It wasn't the worst travel situation I've ever been in, but 7 days is the longest I've been away from the family since the girls were born. After 7 days of eating at restaurants or out of a box, I was ready to go home. The only problem was that Northwest didn't want to oblige me. Julie called me during the final moments of Bob's talk to tell me that Northwest had cancelled my flight and booked me on a flight the next day. That caused some whirling until I called Northwest to find out the deal. It turns out that the plane from D.C. to Detroit broke down (Bob Kuehne, did you get home okay?) and when that happens they just book you a flight in case they can't contact you. The nice lady at NWA booked me a new flight on Continental. So I got my bags from the hotel and went over to Continental, where I proceeded to stand for 30 minutes at the ticket counter while the Continental agent was on hold with Northwest. Apparently, Northwest didn't transfer the ticket to Continental, hence the problem. And to make that segment complete, I was selected for additional security screening. The return trip consisted of a 3 hour flight to Houston, a one hour layover (complete with nasty airport food), and a 4.25 hour flight to Seattle. The remaining travel hassle was that it took a while for my checked bag to come up, which made the trip from the airport to the ferry terminal a little tighter than I would have liked. I walked up to the ticket booth for the 12:15AM ferry at 12:12AM (ferry time). Fortunately, the boat from Bainbridge was a few moments late (which the limo driver and I saw from the viaduct), which afforded some breathing room. Otherwise it would have been tight. But all in all, being home now is much better than being home sometime this afternoon.