getting longer and longer.

The tour was well organized to get more than 100 people through at a time. Most places the path was very narrow. But the canyon was absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!! No words can adequately describe it! And taking photos using the iPhone turned out to be the best! We were absolutely floored by the canyon! Must come back again, but NOT in the summer!! I am not sure what the light would be like in November which our guide said the weather would be good and not as many people. But I searched online and heard people say that March thru October were the best time for photography. Need to research more!

We got out of the canyon around 11am. It was quite hot by that time. We came back to the hotel and rested a little, before driving into town for lunch. Today we had lunch at the barbecue restaurant Big John’s Texas BBQ. I had smoked babyback ribs, Bob had a pulled pork sandwich. The barbecued meat was really good! But the environment was quite bad – we sat next to a table full of kids, ugh! ….

For the afternoon, we pretty much did nothing. Wanted to take a boat tour to see the Rainbow Bridge, but nobody answered the phone calls. So we drove to the Wahweap resort and found the boat tour desk. We missed the tour and what were available were not really that interesting. So we drove to the Cark Hayden visitor center again, watched three movies that talked about the Glen Canyon Dam, etc. Then we came back, watched some Nat Geo TV. Interestingly, they were showing a lone wild dog with a jackal family, in Mombo, Botswana. We wander if that was the same wild dog we saw when we were there in 2010! It was heart-wrenchingly sweet!

We went out to dinner before 6, the El Tapatio again. Good food. And we were done before 7. It was still hot at that time. We were hoping to take a walk, but the town really was not too inviting for a street walk, so we drove to the Carl Hayden visitor center and took a short walk in their parking lot, by the dam. Still too hot, the wind was even hot, so we came back. That’s it! Tomorrow we will leave in the morning and head for LA. Long drive.

Page to LA; Friday, June 16, 2017

Day of traveling, driving from Page to LA. We were out of the Hampton Inn shortly before 8am. It was already quite hot at that early hour and I was glad we were leaving. It was a LONG drive and Bob did it all by himself!

About 4.5 hours later, we arrived in Las Vegas – we planned to stop there and have lunch. And we did that, at the restaurant Ping Pang Pong in Gold Coast casino. We were there once before and really enjoyed the food. Today I had 2 orders of chicken feet all by myself and was totally stuffed. We had to stand in line for 20 minutes before being seated. Bob was glad we had this break otherwise it would be hard for him to drive that long.

Another 4.5 hours after lunch, we got to Long Beach, LA. It was Friday evening and we did run into some traffic but not too bad. We checked into Hyatt which was right across from the aquarium. It was a busy area, but nice. After settling into the room, we went out for dinner at the restaurant called Elephant Thai nearby, about 10 minutes drive away. Food was nice, tasty! Perhaps not ad good as the Arches Thai, but quite good. Thanks to Yelp!

Got in touch with Lucy – we will go visit them tomorrow morning and have lunch together. And after dinner, I called ChenTing and had a long call and very pleasant chat about old times.

Tomorrow will be Ira and Fran’s anniversary party starting at 5pm. After visiting Lucy and Chris in the morning, we will visit the aquarium, then the party. Sunday we will drive to Acadia to visit ChenTing.

That was today.

Attending Friends' Golden Anniversary Party; Saturday, June 17, 2017

It’s been a busy but very enjoyable day.

We were up before 8. Walked across the street to Starbucks, had a small breakfast, then headed toward’s the Nees’ house in Fullerton.

We were there a couple of minutes after 10 then we immediately left in their car to a Chinese restaurant to have DimSum. A very nice place and the food was well prepared, not the usual DimSum place, everything was made to order. And the Nees were very kind to treat us to it. We’re thankful! After lunch, we went back to their house and chatted till 2:30. Had not seen them for more than 2 years! Time went by so fast! Their house was absolutely nice! Very well designed! Pretty amazing! Lucy is a very capable lady and she did all this by herself!

We left their house around 2:30 and came back to the hotel an hour or so later. The weather was quite hot by then! Not as hot as Page, but very hot! We quickly changed our clothes and walked out towards the aquarium. It turned out that what we thought was the aquarium was NOT, so we took a detour and walked under the hot sun for more than expected. We got to the aquarium around 4. It was not a huge aquarium, but nice. It was crowded, especially since it was so hot outside. The party started at 5, so we had a little time looking around.

The party was very nicely done. We especially enjoyed the video Kayanna put together. Very touching! Ira and Fran are such a nice couple! Genuine, big hearted! We are lucky to have them as friends!

We came back to the hotel around 10pm. Tomorrow we will move out of this hotel, to the Marriott by the airport. We will be visiting my friend whom I had not seen for almost 50 years!

