Day 1: Friday, September 11

The Big Day Has Come At Last!

We got up at our usual time. Rob came by for Sophie at about 7:30AM. She was very happy to see him and trotted off with him happily (after he scooped her up with a big hug).

Vince finished his packing and I did a couple of loads of laundry, then we loaded up Miss Bug in her carrier and walked her down to The Animal Clinic at about 9:30. Very busy there. We completed the check-in paperwork then headed home.

Carol called at 10:30 to wish us bon voyage.

We spent the morning getting ready, then had lunch at home at about 1:00PM. We had TONS of time as all errands and prep had been done earlier than we had intended. We were quite bored and impatient as we had nothing to do but wait for the limo to arrive.

At about 4:10PM we headed downstairs and sat outside the condo waiting for the car from Toronto Airport Limo (TAL) to arrive. The limo was scheduled to arrive at 4:30, but arrived early at 4:15, so we hit the road. Very nice, courteous driver. There was terrible traffic heading down Jarvis Street. Once we got on to the Gardiner Expressway (it’s beyond me why it’s called an “expressway”) the traffic was even worse – huge gridlock, total stop and go. It was OK, though, once we got west of the Parkdale area.

It took an hour to get to Toronto Pearson Airport. The limo dropped us off at Air Canada (Terminal 1) – $77.00 for the trip, including tip. We found the International flight area after some confusion and checked in for Air Canada flight AC846, departing at 8:25PM. We joined the HUGE queue for security check at E gate. Finally got through the queue and security without incident and took the loooooooong moving walkway to the gate. We found our gate then went to sit in a quieter area for a while:

We eventually got a little peckish so we wandered a bit and found the Terminal 1 Tim Horton’s; we each had a muffin, coffee for Vince and orange juice for me. Finishing up there we went back to the quiet area near our gate (E39) to wait for the boarding call but the call did not come! We saw everyone lining up so we proceeded to the gate. Luckily we had priority boarding as we’re in Premium Economy this trip, so we scooted straight through.

We found our seats in the Premium Economy section: 14K and 14H (last row of the section). Very nice! Lots of leg room, everything very high-tech and fancy. We settled in for the flight and the plane pushed back right on time: 8:25PM. The airline was quite punctual as most people on this flight have connecting flights at Munich International Airport (like us!). Raining lightly in Toronto as we leave.

Roughly two hours into the flight a very nice pasta (ravioli) dinner was served. Good service all around. The flight itself was very smooth and pleasant as we flew on through the night.

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