Airport Mayhem
Here is an exhaustive list of how to guarantee a trip of frustration:
a. Park far away from airport terminal and walk with kids in frigid weather to people mover stop. Leave all winter gear in suitcases to guarantee frozen fingers and toes. Kids will be crying before you've even arrived at the airport.
b. Wait in line-up at check-in for 45 mins. so you can be told that flight (destined for Kelowna via Calgary) is delayed till 1:00pm. Flight was supposed to leave at 8:45am. Plea with check-in lady to find alternate plans. Finally agree to fly to Vancouver leaving at 10am.
c. Wait in waiting area for flight departure.
d. Wait in plane for 1 hour for a pilot to arrive - kind of essential to have for take-off?!?!
e. One hour into flight be told that plane is landing in Calgary for a 'quick' pick up of more passengers.
f. Land in Calgary and wait on tarmac for 2.5 hours for passengers to fill plane and their luggage to be loaded on. Continue to sit on plane and occupy kids.
g. Leave Calgary and be told that there is mayhem at Vancouver airport due to previous day's snow storm.
h. Land in Vancouver and wait on tarmac for 2.5 hours to get a terminal parking spot. Tell kids to watch TV shows they've watched ten times already. Fill kids up with M&M's as that's the only food available. Let baby crawl around plane and ammuse fellow frustrated (read:angry) passengers.
i. Exit plane after being on it for 11 hours. Entertain one's thoughts with the idea you could have been in some idyllic locale in Europe, instead of landing in a snow stuck airport.
j. Go straight to find food and scarf some unhealthy fast food down. Remind yourself that you have not eaten anything substantial since 5am (EST) in the morning. It's now 6pm (EST).
k. Go to luggage carousel where there is luggage piled up as far as the eye can see. Frustrated people have left their luggage at the airport and have not come back to claim it. Luggage claims line is a 'mile' long. Manoever through frustrated people to baggage carousel and surprisingly pick up 5 pieces of luggage in a half hour.
l. Go to car rental place and pick up mini van reserved by nice brother-in-law. Rent three car seats so we can legally leave airport. Pack van and leave.
m. Drive to sister and brother-in-law's house who are not expecting you but willingly accomodate you.
n. Stop at border crossing to try to enter different country. Forget family's birth certificates at home so that you have to beg officials to let you in their country. Finally be told that you can enter their country as it was not our original plans to go to this family's house. Start crying in van over absolute exhaustion and frustration. Pray that God will continue to give you patience.
o. Arrive at family's house and put kids to bed. Go to bed yourself after drinking copiuos amounts of water due to dry conditions on the airplane. It is now 1am (EST).
p. Wake up at 5am (EST) because of time difference and lay in bed to try and rest. Kids come in shortly to tell you they're wide awake and want to get dressed. Be stern to children to be quiet as the hosting family is still sleeping.
q. Look at forecast the next day to see that the area is expecting another 15-20cm of snow. Tell yourself that you might be stuck in the valley and not have a way to get up to Vernon. Must bring rental vehicle back the next day and nothing else is available for a one way rental. Brainstorm all day thinking of ways to get six people up to Vernon to visit Grandpa and Grandma, your original destination. Keep smiling!
r. Continue to enjoy time at family's house as you try to find ways to make alternate plans...
To Be Continued
.
posted by Laura and Colin @ 10:10 a.m.
6 Comments:
Hmmm, somehow your version seems much more interesting than Mom's version over the phone! :o) Except I understood you had missed a connetion in Calgary, and that's why you ended up in Vancouver.
Oh well, keep smiling, and enjoy the visit down south...I'm sure you'll find a way to get up to Vernon! And just think of what wonderful snow you'll have for skiing when you get there!!
Oh boy!
I hope you're able to make it to Vernon yet. Be very, very careful on the roads, they're treacherous.
Hey Chandra,
There are absolutely no embellishments in this story...it's told exactly how everything happened. We did not miss our connection in Calgary. Our original flight to Calgary was delayed for five hours in Toronto and so we would have missed our connection to Kelowna. We then were offered a direct flight to Vancouver, which ended up stopping in Calgary (on a last minute decision - mid-flight). We thought this would serve us better as we have family close to Vancouver and figured we'd do our visiting in the valley in the beginning of our trip. If we would have taken the delayed Calgary flight we would have been stuck in Calgary, probably ending up in a hotel. Not what we wanted when the purpose of the trip was to visit family. All the airports in the west were mayhem. Hope that clears things up for you!
Hi Laura,
We are thinking of all of you and praying for you. We really hope you are able to make it to Vernon for Christmas. It took me 4.5 hours to drive from Owen Sound to London on Tuesday night - it was snowing and blowing the whole way and the roads were in bad shape. But I made it safely and today we had rain all day! It looks like the next few days will be mild here. Let us know how things are going for you when you get the opportunity.
Lots of love from,
Dad, Mom and Diane
Hey Laura, I wasn't suggesting that you were spicing up the story at all, it just sounded much more exciting (in a dreadful sort of way) than when Mom was telling me. Now I understand the part about the missed connection...
Yipes, I obviously totaly misunderstood Colin , I didn't realize that the plane was delayed right at Toronto already. I gotta listen better !! and.... remember better...longer than 2 minutes. Hope tomorrow works.
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