From Snow to Sunshine

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This trip is already starting off on a crazy note. My plan had been to work the majority of my shift and just leave a couple hours early to give me time to drive the 130 miles to the airport and catch our flight. Instead, we awoke to 3-4 inches of fresh snow covering the car and roads. Jose helped me load the suitcases and everything into the car so that I could leave straight from work and he would bring Mia and meet me in Redmond. The drive to work soon convinced me that this plan was not going to work. While Kara was driving her truck behind me on the way to work, an oncoming car lost control and spun in circles crossing all four lanes of traffic and ended up in our lane. Kara and I just happened to be talking on the phone at that moment and she's panicking behind me, most likely imagining how she would feel to see her sister get into an accident right in front of her eyes and hopefully praying that she wouldn't rear-end me and make it even worse.

I managed to slip out of work early due to the winter conditions and a fabulous boss. The drive from Bend to Portland didn't turn out to be as bad as I had anticipated. The roads were cleared off pretty much with just spots of slush. The economy parking has now increased to $10/day so I'll have to much sure I have enough money to get my car out of "hock" when I return. When we took our cruise to Mexico in 2005, we didn't have enough money left and had to borrow in order to get out of the parking lot. The traffic circle and parking lots are under construction so I couldn't park in my usual spot in Red Lot K. I had to take a picture of the bus stop to make sure I remember where to come back to.·

I managed to strap both suitcases together, backpack carryon on my back, Mia in her stroller, white garbage bag full of stuffed frogs in one hand, and other hand pushing the stroller. We're off. Check-in would have been eventless had the lovely gentleman yesterday in Continental Customer Service correctly entered Mia's birthdate correctly. As it is, he entered it as 7-27-07 therefore making her two years of age and ineligible to be a lap child. So that caused a 20 minute delay while they tried to charge the credit card again, even though she's "free", I still had to pay $78.70 in taxes because she's a burden on the immigration and security systems in the airport. Oh well, we'll seated at gate D-1 waiting on our 11:45pm flight to Houston. Will update if we have wi-fi there...

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Photos

A Snowy Wakeup
When you wake up to four inches of fresh snow, your ticket to Mexico looks even better!

Waiting on the Shuttle Bus
Construction in and around the economy parking lot caused a small delay in waiting for the next shuttle bus to take us to the terminal.

Dude, Where's My Car?
This will serve as my visual reminder of where I parked my car, as long as my laptop or phone have power when I get back home.

Comments

[Brandi]

Enjoy!!
Hope you all have fun... Is it just you and Mia? where is Erica?