Vacation into the Wild

D and I got back alive from our awesome Canadia trip! Or as I like to call it, our National Lampoon's vacation. This was my first stamp on my passport...it seems kinda pathetic, but it's still another country though not altogether foreign.

On Wednesday the 24th, D and I leave for the SFO airport to catch our 8:00 AM flight. The flight plan is as follows:

Leave SFO at 8:00 AM
Arrive in Newark at 5:00 PM
Leave Newark at 7:00 PM.
Arrive in Moncton Canadia at 10:30 PM.

Unfortunately things don't always happen the way they are planned. Long story short, a 14 hour trip turned into a 30 hour trip. Everything was fine until 3/4 through the first flight. The captain informs us that we are in a holding pattern due to weather at Newark. We circled Lake Erie for 1 1/2 hours. Finally the captain says, "All traffic into Newark has been stopped. And, by the way we are running out of fuel so we'll be landing in Cleveland to fuel up and see what we can figure out."

45 minutes after landing and re-fueling, the captain again informs us that Newark, which was actually experiencing AIR TRAFFIC, NOT weather, is accepting flights again and that we have a confirmed landing time. After taxiing to take of for another 30 minutes, we are back in the air, yay! It was 7:25PM when we finally off boarded the plane to see if the last flight of the night to Moncton was held for 25 minutes for the 10 or so passengers transferring to that flight. Freakin' assholes can't hold the plane for 25 f#$*ing minutes. F#$* Continental airlines.

Once at the customer service desk, we find that there are no flights from Newark to Moncton until 2:55 PM the next day. So D and I have two options. We can book a hotel to stay in until 2:00 the next day, or fly to Montreal at 9:15PM, wait until 8:55 AM to fly directly to Moncton. Either way, because our transferring flight was an international flight, Continentalassfaces will not pay for the accommodations. Knowing that flying to Montreal was the best bet, we book that flight, the customer service rep books us on the Air Canada flight leaving Montreal the next morning.

We have a few hours to buy dinner paid for by Continentalf*&#heads then head over to the other flight. We were delayed taking off for 1 1/2 hours. Now tell me if all flights are delayed at least an hour, why couldn't the connecting flight hold for freakin 25 minutes??!??! Just before midnight we land in Montreal. We are waaaay in the boonies at the airport and to top it off my bag I had to checked at the plane door is not there. They called shuttles to cart people to customs and when D and I see the last shuttle the jerk stewardesses, pilots and stewards take it without any regard to their clients.

At this point I am losing it. Our flight was delayed, connecting flight would not wait, we are in a city where everyone seems to speak French primarily, my luggage is missing and I am dead tired and pissed off. We cannot get to the baggage claim until we go through customs. Keep in mind that now it is after midnight. D and I arrive at a sea of black barrier tape about the size of a football field leading to the customs checkpoint. It is completely empty of people except for the customs officers. After passing and getting stamped with customs, we arrive at the baggage claim and thank goodness my suitcase had been put on the wrong cart and we found it.

Apparently some airports close at night. D and I need to ensure we are on the flight to Moncton the next morning so we head to the Air Canada counters. All counters are completely empty, save the janitorial crews cleaning. There is NO one to be seen. I'm about to cry. D assures me all is well and we find the information desk with a rude girl who treats us like shit once she realizes that we do not speak French. She pages someone who could possibly help us and then D and I sit and wait for 15 minutes.

At last two gentlemen approach us and we inform them of the problem. They let us know gently and oh so kindly that there is nothing that can be done that night and give us a number to call for discounted rates at hotels for Air Canada clients. These two were very sympathetic and did their best to calm me down as I am on the verge of an emotional meltdown. Keep in mind that we have not yet even proven that we are on the Air Canada flight but tell us to let the people know that we are Air Canada clients and our flight was delayed. We find a little hotel and after waiting 20 minutes for the shuttle we arrive and check in at 1:00 AM. We are planning on checking-out the next morning at 6:15 to get BACK to the airport and figure out what our travel plan is. What a nice 4 hours of sleep preempted by an upset stomach and getting sick on my part.

I'll make that story short. We get to the airport, go to Air Canada, find out we are not showing up on the flight, we have to go BACK to Continental where we find out that we were booked on the previous day's flight. Who knew that someone could be booked on a flight hours after the flight had already departed! Continental changes us to the correct flight and inform us that it may take 1/2 hour to even show up in Air Canada's system. We go BACK to Air Canada, she takes a look at our receipts of proof that we should be on the flight. The lady says, "Lets not wait for you to show up, I'll just book you now." Within 20 minutes of arriving at the airport and trying to fix the debacle we are waiting at our gate, with the added bonus of her not even asking if we wanted seats together, booked us the best seats side-by-side available. (Thank you Air Canada for making it easy and painless!) Canada's security system is incredibly efficient.

We finally arrive in Moncton!!! After a 2 hour drive we arrive at our final destination on Prince Edward Island...30 hours later...

I can say that during this whole ordeal/nightmare, D and I manage to be one sane and rational person. Now the trip home was jeopardized as well, but I'll just leave this picture to explain what happened and tell more of the trip later :)