I can think of no better way to celebrate US Independence Day than by leaving it. I was ready to be independent and free of this shitshow situation, most effectively displayed in our presidential contest that was in full swing. My people have the shortest memories, I swear.
We booked our flights for Japan at Christmas, so this had been a long time coming! We had gone through several rounds of obsessive YouTube travel vlogger binging, I think three different Air Canada changes of itineraries/planes/seats to our original purchase, and some last minute oh shit I think I should grab a few more ideas from the interwebs on what to see what to eat what to do. But the morning was finally upon us!
We had a 10:40 am flight and left the apartment at 7:00 am. We did our usual walk a block > take a bus > walk a block > take the light rail commute to the airport for $3.25 each. Typically this is a very, very smooth transportation option, but this time we had a technical issue on the light rail and had to switch trains mid-route. But we left plenty of time and the transit people did an awesome job so it was no biggie. When we arrived at the SeaTac station I did my usual grumbling of “WHY DIDN’T THEY PUT IN A MOVING SIDEWALK BETWEEN THE LIGHT RAIL STATION AND THE TERMINAL AT SEATAC?!?!?!” So stupid.
TSA was a long line but it was fine. We found our way to the Concourse A Priority Pass Lounge and wow, terrible. Crowded, a couple of sad snack options, and WOW NO COFFEE? I think they’re overwhelmed by how many of us commoners have access now.
So now is where I will explain my travel day stress and how it all ultimately worked out fine (of course it worked out fine, see below). When we bought the flights back in December, our layover in Vancouver (YVR) was 2 hours. One of the itinerary changes by Air Canada along the way was to reduce that layover to one hour. Then they also moved our seats from the front of the plane to the back of the plane, apparently because they combined two flights and well, someone has to lose and why wouldn’t it be the people that booked 6 months ago? And then when we got to the gate that morning we learned that our Air Canada flight departure out of Seattle was delayed 20 minutes. If we missed our connection in YVR to Tokyo it wasn’t like there was another one just a few hours later. I didn’t like this.
What fixed my mood was when we got on the plane we figured out that there were maybe a dozen people or so that were also connecting to the Tokyo flight in YVR. They wouldn’t abandon all of us, right??? Yeah, it all worked out fine (see above). The transition through YVR was short and quick, they held the plane for us, and I think maybe for even another connecting flight because we were sitting on the plane for a bit before we pulled away.
The 10 hour flight in economy was just fine. I slept for maybe an hour, the movie selection was yuge, and the inflight meals weren’t bad. For some reason I didn’t want to pull out my knitting project. I would like to forget the midflight massive hot flash that I think was triggered by the free red wine. And I would ask Air Canada to rethink passing out hundreds of tuna fish sandwiches as a mid-flight snack.
Kjar-ied Away 