When we arrived a woman in her 50s was in the window seat, so I showed her that the boys were there (as they wanted to see the islands go by). She moved to her seat and within a minute was complaining to the woman behind her about wanting to move. At this point the boys hadn't even spoken to each other! I thought oh no. She was making such a fuss the cabin attendant came over to see the problem. She advised once we were in the air she could move to a vacant seat. Which is exactly what she did and we never saw her again. In our row the window seat was never sold so both of us had lots of room to stretch out.
Something I thought Caribbean did really well was feed the children first. All the kids on the plane got their meal a half hour before the adults. Kids do tend to eat slower and if you need to help feed a child it would mean that you could do that and then "enjoy" your meal.
On our way to Pearson we flew over Niagara Falls and both boys got to see them, which I am sure would have been impressive. Landing in Pearson was no problem at all and we were soon off the plane. I take the approach there is no sense hurrying up to wait in line. Our last international flight was from Costa Rica and we landed in Montreal, there is a big difference. I forgot how many international flights would be coming into Pearson, the room for customs was massive and there must have been 300-500 people waiting. The good news is the line for Canadians was smaller. But it was still 40 minutes to get to the automated check out line! Unfortunately Aiden's passport wouldn't swipe and we had to see a real person- which realistically for the time we were out of country would have happened any way.
With only two more people in front of us a couple in their 50's went to the desk, I don't know where they were coming from but they declared nothing. The Customs Agent said you've been away 2 weeks and you brought nothing back? Nope. I don't think anyone waiting believed that. She moved them on no doubt to have their bags searched. Our interview took less than 5 minutes and by the time we went to get our bags, all but ours had been claimed making it super easy to find. Perfect!
When we came through the departures gate, there were hundreds of people lined up to pick up their family or friends. There were sweet signs, men with roses, children with flowers it was such a lovely scene of reunions. I knew we would have to wait a few hours for ours but it made me smile to think of all the people getting big hugs and little kisses from their loved ones.
Anita, our angel in Trenton, had booked us transportation. We found the desk for ground transportation and the woman said "Are you Brent?", Brent said yup! And our van was there in two minutes. But then we realized we needed a tea and treats. So Brent and Aiden went off and got me steeped tea and a Boston Cream donut and the boys plain donuts. Yum.
Ceilidh and my mom were waiting for us at home so we posted on Facebook we were leaving Toronto at 8:00 so they would know when we would be home. Because of the Pan Am Games there are commuter lanes, so we whizzed right through Toronto and were home at about 10:15 p.m.
We could see the lights on and were expecting the door to fly open with Ama and Auntie Ceilidh.... nope. That's OK you aren't always waiting at a window so we knocked, the boys yelled "Ama"! Nothing. Hmmm. How to get into your house without a key! The garage. So we entered our code and let ourselves in. There were balloons and the house looked amazing. I called my mom at her house...."Hello?"-me.
"Oh My God, You're home?! But how? OK I'll be right over!"- Ama
Click
I think she may have ran over to our house because her car was blocked in. My sister had given up and gone to bed, but we would see her in the morning.
Normally I want to change this and that about the house, but being in it after 10 months away I truly appreciated it. The grey/blue wall to wall carpet was so comfy under my feet after months of concrete and tile I wanted to roll on it! Mom had put some of Owen's stuffed animals back in his room so he went and hugged all his little buddies and introduced them to the four or five new ones picked up in Grenada and Trinidad.
We were all tuckered out so we had a little reunion and then headed off to bed with blankets for the first time in 10 months.
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