Ok well I wrote out a whole likkle trip report….and then the power died as its snowy and gross here…right as I was typing out the last word to LOL!!
Well we are officially here and what do you..the hubby and daughter have adapted better than me LOL!! I’m the wimpy one pining for home..and the sweet island sunshine…and they are having the time of their life. You’d never know they were not born in the cold!
Well it was one heck of a day!! We woke up Monday morning and hubby was calm and ready…like all the depression he had previously finally came to acceptance and yup…he was ready. Daughter was ready to get on the plane from she woke from her bed!!! Me…from morning…to the airport..it was like a seven hundred million generation family of butterflies dancing in my stomach.
We got ready, packed a few stray things and loaded up the rental van as we are leaving our panjero to drive when we come back for business and vacation!! That rental van was a highlight of the day…amazing air conditioning and comfy seats which was great because I was in nervous sweats ready to pass out all the way to the airport!!
Us before leaving :
So yea the closer we got to the airport..the more I panicked lol!!
When we got there a few family members had come to say goodbye…but because some people in JA are funny about pictures…I cropped them out but this is the daughter and me at the airport…when we still thought the day was going to go smooth…lol!! How wrong we were!!
So we get checked in and discover our plane was delayed…which would have been fine if it was just an hour or two…but it was many many many many hours and we never got out of there till eleven something…close to midnight!!! Not nice…especially with a bad case of migraition nerves!! But our whole process went so smoothly that I guess something had to happen to shake it up!!
Luckily my parents had super elite status from flying all the time for business….so we spent the day chilling in the lounge…and thank you Lord for that or that day would have been torture!!
It was a nice lounge…open bar and free food..kids play area and TV’s..comfy seats…but even then you still get cabin fever after a while. And the kids play area….they may want to re think whose in charge of that. It was full of books and things on slavery…but very very graphic. I picked up the one book and it had pictures of women being hung by their feet from trees whipped, and real pictures of men with open wounds from whipping. I acknowledge slavery was horrifying and a evil era that we need to remember so it never happens again to anyone of any race…but I’m not sure that’s the book I want my five year old reading in the kids area!! Yikes!!
Well this is me in the lounge hallway being silly:
Hubby chilling in the lounge:
Daughter made friends with the whole lounge. When we reached Calgary she was hugging people I had no idea who they were:
We walked around the airport to try and keep busy…daughter and I being silly:
Ok finally cabin fever officially sets in..luckily this was only about an hour and a half before we ended up FINALLY boarding:
Finally they called us to the gate…we waited another half hour and started boarding!! We were so relieved!! It was a long day!! Boarding the plane was a cool experience…seeing the excitement and fascination of my hubby and daughter…makes you feel excitement and appreciation for things you might not normally notice!!
My dad with my daughter:
The flight went ok!! Flying over Cuba was amazing at night…its BEAUTIFUL…all lit up with lights!! Hubby was pretty thrilled with that…staring out the window!! Daughter sat on everyone’s pillows so she was level with the TV and watched lion king..we ordered food and then everyone passed out for the rest of the flight…thank goodness…and woke as we were about to land!!
It was like five in the morning…not nice!! Immigration went smooth though..no bag searching or any hassle. We had to wait a little bit as only one immigration guy for migrating people was on and he was processing people from the plane. But he was super…a British guy who had once migrated himself…and the only real question he asked…and he asked it a bit humorously was “ You don’t look the type but I have to ask if you have any other undeclared wives or children”. He gave us lots of info..but we never got a landing welcome package or anything. And we found out…that if your married to a Canadian..and you travel for work or vacation..you still get your citizenship in three years..they don’t count the days if you immigrated and your spouse is a Canadian. So that’s kinda cool since hubby is already working and needs to travel a fair bit with his job.
We got through immigration in a breeze…and collected our bags. Then my hubby and daughter ran out to feel their first cold Canadian air…a lovely minus thirty something. DWL..it was a shortlived attempt to feel the air!! But daughter just wanted to go make snow angels..and hubby thought it wasn’t bad at all..although the cold went right through him.
We got to the Hampton…managed to get a few hours sleep…ate breakfast and headed south to the country. By the time we got to our new area…we were welcomed with a beautiful minus forty one.
PURE TORTURE!!!
But we are happy the process is over and we are here and we owe a big thank you and debt of gratitude to all you fine folks on here who helped us through the process and were a support, guidance and encouragement..it would have been so hard without you all!! So thank you!!
This is us landed in Calgary! Tired, swollen from the plane…and worn out..but here!!
