My visit to Poland

Thanks to UOP's great spouse policy every trip Meagan takes I get to go visit. Sometimes her trips are short so I don't end up getting to the location but she has been in Poland for a month and I took advantage of the July 4th holiday to go visit. She said since I always give her a hard time about blogging that I had to do the post for my visit so this is my "guest post".

So my trip to Poland started very ominous. I left work around 3:30 on Wednesday and went to pick up Pam (my mother-in-law) at their shop and then she drove me to O'Hare and took the car back to their house. I got in line to check-in and check my luggage and suddenly realized I did not have my passport. IT WAS AT HOME! I  immediately called Pam and she circled around and picked me up. I arrived at O'Hare at 4:30 for my 6:30 flight so I didn't have much time. I frantically drove home, taking years off Pam's life, ran in the house, grabbed the passport, and frantically drove back. I made it from O'Hare to Palatine, back to O'Hare in 45 minutes. This has to be some record considering it was rush hour in Chicago. I managed to check-in in enough time to check my luggage and get on the plane. I paid the $39 to get priority screening and boarding just in case.

After flying through Frankfurt and catching a plane to Warsaw I made it to Poland. Meagan's co-worker, Liz, picked me up and made the 3 hour drive to Plock so I could meet my beautiful bride.

On Friday afternoon (after Meagan worked an 8 hr shift), we drove to Gdansk for a couple nights as an anniversary trip. We stayed at the Hilton Gdansk, right along the river. Here is a picture from our room.

Gdansk was a beautiful city. Both nights we ate along the river at one of the many small restaurants with outdoor seating. We also decided to try all the major beers of Poland. I think there ended up being 6-7 different Polish beers, all of which tasted about the same.

On Saturday we drove up to Sopot for the afternoon and a little beach time. This is the local spot to go for lounging on the beach. However, the water there isn't that great - cold and lots of seaweed - so most people just lay out on the beach. Here is a picture of us on the pier with the beach and Grand Hotel in the background.

On Sunday we drove back to Plock. We went to see a movie on Sunday night. It was in English with Polish subtitles, although the Polish people really didn't get the American jokes. Monday was for touring Plock. I got to see Meg's favorite restaurants, the mall, and the Cathedral. It is definitely a cool town. 

Unfortunately, everything that we did made the time go really quick so before we knew it Meagan was driving me back to Warsaw this morning to catch a flight back to Chicago. I made sure I had my passport this time! It was a looooong flight home - almost 10 hours direct from Warsaw to O'Hare - made longer because I had to leave my wife. Happy Anniversary (almost)! I love you babe!

It was a great trip to Poland (especially since it was mostly free, thanks UOP!) - I got to see my wife, we got to have a great anniversary trip to Gdansk, and I got to experience a mini-part of her life. I can't wait until she gets home but I know that she is a great place.

-Guest Blogger (Justin)