Flights in and out of Dallas

From my sisters' comments I realized I needed to clarify my first post of this year. On Sunday we decided to end our long, hot vacation in Phoenix and head back to the coldness that is Winter. It was definitely hard to leave the family especially with the nieces and nephews begging us to stay longer. We finally made it out and were on our flight to Dallas. On the descent down into Dallas to land I experienced this horrific pain in my forehead. It was so sharp and came all of a sudden. I was literally talking to Stephen one minute and then holding my forehead and crying the next. I didn't even know exactly what it was. Basically it felt like a vein in my forehead was about to burst and I could feel the blood pumping into my eye. I kept pressing my hand into my forehead because I felt like if I didn't the vein would explode. We searched through my bag to find the ok-ed medicine list only to learn I couldn't take the pain killers we had available. Luckily the pain subsided by the time we landed but I was still hurting and nervous about what had caused it and nervous about having to fly back to our city from Dallas.
As we rushed across the airport to catch our connecting flight I tried to calm myself down. We talked about what it could have been and Stephen suggested a blood clot which I did not appreciate. We found our gate and sat down only to hear the the flight was WAY overbooked and was carrying extra military gear which loaded it down and so 21 people were asked to volunteer to stay behind and catch tomorrow's flight. Not enough people volunteered and so people were just bumped from our flight (including military personnel who were on active duty and need to report the next morning). Needless to say I was thrilled that we wouldn't be flying again so soon. Plus we were getting a hotel room, food vouchers, and travel vouchers for free. I was just bummed that we couldn't get our checked luggage...actually from this experience I have created my own solution for how the airlines should handle checked luggage, but I'll save that for later.
It was really late when we got to the hotel, but I was glad we had somewhere to sleep! The next morning we rushed to catch our plane only to find out that it was delayed. Long story short we actually boarded the plane only to be led back off and to be told that the day's flights were cancelled because of the weather. This time it was still morning and so we were able to better rest at the hotel, check out the nearby mall and see "Yes Man" which was fun. Our hotel was really nice, and provided a shuttle service for us to and from the mall. Anyway, here are some pictures from lunch that day. We ate at the hotel restaurant and I'm glad we had vouchers because their food was ridiculously overpriced. Here's the restaurant ceiling, I've included it to give you a feel for the place.
Here's Stephen checking out what our options were for the day.

And I decided to try messing around with my camera some more.

Stephen decided he wanted to play with it as well.

I had this chicken croissant for lunch and was less than pleased. From my peanut butter cookie experience I could tell that they had used rancid shortening in their croissants. Bummer.

We also were able to have a complimentary breakfast the next morning and while it was good (just a buffet) there is absolutely NO WAY I would ever pay $18 a pop for what we ate, thankfully we only had to leave a tip.

Our returning flight was uneventful and we were thankful to be home. Our home airport was a different matter. It's a small airport that only has three flights a day going to and from Dallas. You check in like at most airports but then before going through security, you have to sit in the waiting room. Right before boarding time the same people who checked you in change hats (literally) and then walk over to become the security personnel. You then walk through security into another waiting room and are then able to board the plane. It was fun to actually get to walk outside and board the plane through the steps like a celebrity. I've never experienced this before on a commercial flight.

Coming back into the airport was a mess. Luggage gets lost there like no body's business. Our luggage was supposed to arrive Sunday and so luckily it was there when we arrived on Tuesday. Some of the other people's luggage was still stuck in Dallas and others were getting bused up to us because our luggage gets kicked off whenever the plane has to carry extra military luggage. Fun stuff. But we made it home!! And no more scary plane headaches for me!