I got up and went to work. I knew today was going to be a very very long day. That morning we did our inactive letters, I got an enrollment packet out the door and all the claims orders printed and prepared all the envelopes to be ready to be mailed out the next day. I told everyone bye and that I would see them when I got back on the 27th. They said to have a great time and be safe. I told them I would try to send them updates when I had available internet. I left work at 11:30 and was home by noon. I had Ben make me a sandwich, I changed my clothes, cleaned the cat box, said goodbye to Calvin and I had Ben drive me to Yelm Dental while I ate my food.
Trish called me to wish me happy travels to Ecuador on our way to Yelm.
We got to the office by 12:40 and hung out upstairs until mom was done. We gathered mom's stuff and headed over to Amy's house, which was right down the road. Ben dropped us and our bags off. I told him goodbye, gave him hugs and kisses and he told me to be safe. I told him that I would talk to him as much as I could while I was gone. We packed all of our stuff in the back of Amy's SUV. We piled in and we were on our way to Fort Lewis so we could pick up something from Josh at work.
From the base we got onto I-5 and continued north until we got to the Ajax parking lot, our long term parking arrangement, we paid, parked and got on a shuttle that took us and our baggage to the airport.
So it begins...
The shuttle dropped us off at the Alaskan Airlines. We tagged and checked in the zebra bag with our lab coats and toys for the kids inside. We would see it again when we got to Ecuador. We printed our boarding passes from Seattle to Los Angeles. We went through security, which went smoothly since I had been to the airport in the last few months to know what to do with my laptop this time, and hung out at our gate until it was time to go. Our group gathered snacks, water and used the restroom. I plugged my stuff in so they were all charged up just in case I wanted to use them during the flight. Ben called and texted before it was time to board the plane.
Mom, Beth and I sat together further back in the plane. We chatted about a bunch of stuff on the way to LAX and looked out the window until it got too cloudy to see.
We arrived at LAX early, which in hindsight was a good thing, and found out where we needed to go for our connecting flight to Bogota. We had to go outside the airport and wait for bus "A" to take us to Terminal C. There, we waited in a long line that seemed to never move and we were the minorities. It appeared that they were having trouble with their computers? When it was our turn it took FOREVER, of course they spoke Spanish so we really didn't know what they were saying. We thought there was something wrong with one of the passports but they assured us it had to do with keeping our party together for the next flight. Which didn't really matter to us honestly.
Once we got our boarding passes (to Columbia and Ecuador) we walked back outside and followed the red line to the International Departures building. There were a lot of Asians. We followed directions to where our information got checked, we were screened by a dog and waited to go through security. Once we got through security it is way different than domestic flights inside the US. Your shoes stay on and nothing gets taken out of your bags to be checked further. All of your belts, pocket contents and cell phone went into your bags. The only thing you couldn't take with you was beverage liquids but food was okay.
After we got through security, we walked to our gate. Our flight was running behind so we had to wait a while, plus we were in group E, so we weren't going to be boarding for a while. We used the restroom, bought some water and snacks since we haven't had dinner yet.
I was banking on getting some food served to us once we got on the flight. Our flight was going to be very full and since we were the last group on we really hoped there was room for our bags near our seats.
When we did get to board, we boarded Avianca, a flight I've never heard of, I found my seat, which was on the left side of the plane next to a teenage Asian girl, I stuffed my bag into the overhead storage bin which was near my seat and got situated. I turned my phone onto airplane mode which it will remain until I entered the US again on September 25th. I was the only seat in the area that did not have a blanket.
After the flight took off I asked the flight attendant if I could get a blanket and she said sorry and that they didn't have any extra and about 90% of the flight got one. I was so upset! There was nothing I could do so I sat there trying to figure out how I am going to stay warm and comfortable for a 7 hour flight in the middle of the night. I thought to myself I should have brought a blanket and one of those travel neck pillows and I now know better for next time.
Day 2: The Red Eye Plane Ride, Our Layover in Colombia and A Night Adventure in Guayaquil
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