What is the difference between 10:55 and 10:35?

Ahh!  After a looong week at work (and boy, do I mean long!) and fighting a yucky little cold, the weekend had FINALLY arrived.  Friday night started it off right with a great concert at the Showbox SoDo with K.  Jack’s Mannequin put on a great show, I love a band that is talented and (at least seemingly) humble.  We called it an early night and agreed to meet up at 9:15 to head to the airport, for our 10:55 flight to Victoria.

 

The morning started out fairly productive for the both of us – I got a workout in, and K was able to get her coffee and breakfast (in retrospect, I should have skipped the workout and gone for the coffee first thing).  We arrived at my work parking lot, braved running across International Blvd, and while waiting for the shuttle, I decided to make sure our flight looked ok – urh-oh!  The flight was at 10:35! Yipes!!  It was currently 9:40… ok, I thought, no biggie… you only have to be there 30 min prior to the flight to check in… we’d be ok.

We arrived at the airport, tried the kiosk… and gulp, it was too late (hmmm, lesson #1 you must check in 1 hr prior to departure on an international flights!!)!  Ok, no biggie – I know how to circumvent this – list for the next flight and then have them switch us to the earlier flight when we get to the gate.  Time waster #1 – the kiosk wouldn’t print our passes….so we went to the agent – she was able to get our tickets and we were back on track going through security.

Lesson #2 always check your gate, cuz regardless of how many times you fly, it’s always best to know where you’re going (and international flights leave out of a different part of the terminal).  Time waster #2 - but we didn’t check, and I needed coffee, so I got some coffee and K got some magazines.  We walked to the C gates and I realized, oh shit… the Victoria flight is usually out of the south satellite.  So with full coffee in hand we booked it about as fast as any Ditgen’s have.  We didn’t push past the people going down the escalator (time waster #3) and JUST missed the train.  But the time was just 10:15… so really, they just started boarding at 10:10 (the standard 25 min before for them).

We raced up the escalators to see our gate and it was … deserted.  There was no one around.  The door was shut.  It was still 10 min prior to take-off, and the plane was outside getting ready to depart.  Seriously!?!?!?!  We debated on what to do… it was 4 hours until the next flight.  We figured we’d at least head back to the main terminal, and on the way, we checked how full that next flight was…there were zero seats available.  Karissa suggested, hey, we could just drive.  It’s only like 4 hours…and we’d make it up there before the next flight even departed.  Ok, let’s do that.  Then we won’t have to cab it or anything.  Yeah! This sounds like a decent idea!

So we called back the hotel shuttle, got in the car, set up the ipod, searched the directions and off we went!  Road trip!  Cool huh?  It was a beautiful day, and we’d see places we’d never been before.  Around noon, I was like, hey, we should check what time the ferry is to know if we needed to hurry or dilly-dally.  And the futile search began…lesson #4 there is only one ferry (the Victoria Clipper) that goes to Victoria in the beginning of February.  We somehow found the “magical” weekend from Port Angeles, where the Washington state ferries were out for 10 days on dry-dock and the private ferry didn’t begin service until May. 

Ok, well, there’s still another option - Anacortes!  Maybe we can just head there; it’s not super far… We had gotten all the way to Poulsbo at this point, and while trying to find a place to pull over to figure out directions, we saw a fish park – cool we’re road tripping, photo shoot!  

We then turned into McyDs to get a soda and some fries (we still had a couple hour drive ahead of us, we needed sustenance – and just wanted to say, one of us got 1 fry, while the other had the rest… ).  Bad news - the ferry from Anacortes didn’t start until May either!!! WTF?!?!?  How do people get off that island in the winter?  Well, we weren’t about to drive to up to Vancouver and over…. Sooooo I guess we’ll take a look at the flight?

Ok, there were 2 seats available… and we were getting up there!  We had an uncancellable hotel, so I did what I figured was the best option given our luck – and used my “precious” positive space passes (I mean, really, the whole thing was my bad) – and finally, we had confirmed seats to Victoria :).  It was a little after noon at this point, and we were back our way to Seatac.  Karissa decided to be a little more proactive and check in online… and no go.  Ok, let’s call reservations and have them check us in over the phone!  Ummm, they told us we had to do so at the airport and a supervisor would be needed.  At this point, we’re feeling the time crunch…we knew we needed to be at the airport at least 1 hr in advance to check in…and it was getting late.

I have never purposely sped so much in my life.  Our giggles over the ridiculous-ness of this situation started to subside and the realization that we could not make it started to sink in (oh and we both started to have to use the bathroom, as we’d both had coffee and hadn’t stopped at the airport).  Drive Meredith like you’ve never driven before!  Our plan was set, we’d go to the departures, I’d jump out and go start the check in process while K parked the car in the airport garage – making it was more important than the cost at this point.

Yikes! The Customer Service line was long…I think, maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to use the kiosk.  And thank the Lord… It worked (it was rather odd though, it’s like it remembered us because, well we were supposed to be on that 1^st flight and it didn’t require our passports to be scanned).  With both boarding passports in hand, all I had to do was wait for Karissa to come back.  We met up, made it through security, went straight to the gate, and checked in with the gate agent (who lectured us on not being there before – trust me, WE WANTED TO BE!). 

After 4 hours of unnecessary stress and hilarity, we were finally on the aircraft headed to Victoria.  And we were not in any danger of missing the concert.  The weekend would go on.  All I have to say, 1) is even when you fly often, don’t forget to double check anything, and 2) you learn a lot about a person’s character through stressful situations.  And I have to say, my cousin has to be one of the best people I know.