countessmouse | It was the best of times; it was the worst of times...

Let me begin with the following statement: the US government should not have bailed United Airlines out of bankruptcy, because if their customer service and reliability are normally what we experienced, it was a waste of the taxpayer's money.

For all the gory details of our experiences traveling to and from Seattle, check out

count_gunthar's posts on December 31st. Suffice it to say, due to pilot "sick outs", maintainance issues and general incompetence, we never flew any of the United flights I booked. In fact, we never flew United at all. Over the last 8-9 years, I have flown nearly a quarter million miles (so I can confidently say I'm a seasoned traveler), but I have never experienced the level of poor service that United doled out to us, especially on the return trip. That was two days of hell I never want to experience again. And for an airline whose hub is in DENVER, you would think they would know how to handle snow.

The actual vacation itself was everything I hoped it would be, with the exception of a minor bump here or there, but we were pretty flexible. The cabin was cozy, we had more snow then we could almost handle, and Leavenworth is especially pretty at Christmas. I will admit that the cafeteria-style dinner we experienced at The Sleeping Lady Resort was entirely unexpected, a little surreal, and not what they advertised, but we were able to laugh about it anyway (although I will be sending them a letter letting them know how disappointed I was).

River's Edge Cabin

View from front porch

Wenatchee River from the deck

Leavenworth Village

Road from cabin to Lake Wenatchee

Wenatchee National Park

We had a wonderful, relaxing time and I'd like to do this again with friends and actually get some skiing in. Now it's back to real time, preparing for 12th Night feast this coming weekend and back to work tomorrow.

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!