Okinawa Day 1…ummm...and 2

Ok, so here is the story. I booked our flights online in February. I have been checking our status online, never calling or talking to a human. Last week I checked online again, and our itinerary had us leaving Portland at 11:15 a.m. At that time, I printed the itinerary, and told the website to email Pam the itinerary. Mistake #1 was NOT calling to confirm the flight, I only did it online.

We get to the airport before 9 a.m. and this mean lady told us that there was no 11:15 flight to Vancouver, B.C. and that we were too late to get on the 9:30 a.m. flight. She was so rude…she said things like, “I am just telling you what happened, it requires no response from you.” She passed us off to this nice man who got on the phone with our booking agency. He found out that the 11:15 flight was cancelled in February and that we were supposed to have been issued another ticket. The old ticket was the one I was seeing online, the new one is the one Pam got e-mailed to her, and I was clueless.

Only one of us cried and it wasn’t Joe, Kyndra, or Avery.

It all ended well. We rode the MAX to downtown Portland and ate lunch in Pioneer Square. We got to the airport at 1:00 to catch our 3:00 flight to Vancouver. And spent the night at a nice hotel where the kids had a bunk bed in the room. There wasn’t a lot of time to see much in Vancouver but we will definitely go back someday to see all that they are doing for the 2010 Winter Games.

Thursday, our flight was scheduled to leave Vancouver at 1:55 p.m. so we got to the airport at 11:00 a.m.!!!!! It was an awesome airport with lots to look at so the time went quickly.

We landed in Tokyo at around midnight, went through customs once again, and got on another flight to Okinawa. At 4:00 a.m. (our time) we were greeted by the most wonderful welcoming crew who we waved at through the glass doors until our baggage came out.

Our welcoming committee!

In the parking lot all the girls got a laugh at me when I loaded into the driver’s seat which is mysteriously on the wrong side of the car! We drove home through blinking lights and crazy motor scooter drivers…but poor Kyndra got carsick by the time we reached the base check-in. Long day, hot car, no sleep, bad food…it all added up. Poor girl!

I’ll be adding more about our adventures as they come up! Thanks for joining us on this amazing trip!