Heading home
Our Rockies adventure concluded in Vancouver about 7pm on the Friday night. My wife and I found a pizza restaurant for dinner and sat at a table on the sidewalk. Once again entertained and excited by more speeding, siren-sounding fire engines and police cars. We were flying out the next morning at 6am (schedule change from 7am) and, being cautious, wanted to abide by the recommended airport arrival time of 3 hours, having heard horrendous stories of American airport check-in experiences. To stay in a hotel would have cost US$600++ for what might have been 3, or 4 hours of sleep at best so we had decided prior to the day that we would sleep in the terminal. We caught the train, found a quiet spot in the terminal and napped. My beloved Brisbane Lions were playing the match against Geelong which would decide who went through to the grand final. I was streaming the match directly to my earbuds…every time the game was tight I had to control my excitement and exercise physical and vocal control particularly as I was surrounded by multiple snoozing people and on the adjacent, joined seat also. Praise the Lord they won and I was back in Australia at the MCG to see them hold the trophy of triumph up high.
Shortly after 3a.m. we were second in the queue to check-in for our 6am Alaskan Airline flight YVR-SEA. Bag was tagged and then we queued with it for bag drop and then queued again for security. This all took maybe 90 minutes. My wife and I were directed together to the same U.S. customs/immigration officer. My wife was approved to enter the U.S. (even though we were just in transit) whereas for my turn I was escorted (with my wife allowed to accompany me) to a secure location. Visions of Border Security flooded my thoughts. After about thirty minutes (watching every minute drawing closer to missing our flight-the one and only that would connect), I was interviewed. I was told I was free to go and when asked, the reply was, “Sometimes the system just picks someone.” So we were very happy to be on our Alaskan Airlines flight on an Embraer 175 operated by Horizon as an SQ codeshare. It was a low and slow scenic sunrise flight for 145 miles.
Sunrises like this make early rises worthwhile…and Brisbane Lions’ wins.
Farewell Vancouver. Good morning Seattle.
Our bird.
Our street-side, last Canadian dinner. Once again serenaded by fire truck sirens.
The view across the road.
