Surgery trip – Day 1

I am planning on writing every day of my Montreal trip. Whether I succeed or not, we shall see.

Last night we stayed at a hotel near the Vancouver airport – this was something I am really glad we did. It eased my anxiety immensely about getting to the airport on time. We got a semblance of sleep, had time for showers, and breakfast, and still made it with lots of time to spare.

At the airport, check-in and security were a breeze. I even forgot to mention my medication (10 individual syringes) only to have the security agent ask to look in the bag and just noted the box of medication. Teresa had more of an issue with her foil wrapped food bars that masqueraded as blocks of C4.

The flight itself was good – watched a movie, listened to some music, and had an okay amount of leg room – even though it seems like I picked the wrong row – we wound up with a row in front of us. Oh well. Very little turbulence, and made really good time.

At the airport, it was a LONG walk to baggage claims – which was okay, considering it usually takes forever for the luggage to start coming out. I think we waited maybe 30 minutes, then proceeded to car rental.

The car rental was a bit of – oh hey, don’t look, but we’re going to add this ‘basic’ insurance that you didn’t put on your original order and increase your bill by almost 40%. So, had him redo up the paperwork eliminating that. Plus, it took forever for an agent to actually show up – not sure I’ll go with National Car Rental again. Will probably go back to Budget next time.

The car is nice – we were hoping for a Kia Soul, like Teresa has, but instead got a Hyundai Elantra – which is actually a very nice drive. Brand spanking-new car too. Which I drove to the hotel in downtown Montreal. Getting out of the airport was a bit sketchy with Google not being overly helpful with directions – and to be fair, there’s a LOT of highway construction going on right now.

I got a bit snippy (from anxiety) at my navigator, but apologized when I realized what I was doing, and we got to the hotel relatively okay. The hotel is actually quite nice. No pool or hot tub, which we were hoping for, but oh well. It was the location that was important. We’re within walking distance of old Montreal, and also Rue St-Denis which has a lot of restaurants and night life it seems.

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, so we’ll drive out of downtown and explore with the car, whereas on Friday we’ll do some wandering by foot. Friday also looks like having a dinner with a friend that lives in Montreal. Looking forward to that.

Et maintenant, it looks like bed time. We’re both sufficiently tired enough to sleep – it’s 11pm local time and 8pm body clock time. So, hopefully this will get us adjusted pretty quick.

Bonne nuit, mes amis!