Ktown

On arrival in the town of Kings, I was pleasantly surprised that the bed in my room had been substantially upgraded... two words: memory. foam. This was both a good and bad thing. Good because it was so damn comfy, bad because it facilitated giving in to the evil of all evils known as jet lag. My allergies also went nuts on our arrival to Kingston and I spent most of the next two weeks with some weird vertigo "I'm on a big ship at sea" sensations and also on antihistamines. weeeee!
Saturday morning we were up early with all the hustle and bustle of Julia, Sarah and Greg transporting the pig from the bath tub to the spit.

It was a lengthy task and I got hungry half way through, ended up making breakfast for everyone and totally missing the head being cut of with a pairing knife!! We later learned that the head was disposed of in a public garbage bin somewhere in downtown Kingston (why is another story that heavily involves raccoons). Andy and I went to Cataraqui Mall at this point to try and find a SIM card but came back disappointed and empty handed and took it as a sign to start drinking.
Moosehead was had in all its glory on this hot and humid day. Guests started to trickle in and the pig continued to cook. Looking back it was sort of a big blur with the jet lag and Moosehead and all. But a fun blur at that.

The next day started with clean-up and a $51 load of returns at the Beer Store. Then it was off to Bubba's to see Paris and for Andy to experience poutine for the first time EVER.

The next ten days were spent playing pool, enjoying Canadian beer and  Andy sampling the fast food, wandering Princess Street, meeting up with old friends, going through my closet, a sail on the Short's sailboat, visiting Fort Henry (thank you Taylos) and even a few spins on the wakeboard and tubes!!
We also took a day trip to Prince Edward County for wine tasting and a little taste of the county.
By the end of our time there it'd felt like we were there nearly a month! which was a good thing because we felt recharged and ready to tackle the whirlwind we had planned in the remaining 8 days of our time in North America!
To be continued...

Canadialand

Waking up in a dark, cool basement was a little strange at first, but then we realized where we were- my Aunt and Uncle's basement. It was nearly 11am so we had somehow managed 9hours of sleep. After some glorious Messina lunch we climbed in the van and my Mom took us to the great North American establishmen known as Walmart. Wandering in, wide-eyed and jetlagged, I couldn't believe how cheap everything was! I had totally forgotten about the convience this side of the world had to offer. They have everything and it doesn't cost you much. We made a few more stops after Walmart, including the LCBO and the Beer Store, and then went back to John and Cathie's to enjoy the humid afternoon heat and few cold beers on the patio. As the afternoon turned to evening we had a few small friends drop by:  the neighbourhood raccoons!! They were brave little f*ckers and would let you get very close to them before turning away and strolling away.
Dinner was served fashionably late, as usual, but the poached egg salad and and steak frites was well worth the wait. Oh and the ice cream sandwiches for dessert- just as good as I remembered!
Somehow after all that food we made it to a bar for a few hours before staggering drunkenly home and back to bed.
The next morning it was off to the CN Tower for lunch. It was only my 2nd time going up and my first time going to the restaurant. Since we didn't spend much time in Toronto it was a good chance for Andy see the size of the city from above. We said goodbye to John and Cathie and got in Julia's car to drive home to Kingston in and get ready for the next day's Pig Roast!

The Big Trip: Getting there

Fat feet: the result of a 30+ hour travel day

In late March or early April I found some really cheap flights from Sydney to LA, so sort of on a whim and some coattails, we booked them for the beginning of August! The next 3+ months were a serious waiting game since our new visas hadn't come through yet and if they didn't in time we would have to go through a big hassle of getting a different bridging visa to be able to leave the country. eek!

But luck was on our side and the visa was all honky-dory by mid July (good thing cuz we had planned and paid for all our little bits and pieces of the trip by then!) and on August 3rd we were ready for take off!

Well we were ready, Qantas on the other hand, were not. We had decided to go with them, despite the slightly higher price, because we thought they had the least chance of delaying or cancelling our flight... wrong. so wrong.

