We’re back safe and sound in Modesto, and really, really happy to be back.
God, yesterday was a long day. We were showering and getting ready to go at 3am (Kristi had been up since 2am, unable to get back to sleep) – we had to get our rented Pathfinder back to Enterprise when they opened at 4, because United Airlines told us to get to OIA a couple hours before our flight to ensure that we could get the bike onboard. So we’re driving across Orlando at 3am, running on about 4-5 hours of sleep.
We arrive at the Enterprise depot near the airport, check the truck in, and take their tram (along with four suitcases and a boxed-up bike) to Orlando International and are in the check-in queue when they open at 4:30. Irritable airport workers, new airline nickel-and-diming luggage policies, and then finally coffee and danish before it’s time to go through TSA and get out to our 7am flight to Los Angeles.
Five hour flight to LA. We really lucked out: someone had booked for Economy Plus (better seats, more legroom than standard economy) with their children, but it turned out that their seats were in an exit row. Airlines don’t let kids sit in exit rows, so they got reseated and we got upgraded. That was nice – few things in life suck more than flying across the country aboard a packed flight, crammed into standard Economy. And it helped too, because between a crappy movie (Mamma Mia) and just being way tired, it was the Flight That Would Never End.
So we land at LAX at 9:30am PST. Our body clocks are telling us it’s 1pm, time for lunch. Nope. Another round of morning for everyone.. and at lovely, relaxing LAX! Only one of the busiest (and probably largest) airports in the world. We had an hour layover before our next leg took us to San Francisco.
SFO’s a much nicer airport than LAX or OIA – smaller, much cleaner, better restaurants, just a better overall place to lay over. Which was good, because our United Express flight from SFO to Modesto airport kept being delayed. And constantly moved from one gate to another. They just would not.. let.. us.. leave..
We finally got onto the UE puddle jumper at about 2pm PST (5pm EST, aka Hour Fourteen), somehow managed to finally get off the ground, and were on our way home. Twenty minute flight before touching down at our little local airport – one gate, five minutes from our house – and by then we were just uber-exhausted. Got the car, got the luggage loaded up, got home at around 3:30p, and then it was all the other stuff: fetching the animals, unloading luggage, showering off the airport muck, figuring out what the hell to do about dinner. By that point we’d been up and going for about 16 hours.
We crashed early, slept well, still feel like we’re missing about 24 hours of sleep but very happy to be home. Kristi just left for work and I’m trying to charge up to get work done. It’s good to be home.
It was a good – albeit hectic – weekend in Orlando. We got the storage unit cleaned out and closed down; everything I own is now either here in Modesto, in UPS transit to arrive next week, or entrusted to safe hands until we ship it at a later date. We had a wonderful dinner with Em and Jason at their home and had a great time. We went to Cocoa Beach and had dinner in Merritt Island, celebrating the one year anniversary of our engagement. We hung out with my brother Chris and gave him back his copy of Burnout Paradise.
Best of all, Kristi finally was able to meet my parents. We all had lunch on Sunday afternoon at Bahama Breeze in Altamonte. Mom turned up with my official dossier, containing baby pictures, report cards, baby book, everything. I was sincerely surprised that she still had all that; Kristi wasn’t surprised at all. We all had a good lunch and had a good time.
Photographic evidence:
More of the story coming, but it’ll probably be a few days. We both have a lot of rest (and work) to catch up on.