Adventures in Travelling

Yesterday was a bit of an adventure, as six of us tried to get in one piece from Burnaby to Keystone, Colorado.

The day started off with a bus trip downtown with Ming and Vivian. My dad was nice enough to give us a ride to the airport, and with no traffic we arrived a little earlier than expected...3 hours before our flight! I thought I was being prudent in arranging this...except that my flight was delayed over an hour.

There's a funny story about that too. The first time our flight was delayed (yes, there were subsequent times), they told us to wait 15 minutes for another announcement. After that, they told us to wait again for another announcement. Finally, the announcement came that the plane would not be leaving any time soon, and another announcement on the delay would be held in an hour. Given this, we decided to head out for lunch (given I'd been at the airport for four hours already and was getting a little hungry). However in the middle of lunch, we heard a strange announcement: "Attention: This is the final boarding call for United flight 1212 to Denver. All passengers should now be on board."

We were at the other end of the terminal, but before the announcement had finished we had dropped everything and were running, faster than one could believe possible with luggage, posters, coats, and remnants from lunch in tow, down to the gate. Needless to say, we did not miss our flight, and had a lovely time annoying the people in front of us with our constant chatter and laughing. At the end of the flight, the man in front of Kerry said, "Are you girls just about finished chatting now?", to which we replied, "Nope, and we've got 5 more days of it!!" :D

The Denver airport is a bit of an experience too. When we got off our plane, we were amazed at several signs pointing to the baggage terminal, all pointing in different directions. We decided to take a shuttle to the terminal and were greeted by the most hilarious messages I've heard on a train in a long time. So hilarious, in fact, that it is referenced on WikipediaFinal! Part (or all?) of it was recorded by the Mayor of Denver (which must be annoying to change when a new Mayor gets elected). Anyway the message was very amusing. When we got off the shuttle we were greeted by a guy in a cowboy hat who told us exactly where to get our bags! Now that's service. He was a volunteer to boot!

When we got to the car rental place, we decided against our plan of two cars and got a minivan instead. Well, it was sure an adventure driving one for the first time, but turned out to be quite pleasant and a lot easier than I imagined. I hope the passengers had the same experience...;)

After a dinner, a trip to Safeway, and a few wrong turns, we finally ended up in Keystone. Our condo is very swanky and I took a few pictures. We are right on the lake, which is absolutely beautiful at night (sorry no pictures yet), and the stars are so bright and clear it's amazing. Yay for low light pollution! :)

I'm getting pretty excited about the next few days now and can't wait to meet everyone I've met online (and those I haven't). So far I've met Aakriti and I ran into Jen (at the airport, on the same flight as us, coincidence!), a friend from the Google Workshop. Here's to a great week! :D