Visiting Old Friend; Sunday, June 18, 2017

We were up around 8, checked out of Hyatt Long Beach and headed towards Arcadia before 10am. We got to Ting’s (Tina) house, Naomi Gardens, in Arcadia before 11am. It was indescribable the feeling of seeing an old friend after 50 years! There was SO MUCH to catch up and SO MUCH to reminiscence, to talk about, we literally talked non stop for 5+ hours! She and her husband Lao Liu treated us to Ding Tai Feng for the steamed soup dumplings for lunch – she still remembered that I loved dumplings and we used to make dumplings in my house with her and a few other friends, 50 years ago!! She’s still the same way, very outgoing, funny! But she has become a lot more capable, much more of a go getter! She said the 25 years she spent in Hong Kong changed her and made her a fighter for what she wanted. Good for her! We talked about old friends and then she called Wang Jin, the friend I had always thought of and wandered what happened to her. Today we chatted on the phone over wechat!! Both of us were so excited to be in touch again. I invited both of them to come visit us.

Poor Bob sat on the sofa and patiently waited for me for 5+ hours, without understanding a word of what we talked about. I was very sorry …. We left her apartment after 4:30pm. Then we found out one of the restaurants NiuNiu built was right around there, so we decided to go there for dinner.

The dinner was quite good, very tasty! I wish we had such a great Chinese restaurant in Boston and it made me want to move here! Much better than the places in NYC!! The restaurant was called Mei Zhou Dong Po, and this one was in a mall. After dinner, we went into the mall and I wanted to see if I could get some presents for NN’s two kids. If I could find them, we would try to pay them a visit, since they also lived in Arcadia even though I did not have their address. I found a dress for Viviana, a fidget spinner for Jason, then I called Angela. She was home! So we went to visit them – their house was 10 minutes away from the mall.

We had a good visit with NN and Angela. By the time we drove to the Marriott hotel by LAX airport, it was almost mid-night.

Very disappointed with the hotel the moment we approached it – the parking lot was crammed and there were MANY people in the lobby! We were first given a room on the 14th floor. We went there. As soon as we opened the door, a strong chemical odor rushed out – it was newly renovated and was stuffed with the chemical odor. NO way I would stay in that room and breathe the poisonous air all night! We went to the front desk and demanded a different room. The only available room was on the 5th floor which was being renovated. The room was OLD, but without the odor. We took it. Very disappointed because it felt like a room in an old Holiday Inn, NOT Marriott. The worst Marriott I had ever stayed in. It has two full beds, one desk chair, we had to call to ask for a chair. The only good thing was that the service staff was very nice, and all tried to be helpful. A staff member came and moved a chair from the room across the hallway to our room. Oh well! 2 nights. We will stick it out.

Did not go to bed until 1am.

Great Dinner with Friends; Monday, June 19, 2017

Nothing much was planned for today, except dinner with the Nees and the Warrens, in a Chinese restaurant Lucy highly recommended.

After leisurely getting up after 8, we went out looking for a place to have a brunch, sinc our dinner would be at 5:30pm. We yelped and found a place called ROC Playa Vista that was just a few miles away, so we drove there.

It turned out that this Playa Vista was a new area with highend new apartment buildings (each apartment started from $1+m. There was a Whole Foods store, Starbucks, and a few expensive stores. The restaurant did not open until 11am, so Bob god a coffee from Starbucks and we killed the hour sitting there.

So, ROC indeed stood for Republic Of China and the restaurant was a Taiwanese restaurant. They had the steamed soup dumplings and the dishes were all tasty, rather pricy for what we got. But it was soul food for me and Bob enjoyed it also.

After lunch we came back to the hotel. Ira recommended the tar pit but we did not have the time to go, since the Warrens said they would be here 2-ish. It turned out that they got late and did not get here until 3. We sat in the lobby and chatted for a while before driving to the dinner restaurant shortly after 4pm. Googlemap said we needed 1 hr 9 minutes to get there.

The restaurant was in St. Gabriel and called Boston Lobster. It was famous for its lobster dish. Before tasting the dishes, we got a strong taste of LA traffic. Ira drove us in his rental van and he was familiar with LA. It took us more than 1.5 hours to get there. The dinner was WONDERFUL!! I really want to move here, or come here to visit for a few days to enjoy the Chinese stuff! We all stuffed ourselves with the delicious dishes! The Nees and us treated the Warrents. For so many nice dishes, and 6 people, only $210 including the tips! I was very impressed! This place was 100 times better than NYC!!

After dinner, the Nees treated us to dessert in a store a mile away, it was shaved ice with different flavors and many different toppings. Another hit!

Back to the hotel for the last night of our trip. Bob returned the car but it was too chilly for me to walk with him since it was too far a walk for me to come back to the room to pick up my jacket. I cannot believe that I would say it was too chilly. The weather here was very strange. Before the sun came out of the clouds and after sunset, it was really quite chilly – I would not feel comfortable in just a short sleeve T-shirt. A far cry from Page!!

Tomorrow our flight is at noon. We can get up leisurely and leave. Miss our two 4-footers!! Time to go home!