No snow, but...

...gale force winds and definitely chilly here! Still, while we had our bit of bad weather with mere rain yesterday, the entire mid-Atlantic got socked in with a LOT of snow last night... so we're grateful to be here in the islands and not there! It doesn't matter where you are in December, you can just never tell about the weather, which makes travel plans precarious at best!

The lovely weather on the eastern seaboard

As it was, Ally and Kayleigh very nearly missed their flight out of Baltimore because of the weather. Roads were nasty and most flights were cancelled, although USAir had flights that were getting out. Despite the snow, Kayleigh's folks managed to the girls to BWI, albeit at the very last minute...but they made it!! Unfortunately, USAir wouldn't let Kayleigh check her bag because the plane was about to pull away from the gate for de-icing. Kayleigh put what she could into her carry-on, but the other bag remained behind. So...despite a lot of confusion on our part (the internet here was down so we couldn't check the status of flights), it could have been a whole lot worse if the girls hadn't made the plane. We are just grateful and happy that they were aboard!!

Of course, a few phone calls and much discussion followed regarding Kayleigh's bag...I finally convinced Kayleigh's mom not to ship the luggage because 1) nothing is being shipped out of the Northeast until Monday or Tuesday because of the snow and 2) it most likely would take an unknown and lengthy amount of time for the bag to get here since delivery in the Bahamas is, um, rather unreliable! (Not to mention paying customs and duty on the shipment!) Actually, there is little that Kayleigh truly needs -- we have plenty of scuba gear for her to use, and Ally has a full wardrobe aboard that she can share. Plus, we have the ability to do laundry aboard Equinox, too. Besides, the girls will be in their bathing suits most of the time anyway, so....not a problem!!

I had visions of a replay of last year, of cousin Taylor's ordeal, getting shuttled from MKE to ORD, then finally flown to CLT before being stranded for the night. (I had e-mailed Jen to put Jodi on notice in case we needed another CLT rescue, but thankfully, that didn't happen!!) Again, very grateful to know that they are on their way -- actually, they should be arriving within the hour here at OBB. When they do... let the festivities begin!!