Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Chapter 3--The time has come.


OK, it's a calm night. It's very cold, but that doesn't matter. Just keep the snow away! I'm home alone during the hours before my departure. I was too nervous and excited to sleep. I was leaving for the airport about 3am and I decided to use the few hours before to make sure I knew all the settings on my new camera, after all, I planned on taking an enormous amount of photo's. Finally my sister and brother in law came. We were heading to the airport, and I didn't appear there would be any delays from my home city of St. John's. But, that still didn't ease my mind about weather problems, as far as I was concerned until we took off from Toronto, anything could happen.

The wait at the St. John's airport was a long one. We sat down and had a coffee and donut, and talked about how hard it was for my sister to leave her little baby. Going through customs was a new experience for me. It had become much more intense since the last time I traveled abroad. But, no odds better safe than sorry. We boarded the plane finally, and off we went. It was still dark outside, but I could see the lights of the city, and as we flew over the island, I saw the lights of many smaller communities down below. My sister is use to flying and was able to grab a nap, I on the other hand didn't .. and ended up watching the little plane on the screen in front of me. After about 3 hours we were landing in Toronto, as we started our decent I noticed how difficult t was to see down below, to my horror it wasn't because of clouds,,but snow! It seemed to be coming down heavy, and I figured we would be stuck in Toronto.

Well, there wasn't really much time to think about that right now anyway. We didn't have much time to get our luggage, go though customs again, and board another plan. The line up for customs was massive, and moving very slowly, people were complaining that they would miss their flight, but no one seemed to care about that. Eventually, the opened a few more wickets, and the line began to move. When we reached the terminal, we didn't receive any word on a delay or cancellation, so I remained cautiously optimistic. We boarded the plane, and the delay was announced. Not a long delay, but because of the snow, all the planes had to be deiced! I don't mind saying that the whole idea was a bit scary. I mean, ice, on the wings, not a safe thing.

After close to an hour and a half delay, the plane got ready for take off. My sister asked are you excited yet. Well, guess it was too soon for the reality to hit me. Cause I said no. She seemed a bit disappointed by that. A few short hours later I could see the miles and miles of sandy beaches on the coast of Florida...that is when I was nearly jumping out of my chair. Then they announced we would be starting our decent. I stared out the window until my neck hurt. As we circled around Orlando, I tried so hard to get a glimpse of Disney, anything. But really I didn't know where to be looking. Finally we landed. The Orlando airport was massive. Seemed more like a shopping mall than an airport. Because we were staying at a Disney resort, their service started right there at the airport. We were given the directions to the Disney Magical Express Service. After we checked in there, there was a very nice gentleman, who shook our hand, told us to step onto the red carpet and make a wish. I said thank you, but I'm already here, that was my wish.

No comments: