Oh Cannnaaadaaa!

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Excitement, thats what was fueling me as I rolled myself out of bed at 4 in the morning and got myself ready for my travels. Everything I needed was packed into my backpack and waiting for me near the door, so why did I still have that nagging feeling that I was forgetting something? I brushed it off as normal pre-travel worry. It wasn't until I was in the shuttle ride down to the airport that it finally dawned on me, I forgot my headphones. Crap. The day had finally come, I was going to be leaving the country, crossing places off of my list, and finally get to get some stamps on my passport! The shuttle ride down took maybe 30 mins longer than if I had driven myself due to the fact that the driver had to pick up other passengers along the way, I didn't mind this though. Since I'm writing this blog a good week after my vacation, I laugh at the fact that this shuttle ride would be nothing compared to the shuttle ride in New York, but that isn't till later on. Since I was going to be flying with Southwest I had the opportunity to find my own seat on the plane, and of course I would do my best to find a window seat. However, that was going to be difficult since I was part of Group 4, the last group to board the plane. When all was said and done I ended up having to sit in-between a male and a female passenger, which I found out later on in the flight that they were a married couple. Don't know why they wanted to have a seat separation, my best guess is that the man wanted to sit next to the window, and the woman wanted the aisle seat for convenience. Whatever the reason, I got stuck in-between the two playing the awkward elbow armrest battle, and with no headphones in the flight all I could do was flip through the Sky Mall a couple of times. Seriously, who makes up these awesome stuff in this magazine?! This flight would take me first to Baltimore where I had to wait another hour for my flight to Buffalo; I didn't mind this since I thought I could pick up a nice lunch at Baltimore while I waited. It wasn't till towards the end of the flight where I started a nice conversation with the man as we were waiting to de-board the plane. Him and his wife were visiting Baltimore for his wife's mother's birthday. Both of them were originally from the D.C. area, but moved out to Phoenix, Arizona, after graduating college to start their career. I explained how I went through the same situation, of course not moving with a wife, and that I was originally from California. After telling him that I had family in Southern California, he got excited because he had a daughter who was just starting her career in the Los Angeles area, and from what she has been explaining to him, she was loving it. Of course with my stance on Southern California, I told him that her daughter was very brave since I hated L.A. due to all of the congestion. How can someone live with sooo many people in such a small area? It literally takes you 15mins to go 5 blocks down that city.

Once we finally de-boarded the plane, we split our ways and I went off looking for a place to eat for lunch. Baltimore airport was great but I didn't have enough time to search the whole airport since I was getting really hungry and I only had an hour and a half to eat. I ended up at this seafood place called Phillip's Famous Seafood and ordered the Salmon with a Bloody Mary to accompany it. What it was a long flight? So before I move on I should describe the shirt I was wearing during my travels, it was my senior design shirt which had our team logo on it. As I was eating my salmon and enjoying my Bloody Mary, being super excited and tipsy drinking so early in the day, the person sitting next to me asked me about my shirt. The shirt had an eagle with its talon spread out about to grasp on to a cube satellite and the words "Eagle Astronautics" around it. I explained that it was my senior design t-shirt and I was wearing it because I had really enjoyed my senior design and my college life. He laughed a little and said, "Well you must have really enjoyed college since you're still wearing that shirt." Thinking back, don't know if that was a comment or an insult....HUH. Anyways, we had a nice conversation and I was able to learn that he was a Southwest pilot flying and had been with them for X amount of years, alright yeah I forgot how long he had been with them. The cool thing about him though was that he was a naval pilot before, flying in F-4, F-14, and the F-16 for a bit. HE FLEW IN THE F-14!!!! Sorry a little bit of Top Gun moment for me. I was about to ask for war time stories, but he excused himself because he had to rush to his next flight. For a bit I was jealous of his life, getting to fly around to new places and getting to meet new people. I finished my meal, paid my bill, and headed to my gate. Next stop Buffalo, New York! Once at Buffalo I was getting really excited to meet my cousin, due to the fact that the last time we had seen each other was probably 9 years ago. We ran into each other outside of the terminal and we just started talking like we were old friends from high school. It was awesome being able to share what had happen to us for the past 9 years of our life, plus it was awesome hearing how her and her fiance had met. She also had her friend with her, I feel really bad that I can't remember her name, and she was pretty much like Esther and she we got a long really well. She was a total Suits fan and a lot of our conversation was about the show. Near the end of the night, as we were crossing the boarder to Canada, we got to talking about all the Canadian food that I should try. I guess Esther and her friend were foodies, and were throwing Canadian food that I had never heard of. I found myself shopping at a Canadian Wal-mart, nothing different between the countries, for Canadian only found food. I should say that we went to Wal-mart to get my 2nd cousin, Esther's little sister Victoria, contact lenses. I hadn't seen Victoria for almost 15 years and it was just amazing to see her again, the last time I remember her was when she was only 3 years old. What we picked up were a lot of junk food, which I was totally okay with. Things like "Smarties" which were M n M look alike but with a harder shell and lighter chocolate, Ketchup chips, and another chip that I can't remember. I remember I enjoyed all of them, especially the Smarties since I took 4 bags back to the States with me.

That night my cousin enlisted my help with some last minute wedding reception decorations. She had table decorations that needed finishing and also some wedding lunch reception cards that needed to be cut out, this was all late at night but I was glad to help out my cousin. Her table decoration was a plastic bag that was shaped as a fish bowl with a paper that had some fish reference, sorry I can't remember, and she needed me to fill them with Swedish fish candies. I'm not gonna lie, I may have eaten some of those Swedish fish candies while helping her out. This gave me the chance to talk and catch up with her and hear all that had happen with her life since the last time we had seen each other. One of the greatest, and funniest, life experience she told me was that she was a Canadian boarder patrol! She would be the person who would be in the booths when people drive over from the states and ask for their identification and reason for visit. Apparently she was the cheeriest and best representation of a Canadian ever since every person she processed she would smile and give them a great big "Welcome"! Sounds like the Easter I know. After finishing what I could with making the table decorations and cutting the reception cards, I excused myself to go to bed since with all my travels I was getting tired. I was also getting excited since tomorrow would be my first full day of my vacation!

My uncle also took my mom, brother, and I to see Niagara Falls at night so that we can see the falls light up with a lot of pretty colors. I left this part off since we didn't get to do much, it was mostly little pictures, enjoy the falls, and then back home.

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Photos

Gone like the wind!
The sign I left in my cube at work.

And I'm off!
Usually not this cheery at 4 in the morning.