"The Rest of the Story ... "

Okay, I am sick of being so far behind on this blog ... so here is the quick (and possibly much less dramatic) version of our "journey/adventure" to Ireland:

Monday, November 27th, 2006 (Prince George -Vancouver-Victoria)
We called a cab early in the morning to take us to the airport, so that we could catch our 6am (yes...in the morning - groan) flight to Vancouver and then on to Victoria and back to my parents to finish packing for the move to Ireland. We arrived at the airport, exactly at 6am, due to some unforseen circumstances, including very slippery roads. So, we arrived at the airport, huffing and puffing, praying we hadn't missed our first flight. We rushed to the Air Canada check-in counter ... no one was there! A security guard directed us to their "break room" door which Joel went to and knocked on. Out came a lady with her coffee cup and she came over to the counter to explain that our plane had been delayed (relief to us...temporarily)...then she explained that due to weather they may not be flying to Vancouver that day. She then gave us two options: 1. wait to see if they would be able to fly later on in the morning/afternoon or 2. purchase tickets on the WestJest flight hoping to leave at 9am (I think that was the time?), and she would rebook us on a later AC flight from Vancouver to Victoria. Anyway, after debating this, we decided to purchase the tickets from WestJest ... so $500.00 later, we went through security to wait for our plane.

In the secured area, we overheard another passenger saying that she had been at the airport the day before, waiting to fly on Air Canada to Vancouver. The flights never left, while WestJest planes had come and gone about 3 times. She said that she and the other Air Canada passengers had been quite disappointed because no one from AC could give them a straight answer about whether or not a flight would eventually go. So, that night there were several "irritated" passengers who eventually left the airport after finally being told that the rest of the flights for that day were now "cancelled". She said that she decided to fly WestJest since the AC plane that was sitting outside on the runway was the same one from the day before that everyone had been waiting to board eventually, and that right now that particular plane had been sitting on the tarmac for the previous day and night and had no heat in it! We were so relieved that we had not decided to wait for Air Canada and that we had instead chosen to "chance" it with WestJest.

After a slight delay (about 10min) we boarded the WestJest plane and flew to Vancouver, with no problems. Praise God that we chose to "jump ship" with Air Canada and go with WestJest!! We arrived at the Vancouver airport and went to check in with Air Canada for our "new" flight to Victoria. The line-up was insane! All over the board announcing Air Canada flights departing Vancouver were the words "Delayed" or "Cancelled". We even found some friends of ours from Kitimat (Andrew & Ruth Swan) in the Air Canada line up. They had just returned from a vacation in Mexico and were trying to fly back to Terrace later that day. Our flight did not have either designation and "appeared" to be on time. Without hesitating, we decided not to even bother with Air Canada and went directly to the bus that takes you to the ferry and over to Victoria. We had to wait a few hours as there was (understandably) quite a line up for the next bus. Some people who missed that next bus, decided to go in groups of 5 or 6 to rent a limo to take them to the ferry. We almost did that as well, but decided that we would then have to hope that there were still tickets left at the ferry terminal for the next sailing. Instead, we purchased bus tickets because the fare for the ferry was also included, and guaranteed us passage on the 1pm sailing.

I then went to a nearby payphone to call my parents, no answer. Fearing that they were at the airport still waiting for an Air Canada flight to arrive, I finally got through to security at the Victoria airport, and left a message with a constable who said he would try paging them to let them know our "newest plan". We then went to Tim Horton's in the airport for some much needed caffeine! I stood in line behind some airport officials who were whispering about the fact that Vancouver should have been prepared for this winter storm, and that larger planes were being de-iced, and smaller ones were being cancelled due to a lack of de-icing spray. Yet again, praise God that we "jumped ship" with Air Canada and chose the bus/ferry option.

We eventually boarded our completely full bus, and proceeded to the ferries. I still had not been able to get ahold of my parents, and was concerned that they had not yet received the message at the airport, nor the 3 messages I left on their answering machine. Finally, we were on the ferry and sailing toward Victoria. I tried my parents one more time from the pay phone on board and finally got through to my dad! He said that they had no power until just before I phoned, so they hadn't received any of my messages, but they had left the airport when our plane did not arrive and didn't seem to be coming anytime that day. They had figured we might try to come over on the ferry, and were waiting to hear from us as to our plan.

So, my parents met us at the ferry terminal in Swartz Bay and we loaded all of our luggage (and barely the 4 of us) into their car and headed "home".

