This is the first official post (as opposed to unofficial?) of January 2013. We just returned from our family vacation. I kept a journal of out trip on my I-Pad and I'm going to share it.
Florida Adventure
Day 1
December 28th
And so the vacation begins. This adventure starts with a pre-adventure. Our actual flight isn't until 7:55 p.m., which gave us the entire day to get ready. Some of us were ready before others. There were only a couple of minor mishaps. Bill got into a tussle with Ashley's car door. He was moving around vehicles (yes Ashley, this family does have way too many frickin vehicles), and because Ashley's car was parked on the driveway, gravity dictated that the door be closed. Unfortunately Bill didn't anticipate the gravity situation quick enough, and he was in the kitchen before he noticed the blood dripping from a large gash in his eyebrow. In addition to the gash, was a goose egg size bump on his forehead. A few tissues and an ice pack later, Bill was feeling a little better. Then Patrick took a stumble on the stairs. I say stumble not a tumble, because he was coming up the stairs and he miss judged where the next step was. The suitcase arrived unscathed on the top landing; Patrick's ribs could be little sore for a couple of days. We left the house around 4:15 pm and headed to Kinjo's for dinner. Nothing like a little sushi for a pre board meal. Ethan joined us for dinner, as he was the designated chauffeur for this trip. A quick good bye to Ethan at the airport, (Ashley took a little longer), and we headed for the Westjet check-in. Now this could have been a quick check-in, but the night before, as I was doing the check-in online, everybody's boarding pass printed except mine. We explained this to the Westjet lady, and she informed me that I was preselected to answer a few extra questions. Little did I know those few extra questions involved a body scan. Unl.ike when this happened during our September holiday, I opted out of the scan, and requested a pat down instead. This request was met with dismay from the authorities, who tried unsuccessfully to convince me of the quickness of the scan, and to the dismay of my family, who were being slowed down by me, moi! I am going to admit, I enjoyed the conversation with the pat down people. I wonder if I am "special" for the entire trip.
Everyone did their own thing while we waited at our gate. Bill was reading the instructions for his new watch/gps toy. Patrick borrowed my new travel pillow and stretched out (or cramped up) a couple of seats, and Ashley was playing her DS gameboy, and swatting away a cute fruit fly (her words, not mine). I started on the travel blog, and kept one ear open for any flight information. At one point, they made an announcement for a Jack Hildebrandt to come to a gate. I was wondering if it was a relative of moms, but now thinking about it, I believe the gentleman in question passed away quite some time ago. We weren't long sitting at our departure gate, before the annoucement came to board our flight. Ashley wanted to be one of the first on the flight to ensure she could stow her "carry on" luggage close to where we were sitting in row 19. The flight attendant took one look at my boarding pass, and passed on his well wishes for me and the "special" attention I would be receiving. Bill and Patrick were a couple of the last people to board the flight. Ashley had called dibs on the window seat, so I got stuck in the middle. I tried resting on Ashley, but as my dad used to say, "she was moving around like a fart in a wind storm," so I sat straight up with my arm resting on my pillow, and my chin resting on my arm.
The flight was scheduled fo 35 minutes to Edmonton, so it was almost impossible to tackle anything for very long, including sleep. Seems like the plane just finished ascending and it was time to descend. We landed in Edmonton with no idea where our luggage was going to be. The people in Calgary said we might have to go through customs in Edmonton. We spent a few extra minutes on the plane until a parking place became available (who knew this would be a precursor to our entire trip). As we were disembarking the plane, a couple of young toddlers were running back and forth across the hallway, much to the annoyance of some of the passengers. Ashley mentioned that it reminded her of playing the video game "frogger." The mom of the toddlers found that amusing too. Without squishing one of the frogs, we continued to our designated luggage carousel. It wasn't until the final piece of baggage had been removed that we realized our luggage must be going straight to Florida. We confirmed this with a Westjet ticket agent, and were told that we would now be going through customs in Florida. With our new found knowledge, we headed back through security, loading all our items in the plastic trays, and yes once again I was asked to go though the full body scanner. And once again I declined and asked for the alternative pat down; a pat down that could have been avoided had we sought the help of a Westjet agent at our arrival gate. Now there was only a two hour wait for our next flight, which was leaving at 12:05 am on Saturday.
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