Friday, October 17, 2008

3:30 AM … alarm goes off. Being an early riser, I felt a surge of adrenaline rush through me as I realized we were close to heading out. I headed for the house…yep, I spent the night in the trailer due to the inevitable late-night packers. Praise the Lord, I had a great nights sleep!
4:30 AM … out faithful and beloved chauffers arrive to drive us to the airport. Lively and happy conversation ensued the whole way as we recounted experiences from past trips, and the random home video memories. Paula, as she is prone to do, anxiously worried that she had left behind something big. “Paula, you don’t need to worry about leaving anything. You have Joby!”
5:17 AM … construction at the airport delayed our arrival just long enough to cause us to miss the 45 minute cutoff for check in. “I’m sorry, but you all have to get into this other line.” We were going to be put on standby for alternate flights. Fortunately, due to added fees on checked bags, we were only checking 5 bags instead of our usual 13. You could feel the tension mount as we all tried unsuccessfully not to plague dad with questions. Suddenly Jamie got a bright idea. “Didn’t dad check us in online last night? Why don’t some of us just go ahead through with our carry-ons?” So Dena, Lily, Jamie, and a reluctant Isaac (“but Joe has all our stuff in his bag!”) rushed off to the security line to try to make the flight.
5:43 AM … we made it to the gate just in time to board. Texting back and forth, all we knew by the time we took off is that the rest of our family had made it to the ticket counter and were working to get on a standby list. The flight passed uneventfully as we all drifted off to sleep.
8:38 AM … San Francisco, CA. What a great airport!! We were welcomed to a Peet’s coffee as we departed the jetway into the terminal. ☺ Happy times! We found our gate (and some breakfast for Isaac, who had consumed nothing but a can of coke all morning!) Leslie and Joe joined us an hour or so later. Dad still had the boarding passes to our connecting flight, so we presumed upon a friendly ticket agent, Mr. Randall Kowock, to reprint them all. “Another Conzatti! What is this?” ;)
12:49 PM … A full day already, and it’s only half way done! As we boarded the plane, a friendly stewardess asked, “Is that a violin?” Affirmative! She was really friendly! A funny story was when she was asking Isaac questions as he was waiting for the bathroom. I guess he was feeling cornered or something, but he kept on backing up into the bathroom, hoping she would take a hint. (?) When she heard we had a sister who was engaged. She and another stewardess culled all the bridal magazines from the airplane to give us as we left. God provided bright spots in what could have otherwise been a frustrating flying experience.
5:20 PM … San Antonio, CA. Our group came in first, so we picked up all the bags and called the shuttle. “One check bag and your carryons, guys!” Our shuttle driver was a Christian, and he blessed us and told us he’d be praying for our trip. We hadn’t been in the lobby for more than 10 minutes (the hotel was making us wait for dad) when the other group texted to say they had landed. Perfect timing in spite of everything! We unpacked at Best Western, and Mom and dad walked next door to La Quinta. (We had reservations at two hotels because we had canceled a room back when we didn’t think Mom and Leslie were coming.)
8:00 PM (or thereabouts…) … we arrived at the Quarry, an upscale shopping center down the street from our hotels. Thank heaven for Chilis!! We were hungry! Two good friends, Micah Cavenaugh and Aaron Dodson joined us. Fun times! After stocking up on enough health foods to feed a small army (for Cristina) we walked around enjoying the warm Texas evening.
12:00 PM … Jamie and I worked out at the hotel gym. Yay us! :P Now time for sleep!