It Reads Like A Page-Turner...

Departure: Vancouver to Seattle

We chose to fly out of Seattle because it meant saving about $300. Yes, there are layovers each way, but I'd take saving a few hundred dollars and wandering around an unfamiliar airport any day. I like airports.

We had decided to depart from my house around 4pm Sunday (Shawn, Sue's oldest brother, was awesome enough to give us a lift into Seattle), but plans changed a teeny bit. Sue and Shawn showed up at my house almost an hour early and I was not ready. I was in the middle of checking into my flight and still needed to hop in the shower and pack my laptop. Thankfully, I have an awesome boyfriend who is always the face of calm when I freak out (and vice versa; we've yet to both freak out at the same time, but I seriously hope that never happens) and he finished my packing for me.

We took off at our intended time of departure and crossed the border with no problem. As we neared Seattle, it started to rain and I started to drift off to sleep.

The drive was uneventful, and our original plans to have dinner along the way never came to fruition. Shawn dropped us off at SeaTac at about 7:30pm. Did I mention Sue and I had red eye flights? Yeah....

So, we checked our big suitcases, got our boarding passes and sat down for a snack before entering security. Completely expecting to twiddle our thumbs for another four hours, we were quite excited to notice a guy holding some flowers in the awaiting arrivals area. Yes, we stalked and I don't think we were overtly discreet about it either.

Having witnessed a happy reunion, we finally checked through security and wandered in some gift shops. Nothing was bought, but we decided Ivar's was a good choice for dinner. They sure know how to do fast food clam chowder right!

I'd like to take a moment to profess my love for SeaTac airport. Aside from the awesome little gift shop I always pop into now (but still forget the name of), the cool art installations, and the decent seafood selection, THEY HAVE FREE WI-FI! Every airport ought to embrace this. Seriously.

Sue and I killed some time on my laptop (looking at silly t-shirts) and before we knew it, it was midnight and Sue had to board her flight (we got separate ones out of Seattle but the same connection in Minneapolis). By the time I boarded mine half an hour later, I was quite ready for bed.

I have no real complaints about flying, but waiting around with no idea what's going on is the absolute worst. For anything. So, guess what? We were sitting around with no idea what the delay was! I'd diligently turned off my cellphone about five minutes after sitting down and buckling up, so I had no clue what time it was at this point, but I'd definitely noticed we were not ready for takeoff. I'd guesstimate at about 1am (when we were supposed to take off) the pilot finally announced that we were waiting on about 20 to 30 more passengers to board. Where were these people and what could possibly be delaying them at this hour?!

Maybe another 15-30 minutes later - after we'd noticed that no one new had boarded - the pilot made another announcement. Oh, it's a good one!

Three days prior, a cleaner accidentally unplugged the computer system that is used to keep track of flight lists/passenger information, so the computer was running off the backup battery the whole time and JUST DIED part way through the boarding of our flight.

Whomever needed to be scrambling, scrambled to get that computer back up and the remaining passengers finally boarded. Another long wait. Oh hello! It's the captain again! It's well past one in the morning and not many people are working, so there's only one push crew for the entire terminal. Another flight - fully booked - that is on its way to Memphis needs to take off ASAP or the whole flight would have to deboard and get cancelled. Well, since we've already been delayed and aren't fully booked, that other flight gets priority. Hooray!

At this point, us passengers were definitely getting antsy as most of us had connections to catch in Minneapolis. I appreciated the captain being a no bullshit kinda guy: it wasn't looking like we'd be able to make our connections. He asked everyone without connections or immediate ones, to stay put and let others off; he told us where the flights screens were outside our arrival gate, etc. He tried really hard to get us there on time. We didn't make it on time.

I was supposed to have a 45-minute layover in Minneapolis. By the time we landed and got out of the gate, it was 6:50am - I had 15 minutes to book it to Terminal C from Terminal F.

Text message from Sue: 'Where are you? We're boarding and we're not at Gate C1 anymore. We're at Gate C11.' OH FUCK. The flights screen was not updated.

I like airports. I can't appreciate strange new ones when I'm running like a madwoman trying to make my connection though.

I hadn't slept much. I hadn't eaten since Ivar's the night before. Putting my body through a 7am sprint with a laptop strapped to me was definitely torture.

I finally saw Gate C11 and I also saw a completely empty check-in desk.

A worker nearby told me to just 'go.' I ran down the walkway and almost collided with an airline worker. She barely looked at my boarding pass; just asked for my name and told me to 'RUN!'

I think I literally made it seconds before they were going to close the door. When I got inside the plane, all the flight attendants were checking seat belts and closing overhead cabinet doors.

The flight's highlight was seeing the plane getting sprayed with antifreeze. It looked mighty cold in Minneapolis.

You may've figured out that because I'd barely made my connection flight, there was little chance of my luggage having made the connection.