May 1, 2012

This pretty much sums up the first day of our trip - hanging in the Vancouver airport.

We were on our way to YVR by 4:45AM. After checking our bags, going through security and waiting in the long customs line, getting Tim Hortons breakfast and coffee, we were finally camped out and ready for our flight. At 6:34 the 3 out of 4 of us who had our phones got a call from a 1-888 number, but only Cody answered it (my first instinct was to be annoyed that a telemarketer was calling this early). He tells us the flight to Phoenix is cancelled, and of course we didn't believe him. Jenny even told me I was just being too gullible! At this point our gate sign still said the flight was a go and confusion started to set in. But the airline left a voicemail after I didn't answer the call and sure enough, after checking it, they said the flight has been cancelled. I should mention it's only 45 minutes until we're supposed to board the plane at this point. There is no agent at the gate to talk to, no announcement that's been made, nothing. People have begun to commune at the gate, all holding phones and all looking just as perplexed and disbelieving as we are. Cody is talking on the phone to someone at the airline (who have still not given a reason for the cancelled flight) and they are telling us the earliest flight we can get to Cabo is Thuraday, TWO more days from now! After some more potential plan-making, Stacey calls the airline back and talks them into getting us an earlier flight. Finally she gets all four of us on a 2:30 flight to Phoenix (7 hours from now) and a flight to Cabo the next morning from Phoenix. Done and done. So we wait around the airport for a very (VERY) long time, are able to get our boarding passes for our flights only to find out that we're first class on both flights!! Score! Anyway, we finally are on the plane and have a wicked first class trip. We get to Phoenix, which is HOT hot hot, and chat with the airline people who put us up in a hotel for the night! We make friends with our shuttle driver, who also recommends a great restaurant (/pub) to eat at, which ends up being wicked. Have I mentioned how HOT it is there?! So we eat dinner, with 3 dollar PBRs, walk around Arizona State University, see the gigantic football stadium, and our heads are on the pillows by 10 because we are so completely exhausted. Of any place to have a night layover, this was the place. Phoenix was a rad time!

An interesting, curb-ball-filled, fun, and and definitely surprising first day of travels.