Home Sweet Home... for the moment

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So here we are in California facing the tail end of our little "respite" of sorts from the rigors of traveling. Since it's part of the trip and part of the fun, I'll fill y'all in.

About 6, maybe 8 hours before we left for the Lima airport, Masa began running a fever and feeling flu-ish. All that good health we had had the previous eight weeks and now, with literally hours to go, we start to unravel. Poor Masa was really feeling terrible for the entire trip home, which as you know from my previous complaints was something of an ordeal to begin with. We made it to the airport and through the lines and checkin about 3 hours before our flight and chose a cozy boarding gate to rest. Naturally, we picked the gate right next to the Lan Peru flight directly to Los Angeles. We thought about trying to stow away on that flight but chickened out.

Around 2am or so we got to board our plane, good news we had a window and an aisle not that crappy middle section bs. yay. we couldn't bring water on the plane but air canada was pretty ok about handing out water frequently. still though, those tiny cups they give you... anyway. by this time I was starting to feel pretty sick to my stomach.

Believe it or not they actually tried to serve us a snack at 3 am. Masa wanted no part of that, I ate a bite or two hoping to settle my belly (didn't work). In the morning, well later in the morning, they gave us the most disgusting looking omelette with mushrooms on the side. I closed the foil pack immediately after inspection and Masa didn't even open his. Shortly thereafter he had me get a barf bag off the stewardess... just in case. turns out he didn't need it. whew.

we got to Toronto about 1130am their time and had to go through US customs with our bags and traipse all over the airport getting stamped and cleared and all that. I was taking charge since Masa was only semi-conscious, wheeling both our bags and carry-ons around filling out forms and chatting with customs agents. we a 5 hour wait in the terminal during which feverish Masa napped on the benches, I read a magazine and then we ate a little bit of soup. It wasn't so bad and actually was a nice break from being on a plane. The flight to Los Angeles was uneventful, except of course for our respective illnesses... we just wanted to be home already though.

Laura picked us up from the airport (thank you laura!) and took us back to her place. We were both pretty much zombies. that night Laura took the couch let us sleep in her bed. I cannot even tell you how grateful we were. After all of that, just to be in a nice comfy bed was like heaven. better than heaven. (THANK YOU LAURA!!!!)

the next day my mom picked us up in LA and drove us up to Grover Beach where we are now. On the way up there I felt myself coming down with whatever Masa was dealing with. We've pretty much spent the last week feeling sore throaty, achy, weak, and congested. Because of this we haven't been able to do a lot of the things we wanted to do or see a lot of the people we've wanted to (namely my dad, patsy and amy) and that's kind of bumming me out. We've also been running around like crazy chickens trying to get some of the wedding stuff settled before we leave again. Just big stuff like venue and photographer. the date we wanted was already gone so we had to change that but hopefully now we have most of that stuff settled and can just fill in the details when we get back. just fyi the new date is 9/8/07.

Tomorrow we are heading back to Los Angeles, then on to San Diego on Friday for my step-brother Doug's wedding. We leave again Monday around noon and have about a bazillion errands to run from now till then it seems. but I do have to say this time around, the leaving is much less stressful and I am able to feel more excited about embarking than I did in June.

Well that sums up our time in the good old U S of A. Next stop, Paris!

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Photos

feeling better now
goofing off at montana de oro

the two of us looking grody on the plane
I wasn't sick yet but you can see it in Masa's eyes. poor guy. :(

air canada
no reason, just kind of like the pic.

Comments

[laura jw]

hope you're feeling better!
i am home now too! i'll send you an all-about-sydney e-mail soon telling you what you have to do there. sorry your time back in california kind of sucked. australia was awesome. more later. love, me

[ale]

Yay
Yay 9/8/07. Wa-hoo, it has a nice ring to it, I think. Have fun in paris.