Flight Canceled Due to Volcano

It’s official: our Monday flight to London has been canceled due to a massive cloud of volcanic ash sauntering over Europe. We just received word from the airline, and now Halbe and I are looking into our options.

For those who haven’t heard, a volcano in Iceland has been erupting since last week. Its plume of jet-engine-killing ash has enveloped the majority of the continent, leading to what the Wall Street Journal has reported as “the largest air traffic grounding since World War II.” We’re standing (well, lying on an air-mattress) in our empty apartment, working out our next steps. We’ll update when we know more.

UPDATE 1:30 PM: We have re-booked our flights. We will be staying with family friends in LA for the week, then fly to New York on Friday evening. After the influx of travelers from canceled flights that preceded ours, the first flight to London we could book departs Sunday, April 25.

So, we’ll enjoy a relaxing stay-cation here in the City of Angels. This feels a bit like a blessing in disguise. It has been very “go go go” with the 19th as the finish line. Now an Icelandic volcano just threw that ticking clock right out the window. Halbe and I have never been without jobs at the same time in LA, and we’d like to take advantage of that. It’s ironic that it took a trip to Europe for us to spend some quality time exploring our own city.

Also, a shout out to the Droid. We have no internet at the apartment (again, squatters in our own home), so from the initial text message alert to re-booking the flights, to writing this blog entry, I did it all on my Droid. It’s a great, little device.