I hate flying into a destination expecting to be met by the people I am staying with, only to find no one in the arrivals area waiting for me. It is so disappointing and consequently whenever we are expecting visitors, we make a point of being there to greet them well before they land.

Today we decided to go to the outlet mall with Jay to do some after-Christmas bargain shopping and as we weren’t expecting Bill and Laura until 6:30 PM, we had plenty of time. The place was hopping with shoppers looking for ways to spend their Christmas cash but we all found some great buys. Several hours, many shopping bags and a few dollars later, it was time to head back to Palm Springs to meet our visitors. As we loaded our goods into the trunk of the car, we discovered one of Jay’s bags missing and he and I headed back to the stores we had visited to find it. Fortunately, someone had turned it in at the last store we had been in but the search had delayed our departure and we sped to the airport with only fifteen minutes to get there if we wanted to be on time.

Unfortunately, the airport is 25 minutes from the outlet mall so we were late and Laura and Bill experienced the disappointment of having no one there to greet them. We felt terrible especially when we learned that their luggage didn’t arrive with them either! Luckily Jay had his cell phone with him so we were able to let them know of our delay and with no luggage it was a quick and easy pick up. We took them out for dinner in downtown Palm Springs and then we headed to the RV Park, where we decided to watch a movie and wait for their luggage to be delivered (hopefully tonight!).