Up, Up and Away!
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
December 19, 2014
So, first thing this morning on BT they were talking about how it is the busiest day of the year for Pearson Airport. They estimated that 140K people would go through the airport on this day alone. That should be fun for us!
I worked from home today and Bill worked 1/2 day at his office and came home in the middle of the afternoon. Thankfully he was able to do some last minute tasks like writing an email to KB & Matty to arrange care for Maya and Suu Kyi because I was still wrapping up with my team. The unexpected 3:30 to 4:00 conference call really threw me into a panic as I was sitting at the dining room table on my laptop, phone and iPad surrounded by all of my clothes. After the call I began tossing everything into the bag and racing around the house grabbing toiletries and some meds "just in case". So, the 4:30 departure time did not happen! I was still frantically packing my carry on when Bill closed the suitcase and tried to lift it, realizing that it was overweight (by 25 lbs), so we had to resort to two bags. Not ideal, but not a disaster. It just adding more precious time to our departure. Eventually we made it to the subway stop and were on our way by 5:15.
The first bus at Kipling was too full, but the next one arrived shortly thereafter and left promptly for the airport.
We had some frustration and delays with checking in. We could not check in online and the kiosks would not allow us to check in either. The boards directed us to the wrong check in area, but someone from Air Canada directed us to the new check in area. Once we were in the right spot it was smooth sailing. Security had zero lineups and we were at our gate by 7:00 for our 9:30 flight. Oh, BTW thanks to my numerous flights this year, I have elite status with Air Canada and they guy who checked us in was super sweet and told me that I can now check in at the prestige area from now on and if Bill is really, really nice to me, he can also check in with me there too! So, now who has the travel perks for once!? OK, so I don't get amazing deals on flights, hotels and excursions, but hey, it's something!
We had some delicious burgers at True Burger and then thoroughly enjoyed the lounge. They had mini iPads for ordering food, wine, status updates on your flight and best of all, the internet! Luckily I was able to message Mia, Eli and Sloane (super cute with her blonde curls) to let them know where we were located because we do not have our phones with us. Let me back up for a second... I posted a note on Facebook in the morning that we would be at the airport and Mia messaged me back saying that they would be too. They are flying to Warsaw to meet up with her family for Christmas. We figured out that we are all flying out of terminal 1 and hoped that we could connect to catch up. So, they found us and we share some wine and stories of our travels. They have already been to Nepal and India, and hearing their stories made me more excited for our trip! It was so great seeing them, it had been almost 2 years. Where does the time go?
We chatted a bit too long and Bill heard an announcement for the final boarding call. Not sure why we heard announcement for preboarding and zone 1, but not zone 2, 3 & 4, but anyway... We dashed to the gate and boarded without delaying the flight!
Thankfully, I have been short on sleep all week and was so exhausted that I slept for 5 1/2 - 6 hours of our 7 hour flight. Bill watched a movie, then caught a few hours of sleep too.
We will be landing in Frankfurt at 11:00 am and will have a 2 1/2 hour layover. So, that should be plenty of time!