A trip home I will never forget

I never thought it would take four days to get home from Chicago. Turns out, mother nature thought otherwise. 

My first attempt to leave Chicago was on Wednesday, Dec. 17. I thought I would be just fine as the weather in Chicago was cooperating, the sun was even poking through the clouds. Little did I know my layover was in Las Vegas and they were in the middle of a blizzard. 12 hours of snow in the desert. I heard a rumor their airport doesn’t even own snow plows. Needless to say, my flight was cancelled. Having missed every other flight for the day that would get me closer to home, I had to pick up my bags (four in total!) and return home.

I was lucky enough to make it out of Chicago on Thursday. The winter storm warning went into effect at 3 p.m., my flight left at 1 p.m. By the time I had made it to Denver most flights into and out of Chicago were cancelled. 

My final destination, Spokane, Wash., had record-setting snow fall the day I was trying to fly in–17 inches in 24 hours. I made it as far as Seattle on Thursday, which was my goal, as my sister and brother-in-law live there. I knew I wouldn’t make it all the way home so Seattle was my best option. 

My time in Seattle was going just great (Christmas shopping with my brother in law, good food, wandering Pikes Market) until we awoke to a fire in the apartment building at 3:30 a.m. Saturday. I woke to the fire alarm blaring and people screaming as they evacuated the apartment complex. We walked outside in nothing more than pajamas and slippers with Biscuit the dog in tow, and saw flames shooting out of the windows. (See my brother-in-law Bryce’s video of what we saw as we walked outside that morning here). 

It was at this point I realized the world was against me ever getting home for Christmas. Read more

My (rough) itinerary

Tomorrow I live Chicago, my home for the past fifteen months, and begin what could possibly be one of the biggest adventures of my life. I am heading home for the holidays and to Seattle for New Years to spend time with my loved ones and say goodbye.  

January 4th I fly from Seattle to Istanbul, Turkey. I will meet my good friend Shawna Ohm there. From there my travels look a little something like this:

January 5 to 11 in Turkey (Ankara, Cappadocia, Antakya and maybe more)

January 11 to 17 in Syria (Aleppo, Damascus, Palmyra) and a side trip to Beirut, Lebanon

January 17 to 26 in Jordan (Amman, Petra!, Aqaba) and Israel

I leave Shawna and fly to India on January 26. I will be spending time in Delhi and Agra (Taj Mahal) and will possibly make it to Dharmshalla and Varanasi. 

I fly to Hong Kong on February 12 where I will be moving into my 180 square ft. apartment in Causeway Bay. I will take a quick trip to Macau my first weekend there. This trip is required to make my training visa valid, but I am pretty excited about seeing the “Vegas of Asia.” 

Follow my adventures here. I will write as often as I can.

A new look

As you may have noticed kaylawebley.com is looking a little different these days. It isn’t perfect yet. I still have a lot of work to do, but it is a start. kaylawebley.com will now be my personal Web site. 

On the homepage I will blog about my travels, interesting articles I find and whatever else I feel compelled to share with the blogosphere. Under “Published work” you will find an archive of my stories, from the very first story I wrote for my college newspaper up to when I started at Medill. I plan to post everything I have written in graduate school as soon as possible. Under “My clips” you will find the best of my work samples including new media and design work, radio stories and highlights from my written work. If you want to know more about me, I suggest reading my resume and About me sections. You can also find me on Flickr, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Thank you for visiting.