Travel Day

Travel days are always so much fun! NOT!!!  Yesterday seemed to be an exceptionally challenging day. Well, not challenging per se, but my head wasn't in the right place for sure.

My flight was at 11:30 AM and M had to get to school, so we left the house at the same time - she caught the Sky Train to school and I hopped in the car to get to the airport.

But not before James took a picture of us.

Bear, M, and me

My child is NOT taller than I am. I was slouching!!!  I swear!  That little dog is usually so cute, but with no hair - well, he'll get cute again!  Bye Bear - I miss you already - well M and James too.

Thanks to M, James, and Bear for all your hospitality. It was a blast and I'm so glad that we had some time to spend together. Can't wait to get back to Vancouver and maybe next time, I'll have a wee bit more time to explore.

Driving in Vancouver wasn't a big deal. Of course, I had the built-in navigation system in the car. It was a wee bit of a sticker shock to fill up the car. That's the price for regular gas. So I wasn't going to complain when I got home and saw it at 115.9.

The price of gas is a wee bit high

I had only used a 1/4 tank but it still cost me $35 or so to fill up the car. That's crazy as I can barely put $35 in my car - OK - so I'm exaggerating. Depending on the price at the pumps, I pay close to $50 for a fill, but that gives me over 600 KM. Yes, my car is small, but I'm happy.

I arrived at the airport with plenty of time for my flight which was good since I had another pass for the lounge. But before I got to the lounge, I had a few issues to deal with.

First, I'm not used to traveling with so much luggage. Normally, I have a small backpack and a small carryon. Now I have this giant suitcase full of sewing samples.

When I got to the bag check, I put my bag onto the scale. What? It's overweight? The allowed weight is 23 KG. My bag was 23.1 KG. Good grief!!! The attendant in that area saw the issue and allowed the bag to go anyway, but I had to remove it from the automated area to a different area. No worries, that bag was gone. Why was it so heavy? Well - I had those four books that I bought for DH. That added to the weight.

This is why my suitcase was overweight!

And I had some dog cookies that James had bought for Lexi and Murphy so those were added weight as well. But all was good - that suitcase went ahead.

Then I get to the security area. I had my boarding pass scanned and was walking in when it hit me that I had a bottle of wine in my carryon. DUH!!!!   When I was packing, I never even thought about it being a liquid. Silly me!!!

So back out to the check-in area. I offered the wine to two nice Air Canada agents. They asked me what flight I was on and what time was my flight. They very graciously checked my carryon bag at no cost!!!  Thank you to Air Canada agents for being so accommodating. I can't say enough about Air Canada - I've always flown A/C and never had any major issues that couldn't be resolved.

They even put a FRAGILE tag on the luggage.

My carryon with a bottle of wine 

Back to security and emptied everything in the tubs and proceeded through the X-ray. BUZZ. Oh, crap - what caused that? My bracelet? Ah no - that would be the cell phone in your back pocket the guy says to me! Oh for god's sake!!! Back through and all was good this time.

I managed to get myself and my little backpack to the lounge. I've been to Vancouver airport enough times that I know my way around. I had a nice relaxing breakfast and then made my way to the gate.

I hate paying to select a seat so I took my chances. Yep - I got stuck in the middle seat. Let's just say that the flight home was a far cry from the flight out. First off, the plane on the way out was a much nicer and newer plane than the Airbus that we took home. On the way out, I had an aisle seat in business class with no one around me so I had loads of room. On the way back, I was in the middle seat, thankfully with average sized people on either side of me. On the way out, I was able to use TWO screens to entertain me - one for the moving map and one for a movie. On the way home, my screen was dead! It needed to be reset but I didn't really care. On the way out, I had a free meal delivered on a real plate to my seat. On the way home, I had to buy a wrap for lunch that was a challenge to get out of the plastic wrap!

But that didn't matter. At least, I didn't have chatters beside or around me on the way there or the way back and that is one of the MOST important things for me. I hate people who talk the entire way. Just zip it!!!! I slept a bit and I read and I had more snacks in my bag (thanks James for the muffins - they were very yummy!)

It was so nice to get home and see the girls and DH who picked me up. A good sleep in my own bed and now I'm ready to tackle the day. I have so much to do, I'm not even sure where to start. I have TWO days to get everything accomplished because the next 10 days are going to be action-packed.

On that note, I'd better get started.

Have a super day!!!!!


Ciao!!!