With huge sighs of relief, we entered my parent's apartment and sat down, content just to be in Victoria. We were happy that we would have the following day (Tuesday) to pack/prepare for our flights to Vancouver, London, and Cork on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, this "relief" was not long-lasting ... I checked our e-mail, only to discover an urgent e-mail from Joe at CrossWorld, regarding our tickets to Ireland. He had booked our tickets for us at an excellent rate and had even managed to get us an extra bag (making it 3 each) at no extra cost. We had been thrilled with this, eventhough we planned to only have 2 bags each. Anyway, his urgent e-mail was that the tickets had been delivered to him ... at the CrossWorld office in Philadelphia, USA!! They were paper tickets!!! We could only fly from Vancouver-London-Cork if we had these tickets to present to British Airways on Wednesday! He was appalled that the travel agency had sent paper tickets to him instead of on-line tickets as every airline now uses in the 21st century!! He was trying to contact us to arrange emergency UPS delivery of the tickets to us in Victoria, and wanted us to phone him as soon as we read the e-mail. I received this e-mail literally 5 minutes after arriving at my parents' apartment ... 3pm (BC time), 8pm (Philadelphia time). Obviously, no one was at the office to call. I quickly sent an e-mail with my parents' phone number and asked him to call me the next day as soon as possible. What a wonderful night's rest we had that night .... NOT!

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 (Victoria)
The next morning I received a phone call from Joe. He had already sent the tickets the previous day with UPS and had arranged for them to be delivered to us at my parent's apartment, arriving sometime that afternoon. He gave me the tracking number so that between the two of us we could keep track of its progress via the UPS website. Before he phoned me, he had tracked the package (containing our tickets) to the Canadian border (if I remember correctly) and said he was going to check every so often on its progress. I told him that I would do the same and would contact him as soon as I had the tickets in hand.

So, Joel and I packed, and waited ... and checked the UPS website for updated progress ... then another phone call from Joe ... the package seemed to be delayed and stuck in Richmond. Could we go to Richmond to pick it up in person? I explained how that wasn't possible because of where we were located (on an island) in the time left to receive it that day. I told him that I would try something else and get back to him. So, I called UPS to find out what was happening. I called the Canadian UPS office who directed me to the International office (aka USA) who then directed me back to the Canadian office, and so on and so on ... finally I reached someone, explained the situation, and asked could the tickets be delivered to the British Airways office at the Vancouver airport to be picked up by us on Wednesday? Umm, no because once a "package" is "in transit" there is no way to stop it or to "physically get your hands on it" (uh yeah, I didn't quite understand that one either). Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Joel was very frustrated with the whole situation (rightly so), my parents were trying to be "quietly supportive" and I was strangley disconnected from the whole mess and eeriely calm about going from Plan A to Plan B to Plan C , and so on down the alphabet!!! Okay, the short version (ha!) is that several phone calls to and from UPS, to and from Joe, to and from Joe to UPS, the tickets are delivered to our door that evening at like 5pm!!

I finally brushed my teeth at 3pm after spending the whole day in my p.j.s, on the phone, at the computer, and talking, talking, talking to Joe, to Joel, to UPS operators, to British Airways operators, etc. etc. I could have kissed the UPS delivery guy when he finally arrived ... but I was in my p.j.s, had barely brushed my teeth, and let's be honest ... could Joel have handled anything else NOT going the way it should? (tee hee). So, in the end, Joel answered the door, thanked the UPS guy, opened the envelope, took the tickets out and did a very happy dance while I e-mailed Joe: WE HAVE THE TICKETS!!!
*Side note* - Joe is probably the most laidback (and most amazing support guy) I have ever met. He handles stress very well. Although he deals with stressed out missionaries and business people all the time, he professes to sleep very well at night ... but, I imagine that this "adventure" must have had some affect, because at one point during this whole debaucle (sp?) I asked him "how are you?" and his response was ... "you tell me??" :0)

Wednesday, November,29th, 2006 (Victoria-Vancouver-London-Cork)
The next day we flew to Ireland with no delays, problems, anxiety/stress ... ummm no! Look at the length of this, and I started out with saying this was the "quick" version. Guess what? It really is! Okay, here we go ... the last "installment" (Lord, let me not lose all this when I go to post it - grrr....)

Early Wednesday morning, we headed to the Victoria airport to check-in with Air Canada. Amazingly, there was someone at the counter to greet us :) She checked us in and then proceeded to weigh our "checked" baggage. Before arriving that morning, we (and Joe) had already extensively looked into what weight our bags had to be in order to travel internationally. We had found that with BA, we could have 2- 70 pound bags each (and remember that Joe had also arranged for us to be able to have 3 - 70 pound bags each since we were moving). We had also found out that Air Canada had to honor this arrangement since we would be connecting with an international flight that still maintained this weight agreement.

