Short version: We went to Canada this weekend.
Long version:
I took Friday off, so Thursday was my last day of work. Fortunately, Friday was the day before a three-day weekend, so I didn’t miss much in the way of work. I left work a bit early, and was pretty much packed by 7pm, which was a good thing, as our flights left at 9am on Friday, so we needed to be at the airport rather early. I knew I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, so I tried drinking some alcohol to knock myself out at 10pm. It didn’t work, though.
Of course, the reason why I couldn’t fall asleep might have been that Luke decided to start packing right about at the time I went to bed, and wasn’t quiet about it.
Still, I managed to get up at 5:20 and be out the door by 5:45, getting to SFO sometime around 6:15. I parked in long term parking (yay! Only $12 for the first day, $10 each additional day!) and got into the terminal to face… the line. Of course, I wasn’t even ready for the line yet, as I needed to check a bag first. Half an hour later, I had checked my bag (after remembering to take the Swiss army knife off of my keychain and put it in my suitcase) and walked to the end of the line. An hour and a half later I was finally at the security checkpoint. I went through the whole rigamarole, took off my shoes, they metal detected my shoes, my socks, my arms, legs, belt, body … twice. Put my shoes back on, and found that they had set my bag aside. I had to wait for a security representative to go through my bag and do those chemical swabbing things on every single piece of electronics in the bag (which is quite a bit). I also had to have my shoes swabbed (which involved taking them off again).
Also, I am now out one micro Leatherman, and the scissors from my first aid kit… both of which I completely forgot were in there.
By the time I got through all this, my flight was almost ready to leave. I should also note that about this time, Hong had already arrived in Seattle, and was probably asleep in the baggage claim area by now.
Slept through a lot of the flight. Got into airport, and found everyone waiting for me at the baggage claim area (I was the last to arrive). It turns out that in Hertz’s line of vehicles, Yahoo! Travel considers a Ford Escape to be an “Intermediate SUV.” Now, seeing as how Chico and I were both planning on renting cars, two Escapes would have been perfectly fine for six people, with two snowboards and assorted luggage.
This, of course, all went out the window when Chico cancelled the day before the trip. We now had five people, with two snowboards and assorted luggage, all crammed into one Escape.
It was nice and pretty bright yellow, though. That didn’t make the ride any more comfortable. Lucky me, I was driving, so I didn’t have to get crammed into the back seat with snowboards over my head.
We were now in Seattle, and were going to meet up with Chico for lunch before heading north. Part Two to follow shortly.