An Airport Adventure or What Just Happened?

Yesterday morning was bright and promising.  Loaded up with White Chocolate Mochas, we checked in, got our boarding passes and settled in to wait for our flight.  The Eureka/Arcata airport is small and easy.  One gate, one airline. Easy Peasy.

Except….when the flight you are about to board is cancelled due to mechanical issues.

Well, it’s early. There are a couple other flights going to San Francisco where we can hook up with a few flights going up to Vancouver.  Who’d think it’d be so hard? So, we just went with the flow. Nothing we could do about anyway.  We waited a couple of hours in the ACV airport, enjoyed a mimosa with breakfast.  Read, sent series of whats-happening-now-texts.  Got scheduled for a later flight.  Got rescheduled for an earlier flight and were given $40.00 worth of food vouchers.  Finally boarded a flight down to SFO.  And then the fun really began…

Took a shuttle to the International terminal (terminal three), found our gate, found some food, got a picture of Kanye West heading to Paris France,

ate our food, went back to our gate, presented our boarding pass.  Boarding pass?  Well, for some reason Mr. Al’s pass on the AirCanada flight never printed out.  We were told we were on stand-by for the 5:20 flight. Our original flight?  The one we missed?  11:15AM.

Yeah….

well…

oh well….

Watched my boarding pass being torn in two. Waited 3 hours for the 5:20 flight.  Read a lot more.  Watched a lot more people.  Watched everyone board the flight.  Watched the boarding gate shut down. Walked over to find the United desk in Terminal Two.  On the way over found the United Lounge.  Told our sad story to the Gate Keeper (only members can use the lounge.)  The Gate Keeper took pity, looked up flights, saw another Air Canada flight and told us to go back from whence we had come.

Went back from whence we had come.

The Air Canada folks told us they’d put us on stand-by for the 7:50 flight.

Decided we needed a drink.

Decided we should go back to the United Lounge.

Gate Keeper was still taking pity and let us up into the lounge.  Got some coffee (not the kind of drink I was thinking, but I really didn’t feel like paying for one–sure wished we’d held onto those food vouchers) ate some numnums and sat in the  special lounge with a lovely view.

The lounge was very peaceful and quiet… like a library.  Folks were sitting around, speaking in soft tones in groups or over their phones or tapping on their laptops.

Quite as a library, yes indeed, until maintenance came and started chair swapping ballet. Or was it a game of musical chairs to entertain the Loungers?  No, it was a ballet.  Lounge chairs were being swapped out for cleaning and reconditioning.  It was really fun to watch, actually.  All the tiptoeing, chair shuffling, plastic rending, and whispered instructions.

Although getting a tad Airport Weary, Mr. Al and I were still going with the flow.  Worst case, United would to have to put us up in a hotel for the night.  Best case?  Well, that hadn’t happened, so we went with the flow.  But I did call our TimeShare and informed them we’d be arriving a day late.  I called our car rental and told them same.  Thinking positively, I even called and booked a hotel near the Vancouver airport, held for late arrival.

We got tired of the chair ballet and decided to relocate our persons back to our gate to wait and see if we’d get on the 7:50, the last flight out that night to Vancouver.  But before leaving the Lounge, we stopped off and used their bathrooms.  I do believe those bathrooms are the best in the whole airport.  The stalls are tall doors from floor to ceiling.  And there were floral arrangements at the marbled sinks.  On second thought, I dare not call their facilities “bathrooms.”  It was an honest-to-gosh Powder Room.

The Air Canadian Gate Squad were tippy typing at their monitors when we arrived. We sat squarely in front of them.  We were very visible to the Squad.   They motioned to us to ‘come hither.’  We came hither to the desk. They smiled.  They sparkled.  They gave us two Boarding Passes.

We smiled.

We sparkled.

We boarded.

We were pampered all the way to Vancouver, collected our baggage, went through customs and arrived at our hotel by midnight.

We were so tired, I barely remember getting ready for bed.

This morning we got our rental car.  It’s pretty cool–a black toyota matrix. Mr. Al drove it up through the pouring rain and We Have Arrived!  It’s supposed to rain for a few days and that’s fine by us.  We just want to chill…use the sauna, the pool, and stroll around the town.  I need to work on my book. My 2nd Draft Deadline’s coming up.

In a few days, it’s supposed to clear up a little and we’ll be ready.

We’re gonna need a few days.