Not in the travel life of Joel and Christine apparently... our Air Canada lady would not let us take our 2 "overweight" bags (62 pounds and 68 pounds respectively) without a fight. First, she called a "superior" and argued that we were trying to tell her that BA still accepted 70 pound bags, instead of the 50 pound limit "every airline" has. Then she explained to us that even "if" that was BA's policy, Air Canada's limit is 50 pounds (period). And she looked at us ... Finally, I looked back at her and said "How much?" She had been sounding like there was no way that we could take these two bags onto the plane with us, and was not giving us the alternative. After my question, she finally answered "You will have to pay an overweight charge for each bag". I repeated "How much?" She replied, after much calculation: "$72.50". Joel handed her his MasterCard. We said goodbye to my parents, boarded the plane and flew to Vancouver with no further "mishaps", until later on (of course).

We arrived in Vancouver to begin our 12 hour layover, before our 8pm flight that night to London. Incredibly, we met up with a friend of mine from high school, Chris Hunter, who was travelling to one of the "stan" countries (oops, can't remember the name and probably couldn't spell it if I could). Anyway, we visited with him and then went to Tim Horton's for coffee, only to meet up with Andrew and Ruth again. They had been stuck in Vancouver this whole time waiting for an Air Canada flight to Terrace. They luckily had been able to stay with Andrew's grandmother and had been commuting to and from the airport for the past couple of days hoping for a flight out. The next flight to try was later that afternoon. We think they made that one, but honestly aren't sure.

As for our flight to London ... Delayed ... obviously. First we were delayed in boarding, then we were delayed on the runway while the plane had to be "re-started", then delayed even longer while we were "de-iced", then delayed again as we waited to take-off. Finally, at 12 am our 8pm (scheduled) flight took off. It was one of the more "turbulent" flights I have ever been on. Joel thankfully managed to get a decent sleep after taking 2 Gravol tablets :) I think I slept.

When we arrived in London, there was a couple of BA personnel waiting for us and another couple, to quickly drive us over to the next terminal for our flight to Cork. They whisked us through some back entrances to a waiting van, drove us over to the the next terminal, through some passages, and straight to the security checkpoint ... where they informed us we were only allowed to have one piece of carry-on luggage (including women's purses) in Heathrow ... no, we had not been informed of this dandy piece of security info at any point in our travels or preparation. So, there we stood with two carry-on pieces each. She asked could we condense them into one piece of baggage each? Joel was carrying the laptop in its case, and the projector in his small carry-on suitcase ... very much not collapsable! I had my purse already in one of my two pieces of carry-on suitcases.

We were directed to Immigration, where we would have to line up, be processed, go through to the other side, then line up again in order to check one of our carry-on suitcases, then proceed again through security, find our gate and board our plane all within an hour, in order to make our flight at 6pm. By this time, it was just after 5 pm.

We rushed to Immigration, lined up, proceeded to a young female agent, explained our situation, what were doing in Ireland, our reason for moving there, etc. and were told to take a seat while she "checked into" our story. You can read between the lines here I'm sure as to our "mental" states. We sat, we waited, we waited. She appeared, we waited, she called us back up, she approved us "conditionally" as long as we were sure to check in with immigration in Ireland upon arrival (duh!). We were processed, we ran to the line-up for checking baggage, stood in line while madly shoving things from one place to another. We checked our baggage, discovered from the agent that our plane was delayed (relief again! ... temporarily again!) and headed to security.

We passed through security with relative ease, but a long queue (of course). We then headed to a waiting area to find that our flight at 6pm, arriving at Cork at 7:25pm was delayed until 7pm. We called our team in Ireland to let them know. They were following the flight info via the Internet so thankfully weren't waiting at the airport in Cork already. We waited, Joel read, I wandered. We looked at the board ... delayed again until 8pm(ish)...no info, no info, delayed until 10pm (another phone call to team), went to the gate, a flight that was meant to leave at 11pm already, left mostly on time ... passengers on the 6pm flight had to wait until after 12am for a plane to come back from Shannon, Ireland to Heathrow. Why the delays? Huge winds in Cork were forcing planes to be diverted to Shannon airport or to be delayed in hopes of a break in weather conditions. We finally boarded just after midnight and arrived in Cork just after 1am with (Thank you God!) a smooth landing and relatively moderate turbulence. We were (of course) the last two people to proceed through immigration (due to computer malfunction at the first officer's desk we lined up for). Once through, we found our baggage on the carousel now stopped, so our 4 bags were at opposite ends of it with no other passenger or flight crew in view. We gathered our things, headed out of the secured area to be greeted by Bryce (Joel's brother), Carolyn (Joel's sister-in-law), and Lee (our team leader). By the time we arrived at the Freaces it was 2am, by the time all of us got to bed it was after 3am...

All of this to say ... God always has a Plan A for our lives, we (on the other hand) must be prepared sometimes to have a Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, especially when travelling, and to remember that even these extra "plans" amount to the Plan A for timing of God's Plan :0)

PRAISE THE LORD WE ARRIVED SAFELY IN IRELAND IN HIS TIME!!!