This was an interesting business trip that deserves a story.

I needed to be in Chicago (Deerfield, Illinois to be exact) for a couple of weeks. In the middle of those two weeks, I needed to attend a meeting in Alexandria, Virginia on February 4.

Arlyn has relatives that live near Alexandria, Virginia. They are actually located in Reston, Virginia. This included Ricky and Shirley German and Corrie Abanador. To take advantage of my close proximity to Reston, Arlyn and I decided to bring Arlyn with me.

• January 29, 2011 (Saturday) - Drive from McCloud, CA to Redding, CA
• January 30, 2011 (Sunday) - Fly from Redding, CA to Chicago, IL via San Francisco
• February 4, 2011 (Friday) - Fly from Chicago, IL to Washington Reagan, DC
• February 6, 2011 (Sunday) - Fly from Washington Reagan, DC to Chicago, IL
• February 11, 2011 (Friday) - Fly from Chicago, IL to Redding, CA via San Francisco
• February 11, 2011 (Friday) - Drive from Redding, CA to McCloud, CA

The first part of the trip went as planned. Arlyn and I arrived in Deerfield, IL and we stayed at the Marriott Courtyard. Then on Tuesday, 2/1/2011, the skies started to darken. Snow began to fall. But this was no normal storm. This was a storm that contained so much energy, thundersnow was present. Chicago had not seen a storm of this magnitude in 20 years. The storm became known as the 2011 Groundhog Day Blizzard.

Blizzard conditions continued on Wednesday, 2/1/2011. Arlyn and I hunkered down for the day as we did not venture outside.

By the time Friday (2/4/2011) rolled around, the storm had completely passed in Illinois. We checked out of the hotel, drove to the O'Hare airport and caught our flight to Washington Reagan airport. Once we landed, Arlyn was met by her family and Arlyn was whisked her away. I traveled to Alexandria, VA (at the Hotel Monaco). I attended my meetings and stayed the night there.

In the meantime, Arlyn went shopping at the Leesburg Corner Premium Outlet mall.

On Saturday (2/5/2011), I checked out of Hotel Monaco and took a taxi to the German household to meet up with Arlyn. That evening, we had all-you-can-eat Chinese Buffet.

Arlyn and I flew back to Chicago on Sunday, 2/6/2011, and we returned back to the Marriott Courtyard.

The rest of the trip was executed as planned and there were no more interruptions or problems.

We spent months planning on this trip. On May 8, 2011, we departed from San Francisco for Cebu via Taipei and Manila.

Gary and Rose Neely made the long, 5 hour drive from Belmont to McCloud to spend the 4th of July weekend at the hotel's residence.

Rose suffered greatly from allergies. But she braved the elements as we toured the Upper, Middle and Lower Falls along the McCloud River.

After working at the hotel, Arlyn invited friends from the McCloud area to help celebrate her birthday. There was a ton of food!!

Arlyn was able to break away from her duties at the McCloud Hotel to travel with me to Dayton, OH. She was with me from 10/1 to 10/14/2011. While there, we visited the Columbus Zoo.

Arlyn, Lee and I officially moved from the mountain (McCloud, CA) to our new home in Sacramento.