This day began around 6 am or so. It didn't really feel like I was waking up particularly early because I was excited enough that throughout the night I had a hard time sleeping. I awoke to the last minute trip stuff, packing my toothbrush, showering, and doing one last check that I had my money, passport and plane tickets. When I was confident enough that I wasn't forgetting anything I couldn't live with out I left with my Mom for Robyn's place, which is conviently located close to my Mom's work.

I didn't do much at Robyn's other than chat akwardly with some relatives that were visiting as I waited for Robyn to shower and do her last minute prep. stuff. We hit the road for the airport around 10 am with Robyn's aunt driving (if you're reading thanks). The plane was due to leave at 1:15 pm, but didn't end up taking off until 2 pm. In fact every plane on the whole trip was delayed to some extent.

Take off went smooth, but the rest of the flight was rather jerky, and not the good beefy kind. Even in my cool cucumber state, I was getting a bit edgy with all the turbulence. Lunch consisted of a hamburger-like sandwich, a small bag of Old Dutch original chips, Bunny Luv baby carrots, a small coffee crisp and a can of Nestea ice tea.

The plane landed at 6pm Vancouver time, 8 pm Houston time, for our one night stop over before leaving for San Jose Costa Rica. Like most of the flight it was also a rough landing, lots of squealing and tense looking people. We got our baggage fine and went to the payphone to alert the hotel we booked to send a pick-up van. For some reason as soon as the receptionist picked up the phone the sound would cut out. After loosing $1.50 on the phone, which cost $0.50 per call, I asked this big black limo driver if I was using the phone wrong or something. He said he didn't know but offered to call the hotel for us on his cell phone. He got through fine and before we knew it our shuttle was there to pick us up.

I'm guessing it was around 9:30 or 10 pm by the time we reached the Best Western. It was a nice enough place, exactly what you'd expect to see at a Best Western, landscape paintings, individually wrapped soap and a small pool. Since we were still on Vancouver time we decided to go swimming, or more like wading as it turned out. The pool was brought a nice cool end to the day as we swam under the stars and with a cricket that had drown in the water earlier that day.

Dinner was bought from the vending machine: kosher dill pickle chips (you hear me, kosher), sour cream and cheddar chips, chili and lime corn chips and the hotel's decaf. coffee. Now before you get all health foody on me, this was the only available food source and I didn't eat all three bags alone, we split them. At this point it still seamed surreal that we were going somewhere so far away and exotic as Costa Rica, but I was content with being excited and not getting much sleep again.

Word of the day: Rumpled