Travel hiccups

So with summer coming, and Blake having 2 months off for the first time ever, we decided we had better go big, or go home (which we are doing anyways... but still). We settled on doing a 6 week European adventure, since I have never been to Europe, and since we have met so many wonderful people from Europe during our time in Cayman. We planned to leave at the beginning of July, and were actually excited when we realized that we could make my cousin Heather's wedding in Toronto if we left on July 1st. Rather than tell my parents that we will be meeting them in Toronto, we decided to surprise them by showing up the night before the wedding. I spent weeks planning this surprise and was so excited. Once I had bid farewell to my students, moved out of our flat and sold our car I was ready to go. July 1st arrived and we headed to the airport for our flight to Miami and then onward to Toronto. The boarding of the plane went smoothly and it was not time until we were on the tarmac ready for take-off. However, after a few minutes of waiting, the pilot told us the left engine wouldn't start. We returned to the gate and tried two more times to start the engine, both times were successful. Then we returned to the tarmac for take-off. After a 5 minute delay, the pilot mentioned he was having problems with the fuel actuator valve, and we returned to the gate again. Upon contact with their head office the plane was taken out of commission until a part was flown in on another flight that afternoon. So we had to return to the lobby and wait while a single attendant called out the names of every single passenger on the airline, and one by one we had to shuffle up and retrieve our entry card and return to the ticket booths to try and reschedule a flight off the island. As time passed, I managed to get Blake and I onto the only other flight off the island that weekend, which was on Saturday at 1:00p.m. Once our tickets were booked we learned that there was going to be a flight out that afternoon, they anticipated that they could fix the fuel actuator valve and have everyone out by 3:00. I had to return to the desk and cancel the flight out the next day and rebook a ticket on our original flight. By the time I got this done it was time to re check in our luggage, go through security a second time and wait for the flight to board. By 4:00 we were on the plane, however, it turned out that there was a slight problem and the mechanic who had fixed the part on the plane had forgotten to use a silicone seal, so we had to wait for that to be applied and dry. Once dry, we were ready for take-off, but this time a ticketing agent from inside forgot to count the people on the plane, so she had to come up and re-do that. When we were finally ready to go we headed out to the tarmac. Once there we waited and waited. I noticed that the plane was beginning to roll backwards. After 12 hours in the airport without anything to eat, I was going to lose it if we returned to the gate. The pilot came on the speaker and told us that once again, the left engine wouldn't start and the plane was unfit to fly. An angry group of us trudged back to the lobby, waited through the excruciating process of receiving our entry cards and returning our duty-free items and then returning to the main ticket booth. By 6:00 we were still waiting to hear if there would be another plane sent from Miami to take us over. At 6:30 we found out there wouldn't be, so Blake and I booked another flight out the next morning on Delta. By 7:00 we learned that American Airlines was going to charter a plane for us first thing in the morning, so we had to go back and cancel our Delta tickets and rebook on the AA flight out in the morning. We then had to wait another hour for hotel and food vouchers, as we hadn't eaten anything all, and we had given up possession of our flat.

The next morning, at 5:30a.m. we headed back to the airport AGAIN. Luckily this time we got to Miami, where we had to catch a connector through Air Canada. Needless to say, when the Air Canada flight was delayed by and hour and then the pilot told us there were computer problems I just about screamed. Thankfully the problems were fixable and we got to Toronto at 6:00p.m. We raced to the hotel, threw on our party clothes and grabbed a cab to my cousin's beautiful reception venue. We snuck in just in time, as dinner hadn't been served and everyone was sitting at their tables. Mom and Dad did still get the surprise of their lives when I snuck up behind them! I'll never forget the looks on their faces!

The rest of the Toronto trip went well. It was so nice being able to have some vacation time with both my parents, aunt and uncle and Melinda and Mat. We spent most of our time walking around downtown Toronto. We did make it to the top of the CN Tower, where Melinda shocked us all by lounging on the glass floor, and Blake managed to get both feet (or rather heels) on it too! At the end of the weekend we were sad to leave, but super excited to start the next leg of our trip to London!!!!