More drama than I wanted

I just got back from a trip to the US. Don't get me wrong, it was wonderful, it's just that there was way more drama than we are used to down here. Since moving to Mexico, our idea of drama is two hummingbirds getting into a spat, or the neighbor deciding to paint his house lime green with purple trim. But I did learn some important lessons for next time.

It started with a late night flight to Portland. There is only one direct flight to Portland daily, and it leaves at 8 pm. Walt dropped me off at the airport. We noticed on the way in that they were burning the grass around the airport. A common occurrence, but this fire was pretty cool as it was bigger than most. The immigration office at the airport was open so I got my FM3 stamped. A good start.

Sitting at the gate, we noticed that the flight board had a couple of cancellations, and other flight appeared to be delayed. My flight had no information at all. Hmmm. A half hour before the flight, the board changed, and all the flights were either canceled or delayed. When the Mexicana staff was asked, they admitted that the grass fire had gotten larger, and the airport was temporarily closed. Don't worry, everything would be normal soon. Stay around the gate. I went down to Starbucks and got on my computer. Walt had already turned his computer off, but I was able to send my sister in Oregon an email letting her know we might be late. She responded and said to call her when I got into Portland.

I went back to the gate and called Walt, and realized that the minutes on my phone had expired. No cell phone. I looked around to buy a new phone card, and realized that I had left home with no pesos. The store did not accept Visa. The only store that accepted Visa had no phone cards. I looked around at the pay phones, some of which only accepted Latadel cards, and some which took other calling cards. One phone took Visa, but I figured I wasn't that desperate. Then the flight board said that the plane would be 2 hours late taking off. Stay around the gate.

4 hours after we were supposed to take off, the airport reopened. Our plane had been diverted to Puerto Vallarta, so we would have to wait for it. Another hour. Stay around the gate. One o' clock in the morning, the plane came, and we started loading. Half the plane was loaded when word filtered down that Portland airport was not going to accept our plane. By the time we would arrive, their customs office would be closed. So we all got off the plane, and were told to stay around the gate. Or maybe we should go get our luggage, and then come back and stay around the gate. Maybe the flight would go in the early morning. At this point I decided that no one knew anything, and I was going to try to get the next day's flight, so I went down to luggage (the luggage had obviously been unloaded from the plane hours before), went to the ticket counter and cancelled my ticket and made a reservation for the next night. (Are you sure you don't want to wait? My supervisor says the flight may go soon, if you stay around the gate...)

Now to call Walt. I put my ATM card in the machine, and it decided that it had expired, and it kept it. OK, not panicking, no cell phone, no money, no ATM card. I still have Visa. Except that the pay phones only accept Latadel or International calling cards. I found one that would allow collect calls, and discovered that our Vonage phone would not accept collect calls. I was thinking at this point that I might cry...Considered IMing Adam in Thailand, and asking him to call Walt and tell him to come to the airport and pick me up, but decided that was ridiculous...Finally found a phone that took Visa, and made a credit card call to our Vonage phone. I had to call that phone because the Mexican phone was in another room, and Walt would not hear it. Praise God, Walt woke up before the answering machine kicked in. I said, "I'm still at the airport". He assumed I meant the Portland airport, and told me to call my sister. When he realized I was still in Guadalajara he raced to the airport (30 minutes from home)

The next night with pesos in my purse and minutes on my cell phone, I took the flight to Portland. The immigration office was closed, but my stamp was only a day off... got a first class seat, we arrived on time, no problems. Except that my luggage went to Oakland instead of Portland.

More drama to be continued...

More drama, Part 2

Because we had already missed a day with my parents, my sister and I drove straight to Sublimity. Got there at 2 am and went to bed. Of course, I had no luggage, so I slept in my underwear, with my contacts soaking in eyedrops. I'm sure the luggage will be delivered the next day.

Morning came, put on my same old clothes. It was wonderful to see my parents, it had been a year. Late in the morning, my dad came in and said he felt a tightness in his chest. My sister asked if he wanted to go to the hospital, and he said yes. (Dad will never voluntarily go to the doctor) Turns out Dad had a heart attack. Sublimity is a small town, and they wanted him to be under the care of a cardiologist, but the Salem cardiology section was full, so Dad was flown by helicopter to Portland. (He offered to fly it, but was politely turned down.) We followed in my sister's car. We got there about an hour later, and Dad had already had an angiogram, angioplasty, and had a stent put in. We visited with Dad for a few minutes, during which he said he never wanted another helicopter ride, that they were noisy and there was no reason they stayed in the air, and then we went to my sister's house, about 30 minutes away.

We stayed up near Portland for 4 more days while Dad recovered. I bought a few things at Target so I'd have something else to wear. After a couple of days, I could feel the lack of my meds, which were in my suitcases. But all things considered, who cared? My brother Jon came out from Colorado, and we 4 kids and Mom had a lot of fun catching up with each other. Finally Dad got to come home, and we drove him back to my parent's house. At the back door, wrapped in garbage bags, were my suitcases. Dad is getting stronger and feeling better every day. Life is good. Short, but good. The drama of the first part of the trip doesn't seem all that important.

After Oregon, I spent a few days in the Bay Area visiting friends and shopping, and then met Walt in So Cal where we spent time with the kids. We were very glad to get home to the spatting hummingbirds and the neighbor's lime green color swatches on his house. When people ask what we do, I say, we watch the sun come up. We play with the dog. We decide whether to cook or eat out. That's enough drama for a while.

Panoramic View from the Terraza

We continue to enjoy the seasonal changes that occur here in our new home. At this time of year the Jacaranda trees are in bloom. You can see a panoramic and some closeup views here. The panoramic view is a visual of almost the whole "View from the Terraza". You will have to come and visit to see the entire panorama from our terraza.

Other changes? We graduated from Spanish school three weeks ago. The locals think we speak very well, but we beg to differ. There are constantly words we need to use, but don't know. We think it is the fact that the school stresses grammatics and pronunciation, among other things, and that impresses them. If you know of anyone that wants to learn Spanish quickly and to speak well, we highly recommend Harvest Language Center.