Arriving in Toronto

Today was one of those days where I think we'd have been better off driving and not flying. The hotel we stayed at was comfortable, and I kinda wanted to stay there a while. Our transfer van was full from the hotel to the airport. Besides us, there was a flight crew of 4. Diane chatted with the flight attendant who sat behind her. It makes me so proud when my 6 year old can have a discussion about the things she's experienced so far on this trip.

Ronald Reagan Airport is massive. Everything is done with touch screens, and the customer service here sucks. I had difficulty logging into the US Air check in screen and the stress kept mounting as the employees were cattle calling everyone to keep moving, meanwhile I've got four other people watching everything I do. At long last, we checked in, had our baggage weighed and processed, then moved towards our gate. The place is crowded. Insane. We found a small area for mom to sit where we could be close. Eventually we were called to 'board'. Rather than walk down a jetway, we are herded like sheep down an escalator. Do they load coach passengers through the belly of the plane now? Oh no, it gets better. We are shoved into a transport bus and moved across the tarmac. Our baby plane is waiting at the other end of the airport for us. It's so small that the big planes won't let it play with them.

Once we are seated on the Dash8-300 we were off for the duration of our trip...to Philadelphia. We were in the air for about 20 minutes. I think it would have been faster to drive there than to be processed through the airport. Ahhh, the joys of travel. Our connection to Toronto was not for another two and a half hours and we were stuck at Terminal F, where there are no shops and only a sad little sandwich place for food. It took some convincing on my part but finally everyone was willing to take the shuttle bus to the other terminals. Now we had options of how to spend our time.

Arriving back to our terminal we were greeted with the information that our plane to Toronto was delayed over an hour. Once it arrived we hustled down the jetway and onto another Dash8-300. This Greyhound with wings seats 50. I'm pretty sure that there were 80 people on board. I decided that it was time to ignore the rest of the world. Once Diane was set up with her PSP and a pile of snacks I set my iPod to TSO's Night Castle and closed my eyes for an hour. Thank goodness for noise cancelling earphones. I could hear nothing outside my own little world.

Flying over Toronto and Lake Ontario is a fantastic sight. The city just goes on forever. The line up to get processed through Canada Customs rivaled those of Expo 86 (for those of you seasoned enough to remember). We had no issues through customs and our luggage was waiting for us on the carousal (thankfully). Due to issues with the car rental company we were really late when we hit the 401 on our way to Aunt Daisy's. We still had to stop by our hotel to check-in. Mike and Dad quickly went in to register while us girls stayed in the van.

Aunt Daisy had prepared a beautiful traditional Chinese dinner for us. First up was her famous tofu soup. For anyone who knows me well they know that I absolutely cannot stand to eat tofu, mushrooms or lima beans. I don't care how fancy the restaurant is, I will pick these offending items out of my food, but this is not a restaurant, this is Aunt Daisy, and she made this meal just for us. Crap. As I was doing my best to pretend to enjoy the tofu, I stupidly asked about the other ingredients in the soup. She listed off a couple things I've never heard of. Then I asked what the jellyfish like stuff was. Bad mistake! Aunt Daisy proudly told me that it is a traditional Chinese ingredient called White Fungus, and it is not always easy to find in the stores. You don't say. It took all I had to eat that soup and the rest of the meal followed in similar fashion. At long last with bellies full and our initial visit complete Mike, Diane and myself left the in-laws and ventured towards our hotel with the anticipation of a great nights sleep.

In the daylight, the hotel had looked clean, and friendly. However, under the blanket of darkness, it had become a scene from a bad horror movie. As we drove around back, I noticed a lot of random garbage in front of the rooms. There was minimal safety lighting in the parking lot, and a few undesirable people about. I tried to convince myself that I was just tired and overreacting. Biting my tongue I woke Diane and gathered our suitcases. As we entered the hotel, it was all I could do not to cry. Were we really going to stay here for 4 nights? Would we survive the first night? The hallways smelled terrible and again the lighting was dim. It was so very late, and I didn't want to burden Mike with my selfish wining, so I just started praying to Jesus to protect us from harm and disease. There are people who have no roof over their heads, I kept telling myself. Once in the room I started to go about settling in, no point to putting it off. Mike attempted to lock the door to our room, and found that it wouldn't close properly. Thank God. He told me not to unpack while he went to the front desk. After what felt like half an hour (Diane and I huddled together, while I prayed for safety) Mike returned and said that we were leaving. Thankfully we were not charged for the room. My eyes welled up with relief.

We still had no place to go, and it was very late. The next hotel was a Delta, although beautiful, clean and safe $250 a night is too much unless I'm resorting it. We then found another hotel, the exact same price as the one from the ghetto. We are not much further from Aunt Daisy's. It is clean and safe. There are actual guests here that are not renting the rooms by the hour. Thank you Lord for answered prayers. And thanks for the added bonus of an indoor pool and hot tub!