We had a 7am flight out of Adelaide, which would get us to Sydney with almost exactly 3 hours to get our bags, switch terminals (by taxi b/c Sydney Kingsford is a thieving bastard that doesn't have a free train connecting domestic to international. bastard.), check-in for the big flight, and get through security. Lots of time, shouldn't be a problem. Well. At 2:30am on Wednesday, August 3rd, I got a text message, me, not Andy whose name and contact details were part of the booking, me. Because I'd (luckily) stuck my Qantas frequent flyer number on there! Anyway, the text told me that our flight was delayed 1 hour and 20 minutes. No customer service phone number, no apology. We didn't have an hour and 20mins to really spare with the connection we had to make in Sydney, so at 2:35am I rolled out of bed and ended up having to turn on the laptop to find a freaking customer service number for Qantas. Then I spent over 45mins on hold, at 3am, before I spoke to a real human being. The agent was polite and efficient at least and got us on the 6am flight, no worries, and there was no change fee. Sooooo, back into bed for 30mins, then time to get up for a shower and to get to the airport. yay.
At the airport Qantas continued to be problematic.  We tried to use the self-serve kiosks to check-in, no dice. One of the many Qantas staff milling about at 5am told us we had to check in at the international desk because we had an international connection (but not with Qantas and not on the same booking). There we were directed to the service desk. What service desk? So we asked another lady, and she checked something on her computer and told us to go to the ticket counter. Huh?  Because I had said we had to make an international flight with another airline on a separate booking on the phone earlier it had really confused Qantas. The lady at the ticketing desk was trying to make it so we didn't have to re-check our bags in Sydney even though I kept saying "We are happy to collect our bags in Sydney." I must've said that at least 4 times. duh. Finally, she sorted it all out and we went back to the self-serve kiosk, checked-in, and said Adios to Adelaide.
In Sydney we got our bag, switched terminals, checked-in again, went through security and missed Hungry Jacks breakfast :( then hung around til our 1pm flight to FIJI.
3 hour layover in FIJI. Still August 3rd.

[A Fiji Aside: On the jetway to board the flight from Fiji to LA there was a really drunk guy and this poor American girl who was too polite for her own good got suckered into talking to him. He kept putting his hand on her shoulder and offering to buy her a drink on the plane (it was a full service airline, drinks were complimentary). He also said he only had 2 beers while waiting in the airport... HA! Yeah right, i saw him laying across the seats in the departure lounge nursing a Fiji Bitter or 2 or 3, his poor walking skills also pointed to more than 2. I was really surprized they allowed him on the flight at all!]

Arrival at LAX, only 10 minutes later than when the plane took off in Sydney, still August 3rd. Amazing! haha In LA we were due to have an 8 hour layover til our 10pm flight to Toronto, but there was an earlier flight at 3:30pm that I was hoping we would somehow make. I didn't want to book us on that one because I knew LAX is the place that nightmares are made of and didn't want to take any chances. We had to check-in by 2:30 to get on the flight, so that gave us an hour to get through US customs and to terminal 3 (not a far walk from the where we were in international terminal).
We ended up getting to the Air Canada desk at about 2:40pm. With fingers crossed, I asked the lady behind the desk if it was possible to switch to the 3:30 flight, as we were on the 10pm. Why yes, she says, because it's been delayed by an hour! HALLELUJAH! But it will cost you to make the change. How much? $75. Sold. Did I mention it was still August 3rd??
The delay gave us time enough to have a sit down meal at Route 66 bar and grill, yee-haw, in the airport before it was time to get on the last plane of our super long day.
Because of the delay we didn't get to Toronto until August 4th, just after midnight, so the longest August 3rd on record ended somewhere over Ontario. Customs and bags were a breeze and my Mom was waiting to whisk us off to my Aunt and Uncle's place and finally a bed to lay down on!

Sick day

Today I'm taking my first ever paid sick day. I even get to go to the doctor later to get a note! And although I feel like sh*t, it is still sort of neat.
Anyway, I'm hoping today will be productive in the blog department. If all goes well today, over the next 4-5 days I will post a new post and update the world on the last month and a bit of my happenings. So prepare yourself and don't get too excited now! haha