Costa Rica

With all the traveling I would have to do today, I knew it was going to be a long day, but I didn't realize how stressful it was going to be. My flight from Chicago to Miami was scheduled to leave at 6:10 AM so I woke up at 3:15 and left the house about 4:15. Turns out I could have stayed in bed another 30 minutes and still made it on time. Because there's no traffic that early in the morning the cab ride to the airport only took about 20 minutes. There was almost no line at the ticket counter and despite there being a long line for security I was at the gate by 5 AM. With the large number of canceled flights due to severe weather on Wednesday they ended up switching the plane to a larger model so they could accommodate the large number of people on standby which only delayed the flight a few minutes.

My arrival in Miami was where all the excitement of the trip started. When I arrived at MIA I checked the board where it said my flight was on time. After wandering around the airport to get something for lunch while heading back to the gate with 30 minutes to spare before scheduled boarding I discovered the flight had been delayed over two hours. While now trying to kill some more time I was paged by Stacy who I had met on a previous Amazing Journey who was sitting with David who was also on our trip. As we were sitting around talking it was announced that our flight was canceled. After a lot of hassle (which I'll spare you the details) I somehow managed to get on to the next flight. Unfortunately Stacy and David were not so lucky and had to take a flight the next morning. Unfortunately for me my luggage ended up on Stacy and David's flight instead of mine.

After spending a lot of time in the San Jose airport going through immigration, waiting for luggage that never showed up, and waiting in long lines to fill out lost luggage forms, I finally made it over to the hotel where I was greeting by Malori, Bill, and the rest of the group and was able to have a late diner. After I had a bite to eat Bill came by with some chocolate mouse and a candle and had the whole group wish me a happy birthday. For what was a very long and stressful day at least it had a great ending.