leaving Michigan

I thought that I had done so well for myself, setting up a flight out of GR that left late enough that John could get his grades in, but what we ended up doing was making it so that Oscar didn't get a real nap and more weather was able to move in before we left.  John had his grades in on Friday and I didn't pay attention to where the plane was going or coming from which is apparently what you need to do in winter in Michigan.  Because it was coming from Chicago Midway, it was an hour late and, of course, we were going back there.  We got to stay on the same plane the whole flight through, but when you're an hour late to start with and then you get to sit at Midway to wait to get de-iced, and then find out that there is a warning light on, sit some more while they crawl all over the plane checking that everything is okay, then you get de-iced again, then finally take off from the hellhole that is Chicago, it's late when you get to Raleigh for the next stop before going on to Tampa.  It's hard for a baby to fall asleep while all of this deplaning and reboarding is going on too, but the crying spells were short lived and he mainly slept from 10pm to 1:30am when we finally arrived in Tampa. I

kept telling myself that I will never fly through Chicago again, (but we know that's a lie when everything goes through there), I kept telling myself that it didn't matter if we made it to Tampa, as long as we were safe, and John kept telling me that we could drive from Raleigh if need be to make the boat, but the  

 stress was overwhelming about missing the cruise and getting stuck in Chicago.  I think if we had had to change planes, we wouldn't have made it, but the crew on the plane was ending in Tampa and they were determined to get home come 

 hell or high water, which worked to our advantage.  The hotel shuttle was not available by the time we got in, but we got a taxi to find out that we were staying in the exact same hotel that we stayed in 4 years ago for the Frozen Four when Ferris made it to the championship.  The

hotel had changed names, so we didn't know that we were returning to the exact same place that we had stayed in.  John found out that there was food close by, because while I packed everything I needed for Oscar, I didn't count on a 10 hour plus plane ride for me and John, so he went foraging for food while I tried to convince Oscar that it was time for bed in an unfamiliar 

place.  John came back all mad because he fought with the Taco Bell people about being able to order on foot from the drive thru, while Burger King and McDonald's closed.  So, he got a ham and cheese sandwich from Walgreens, which he thought would kill him.  We got a little bit of sleep, but I didn't care that we were exhausted, off schedule and everything else, because I finally knew without a doubt that we would make our cruise....