We're Back

Well we made it back to Deer Lake safe and sound. We had a great Christmas and enjoyed visiting with many friends and family. While we were home we were so busy visiting and getting some shopping done that we did not have much down time. I wasn't quite ready to come back, and I definitely could have used another week, but I am thankful for the time we had.

Yesterday was our big travel day and we made it back, but to say it was an uneventful trip would not be true. We left home at 8:10 am and made it to the airport by 9:15 am, traffic was amazing. We caught up with Amanda no problem, got our luggage checked in and off we went.

Our flight was delayed a bit. We were supposed to be at gate 112 and about 15 minutes before we were allowed to board they told us we had changed gates to 142 (which is on the other side of the terminal) so we walked quickly to get there. Once we were there waiting, mine and Greg's name was called over the PA system asking us to report to the desk at the gate. So we went, we thought that maybe they couldn't fit us on that flight so they were going to delay it. Turns out they just had to give us our seat number (they didn't do that when we checked in for some reason). Just before we were supposed to load an announcement came over the PA saying our plane is delayed (the plane was late getting to the airport). When we finally did load the plane Greg, Amanda and I were scattered all over the plane. I sat in the front, Amanda in the middle and Greg was bringing up the rear. When everyone had boarded there was announcement saying we were going to be delayed even further due to something not right in the cargo area, I am not sure what it was but some maintenance guys came and fixed it. Our flight finally left at 12:30 (we were supposed to leave at 11:30).

We finally reached Thunder Bay at 2:10. Our flight from Thunder Bay to Red Lake was scheduled to leave at 4:00. Amanda and I needed to go grocery shopping and Greg being the organized person he is had scheduled us a taxi for 1:30. Needless to say it was gone. Once we got off our plane we realized there was 8 taxi's lined up outside waiting to take people places. So Amanda and I booted it to a taxi while Greg waited with Dexter and they collected our bags.

Grocery shopping was fine. I was running around the store like crazy and was all over the place. I am a slow grocery shopper and like to take my time so I was really out of my element rushing around. We got all the groceries we needed and called the taxi for a pick up. They were at the store really quick. We were back to the airport by 3:20pm. We made great timing.

When we went to get Greg to come help us pack the groceries into the Rubbermaids we discovered that the Rubbermaids never made it to Thunder Bay from Toronto. Unfortunately, one of Amanda's boxes never made it either and hers had a lot of stuff she need it in. Our missing baggageereas just 3 empty Rubbermaids. Hopefully Amanda's box will be here in Deer by the end of the week, we are told that our stuff is in Thunder Bay now.

Due to Air Canada not bringing our Rubbermaids they gave us 3 cardboard boxes. Thankfully we brought tape (thanks Grandma and Grandpa) with us to help keep them together, but I still was not happy with the boxes they just seemed way to flimsy. All our food fit in the boxes and we taped them up and got checked into our next flight. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 4:00 and 3:50 an announcement came on saying that our flight was delayed until 4:15. At 4:10, another announcement was made saying it was delayed until 5:00. At this point we went upstairs in the airport and got something to eat. At 4:55, we watched our stuff being loaded on to the plane. They were just throwing our boxes of food around, I was a little worried about the glass bottles and things that could break. We finally began boarding our plane at 5:15.

We had to fly to Sioux Lookout and then catch a connecting flight in Red Lake. Our connecting flight was scheduled to leave at 5:45, we thought we were going to miss our fight and have to spend the night in Red Lake. We made it to Red Lake at 5:55 and found that our plane was still there. They waited for us because there was so many people on our flight connecting to the other flight. We got all our luggage and checked in again to our other flight and got loaded on for our last leg of the journey.

The last 20 minutes of our flight to Deer Lake had a lot of turbulence, but it was alright. We finally made to Deer by 7:45pm.

Everything was fine when we got back. We were able to catch the last period of the Canada vs. USA World Junior game and watch Canada beat the USA, which made Greg very happy. After the hockey game ended we unpacked our stuff and began to relax a little bit. It was definitely a long and tiring day.

This is a picture of the state of our boxes by the time they reached Deer Lake. These things were definitely abused along the way.

I am surprised at how well everything travelled, even after they were thrown around, nothing was broken.