Work Travel in Minnesota

The end of January, I had to travel to Minnesota for work.  I flew our early Wednesday morning amidst tears at leaving town without my baby for the first time.  I knew she was in the capable hands of her Daddy and out babysiters, but it didn't make it any easier to leave her!  I cried before I left, on the way to the airport and on the plane.  Although, I have to say the rough flight we had may have contributed to some of those tears as I held tightly to my armrest!

Upon arrival in Minnesota we started our day or meetings; I was spending that first day with 2 of my co-workers.  My travel for work is usually a day of meetings with agencies in various parts of the state, so we travel to an office, stay for an hour, drive and hour, visit another office for an hour and so on; this made pumping quite a challenge.  I spend a lot of time in various public bathrooms in restaurants and office buildings.  We have 4 different meetings that first day.  I was exhausted by the end of the day.  I got up about 4 a.m. to leave by house by 5:00 for my 7:30 flight.  When I get to Minnesota, that turns into having been awake at 3:00 their time and not getting back to our hotel from out dinner meeting until after 9:00 makes for a very long day.  I'm usually prepared for an exhausing first day when I travel to Minnesota. 

After booking the trip I had some appointment cancellations and changes of schedule for Thrusday that left me with a free afternoon and evening.  After trying reperatedly to change my flight or find another flight home for a reasonable price, I gave up and stayed until my regularly scheduled flight left Friday morning.  My airline wanted $550 for me to move to a Thursday afternoon flight.  I could have bought a new ticket for about $400; so why on earth wouldn't I just do that!?  After looking for flights, I just couldn't find one cheap enough to justify the cost; not to mention Keith was not a fan of me spending the extra money to come home early because they were fine at home. 

They were fine; mom wasn't so much!

To pass the afternoon and evening, I went to the Mall of America.  My hotel was just across the street and they offered a shuttle service to and from the hotel.  That's when Keith decided maybe he should have let me buy the flight home...