As promised - my travel craziness blog

Our journey to make it to Toronto by Christmas Day was very eventful to say the least!! It all started on Dec 21st at 7am when Matt and I shoveled over a foot of snow off our driveway so that my friend Tara's car could get up to our house. She dropped us off at the shuttle pickup that would take us to the airport. After a 45 min shuttle ride, 2.5 hr ferry and another 45 mins in the shuttle we finally made it to the Vancouver airport.
We got there at 1pm and our flight was scheduled to leave at 4:30pm. Throughout the afternoon we listened and watched as hundreds of people were devastated by the news that their flights had been cancelled, due to the weather. By 4pm it was announced that our flight was delayed, but not cancelled which gave us hope. Then every 15-30 mins for the next 4 hours we were told a number of stories by various airlines employees regarding our flights' status (while more and more flights around us were being cancelled). We felt like the lucky ones, because they kept assuring us that our flight would get out. At around 8:30pm we finally started boarding. Once on the plane we were told that we were in a long line for the de-icing station. De-icing took around an hour and then we were off to wait in line at the runway (the last out of the three runways that hadn't been closed, again due to the weather). While we waited a gentleman at the front of the plane started hyperventilating and saying that his claustrophobia and the stress of waiting on the plane was too much. We had to go back and drop him at the gate. Then it was back to the de-icing station for another hour. Finally we were ready to take off...... then as luck would have it, the last runway was officially closed. You've got to be kidding me!!!! We all filed off the plane and waited for directions. And at 1am they officially cancelled our flight. We were told that if we lived in Vancouver or had someone to stay with, we were to do that. (In case you don't know, Matt and I live on the island which is a 2 hour ferry ride away, so we were stuck). We waited in line for hours, along with all the thousands of other stranded individuals. And at 3:30am were finally made it to the desk and were told that the soonest fly we could get out on would be on the 24th (3 days away). Since the ferries don't run at night and we knew no one in the area West Jet was nice enough to give us a hotel room for the night. They said they would encourage us to call the 1-800 number or come back to the airport tomorrow to see if anything else had opened up. So at 4am we were finally in our hotel room trying to wind down and get some sleep.
I woke up at 9am and started calling the 1-800 number hoping to get through and after being on hold for 1.5 hours we had to check out of our room. So....... back to the airport we went.

Day 2 - more and more delays

We found that they had a specific line set up for those whose flights had been cancelled and we jumped in it. The great people at West Jet did bring us water bottles and tried to keep everyone calm. 4.5 hours later, we got to the desk to find out that we could not get on any earlier flights. They were nice enough to give us another night in a hotel, so off we went again and that night we crashed pretty hard. Matt continually encouraged me to call the 1-800 through out the day (which I thought was worthless) to see if there was anyway we could get on a sooner flight. And low and behold on the afternoon of the 23rd we made it through to an agent on the phone, who found two seats that had just opened up on the flight out that night. We promptly checked out of our hotel room and headed back to the airport to check our bags and get our boarding passes. As it turned out our flight was delayed (surprise, surprise) but we eventually made it in the air. At that point it felt like a dream.... we were beginning to believe we would never make it to Toronto (but little did I know that that was only the beginning of my travel mishaps). We made it to Toronto the morning of the 24th at about 9am with a only a few hours of sleep. Since it was now Christmas Eve morning we had to head straight to Matt's dad's house which was a 3 hour drive South. We were originally planning on staying with Matt's brother who lives closer to Toronto and play with our new nephew Kyree until the 24th, but that quickly changed. We got to play with him for a few minutes while they packed up the car.

After the long ride in the car with 4 people and a 3 month old we were ready to crash. We stayed up long enough to have a late dinner, spend time with Matt's parents and open gifts. The Belanger tradition is to open gifts on X-mas Eve. The next morning we went to Grandma's house for more gifts and to spend time with Grandpa, who has been suffering from Dementia for the last year. That was a special treat to spend time with them!!!

I LOVE Matt's grand parents!
Matt and I on Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa's
Kyree with his mommy Keina
Cute little Kyree and me

Then were we off to Matt's aunt's house for dinner and the gift exchange with Matt's cousins. After dinner Matt's cousin Dave set up his new Wii and we all played all night long. I had a blast! I did manage to knock out two of Matt's cousins and his aunt when boxing on the Wii.

The next 3 days were spent visiting friends - this is Matt playing Rock Band with his buddy Joe.
We also played games with Matt's parents and of course played with our new nephew Kyree. What an amusing, highly energetic kid. He got a jolly jumper for X-mas and loved every minute he was in it.
Then after five days with no internet I told Matt we had to find somewhere I could use my laptop. This is where I ended up - downtown at the Wallaceburg Library. Wow, I have two words to describe that experience "culture shock".

"down town" Wallaceburg

When I got to the library and was asking about internet I was told that if I sat in one of the 3 chairs in the front corner of the library I should be able to pick up a wireless signal from one of the local business. A 10 year old boy, a retired gentleman trying to read the newspaper and me sat in the 3 chairs and enjoyed the internet.
Next we found out that Dave had to head back to Toronto, so we would be stuck in Wallaceburg until the 31st with no car. My only choose to get to the airport would be to take a bus that left at 3am on the 31st so I could make it to the airport in time for my 9am flight. I only got an hour or so of sleep (because my body was still on West coast time) before I had to wake up to make it to the bus. Again as luck would have it, it snowed quite a bit that night, but Matt's uncle was available to drive me the 40 minutes to the bus pickup (no I am not kidding). Wallaceburg isn't exactly a thriving metropolis. It was a blizzard, freezing cold, but we made it to the bus and I was off to Toronto.
I should quickly insert that Matt was staying behind in Toronto to work with his brother and attend Kyree's christening as his Godfather. So, I was heading to Utah by myself. And I did get a few odd looks from friends and family when they realized that this was my 2nd trip home without my husband. Don't worry, I will bring him next time.
Now back to the bus..... I was trying to get a few hours sleep, but I kept being woken up by the bus driver's announcements. Due to the snow we were running a full hour behind schedule. WHAT!?!?! When we finally made it to the airport we were 1 .5 hours late and I only had 20 minutes to check my bags and make it to my gate. A wonderful West Jet employee (I am beginning to love the people at West Jet) got me to the front of the line and got me to my gate on time. Sigh - I was finally on my way home, well kind of. West Jet only flies to Las Vegas, so I had to fly there and then catch a Southwest flight to Salt Lake City.

The only view I saw of Vegas

After arriving in Vegas and checking in my baggage for the final leg of my flight, I found out that my flight was delayed! Really? Can this really be happening to me? I spent about 5 hours in the airport and this was one of those times that I really wished I was a gambler, because then maybe I wouldn't have been quite so tired, exhausted, disappointed, pissed-off and did I mention exhausted? We finally boarded and we were off to good old SLC.
My brother, sister-in-law and the kids were so wonderfully willing to pick me up from the airport and I felt so bad when everything was running so late. It was New Years Eve and I knew they were having a party with friends. But my wonderful family showed up, kids in pjs and got me out of the airport. I got to give the kids their late X-mas gifts and then they were off to bed.

Later, when my fingers recover from typing I will finish the story and add more pictures....