In an attempt to get used to this time zone again, I struggled to stay up past 8:00pm last night. I succeeded, but woke up about 5:30 this morning ready to go. So I thought I’d use this opportunity to write about some of my trip.

Monday April 26, 2010

I left Portland airport around 11:00am to head to Chicago to meet up with Kerry so we could leave from there together. On the way to my gate, there was an exhibit of clothing made out of recycled things. I’m not sure about wearing any of them, but a few were pretty neat.

This dress was made out of gelato spoons and bowls.

This one was made out of cat litter bags.

In preparation for a long flight to Istanbul, once I arrived in Chicago, I spent my layover touring O’Hare airport. I took the tram to each and every terminal and walked each one. When taking the tram to the international terminal, you need to go pretty far, but it gives a view of the Chicago skyline. I have flown through O’Hare a few times, but had never actually been to Chicago, so it was nice to see the view.

Turns out, I ended up getting to actually see Chicago since there was an unforeseen travel delay so we had to wait until the next day to fly out. Kerry’s sister picked us up from the airport and we spent the night at her house.

This meant I got to hang out with Piper again.

Piper at her aunt's house.

Tuesday April 27, 2010

Kerry, Piper and I took the train downtown and toured Chicago. We walked through Millennium Park, which was in bloom and very pretty.

View from Millennium Park

We also visited The Bean, which I hadn’t heard of before but was very fun to see.

The Bean

You can walk into it and the underside is just as reflective as the outside. It was very disorienting to look up since you can’t really tell how tall it is.

Piper inside The Bean

It was a very sunny but semi-chilly day. Everything was in bloom though and there were tulips everywhere.

We visited the public library which had owl sculptures on the corners of the building.

Chicago Public Library

We took a taxi ride around to see more sights like the Magnificent Mile and all the museums. Piper’s favorite part was putting the window up and down. Around mid afternoon we took the train back.

Piper having a snack on the train

We spent the early evening at Kerry’s sister’s house and regrouped for our second attempt to leave the country.

We got to the airport over three hours before our flight, got checked in just fine and enjoyed some typical airport food before making our way through the very long lines at security.

As we walked to our gate, we passed this kitty bench, which I wasn’t sure the significance of but had to have a picture.

It was nice to see the words "on time"

As we settled in at our gate waiting for our flight, Kerry got ready with her sexy granny socks, the kind that are good for circulation and can help on long flights. Our flight certainly qualified since the first leg to Istanbul was almost 11 hours long.

Our flight took off on time and we had a great view of the full moon reflecting on Lake Michigan.

To celebrate being on our way, Kerry had a beer on the plane. Unfortunately she said it was about the worst she had ever had, so beware if you see this kind and steer clear.

Wednesday April 28, 2010

We made it to Istanbul and had a nice view of the city as we landed. It would have been fun to have a long layover and had at least a mini tour of the city. We found out that Turkish Airlines offers a free sightseeing tour, but only from 9am until 2pm. We didn’t land in Istanbul until 5pm and our layover was less than two hours. Pretty much just enough time to figure out which combination of lines we had to go through and figure out where our gate was.

We really were in Istanbul, even though it was brief.

Before long we were on our way to Ethiopia. That leg of the flight was about 5 1/2 hours and we arrived just after midnight. After the next series of lines – visa and immigration – we were on our way.

Addis Ababa Airport. I took the picture while the taxi driver was tying our luggage to the car.

We got our taxi and started our drive to our hotel so we could finally sleep.

To be continued…