VACATION DAY #1: Saturday, June 6th

TRAVELING: After a late night chat with Ross, Kerryn, Lachlan and Carmody Maguire we decided to finish our laundry and get packing.  Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep.  I had to wake up a little earlier to take Zack to his dog sitters before they left at 8:15 a.m.  I also misplaced my iPod, so I had to take a trip to school to check around there.  Problem #1:  no iPod anywhere.  We had to leave home without it.  We got on the road at a good time, but problem #2:  construction on I-25 and Northgate … just 10 minutes from home.  We were practically at a stand still for 30 minutes.  This caused problem #3:  no cheap parking available.  We arrived at the airport 1 hour prior to departure.  That traffic jam didn’t help us at all!  We decided to park in the garage for extra money.  Once we arrived in the terminal, we saw (of course) a long check in line.  Fletch spotted a worker, so I ran over to him to explain our flight was leaving in one hour.  Let’s just say we were able to get to our gate 30 minutes early with a bit of advice from that nice man!  (Comment below to find out what happened to get our bag checked in early!).  What we thought was a bad start to our travels, started to look good!  While we were walking to the gate I realized problem #4:  I forgot my iPhone in my car!  We were in such a hurry I walked off without it.  Oh well.  If you want to get ahold of me, call Fletch’s cell!  I’m on vacation. J  Our flight was supposed to leave at 11:45 a.m. but the lady at the ticket counter FINALLY updated us at 11:45 that air traffic control was keeping our plane grounded and that we would start boarding at 12:00.  This fixed problem #5 just splendidly:  we were HUNGRY!.  We shared a sandwich from Quiznos and continued to wait … and wait … and wait.  Luckily (our day has been full of luck and bad news) I asked the agent if we were in the right gate.  Nope.  They changed the gate and must have announced it after they said we had 15 minutes to go grab a snack.  Seriously.  They said to leave the gate area to get a snack if needed, but then made an IMPORTANT announcement ONCE … during those 15 minutes we were in line for a sandwich.  It was now 12:15 and the lady said we had to go from that gate (25) to 45 to catch the 12:30 flight!  ARGH!  Another jaunt through the airport and we arrived to find out the plane was STILL delayed until 12:54.  At that point I asked the new agent if I had time to get my iPhone and/or move my car from the garage to a cheaper lot.  Of course she said no.  It took us 30 minutes to board the plane, then another 30 minutes to take off.  I am still without my iPhone with my car parked in an expensive spot, but I’m on vacation with my laptop (e-mail me, folks) and my car is protected against weather! J  Plus our tickets from Denver – San Francisco total (for 2 tickets) was still $249.  No joke. J  

SAN FRANCISCO:  We arrived to the airport after all those delays without any problems (thank goodness!).  Fletch had a beautiful sleep almost the entire way!  What a blessed gift he has to be able to sleep on a 2 hr 40 min flight!  We found Alamo car rentals without a problem as well and are the drivers of a Light Blue Chrysler Sebring 4 door midsize car.  We were able to get to our hotel without a problem as well.  Looks like our day is getting better again. :)  Once we checked in, the clerk blessed (Melissa) us with the knowledge that a free wine happy hour was starting in 30 minutes. :) Woo-hoo.  I had a lovely glass of merlot and then we walked to the corner Starbucks (across the street) for coffee and snacks. :)  The hotel is nice, but small.  I think small is normal for a San Francisco hotel! I'm glad that they offer free Aveda products. :)  Tonight we plan on walking to an Italian/American restaurant to continue celebrating my birthday. :)