The Trip Back Home

We woke up at 3:00 am in order to catch our 6:30 am flight at LaGuardia. We weren't taking any chances on delays. Driving through New York at 4:00 am, there was still traffic and people awake. The garbage trucks were out. All-night delis and grocery stores had people working at them. Our cabbie was talkative. He told us in New York you can't slow down because you feel like you may miss something.

When we got to LaGuardia most ticket counters were already open except for Air Canada. Despite about 10 people in line, they didn't show up until 5:00 am. After that we went through security, then got some breakfast, and off to our gate to wait. As it turns out our plane had an equipment problem so the flight was canceled. Sigh. So we went to line up to see an agent to find another way back to Edmonton. Originally we were going from LaGuardia to Montreal, then on to Edmonton. He got us on to an 8:30 flight to Toronto, then on to Edmonton.

The only good news was that we were bumped into business class for both flights. We've never flown in business class before so that was a great treat. The room was nice but I was a little amazed at the little perks you get: free newspapers, a nice meal, and there's one flight attendant who's pretty much devoted to the twelve or so people, offering you things repeatedly. Although the attendant did wake me up by spilling some water on me.

In Toronto our flight was once again delayed by equipment problems. Heidi bought some lunch and then got into a rousing fight with Olga, who was mad at us because we were sitting in her restaurant with outside food. By this time we were tired and cranky and ready to be home. Sophie slept for 2.5 hours of the Toronto-Edmonton flight.

We finally got back to our house about 4:00 pm Wednesday. After eating some beef barley soup left at our house by my dad (served in foam bowls with plastic spoons), we all headed to bed for some much-needed rest. By 7:00 we were all sleeping and woke up the next morning at about 7:00 am.