Our California Adventure (Day 1, Part 1)

This past April, I went with my mom and grandma to California for a week. I had never been out west before, so I was very excited for this trip. The reason we were going, was because my cousin Andrew, and his girlfriend, Elisenda were getting married. This was sort of a "Happy 18th birthday/graduation" trip. I looked forward to this trip for over sixteen months - at least thirteen of those months unsure if the trip was actually going to happen.

But finally, we got all of the wedding details, and were able to buy our plane tickets. Our plan was to leave Detroit on April 3rd, and return home on the 9th. (We had a few things planned to do while we were there, but I'll talk about those later.)

So on Thursday, April 3rd at 3:30am, I woke up and got ready to leave for the airport. My grandma showed up at the house about 3:45, and my uncle (who was going to drive us to the airport, since my dad can't see very well at night) showed up about 3:50. About twenty minutes later, we had all of our bags in the trunk, and we were on the road.

The trip to the airport in Detroit takes about a half hour. So for the first twenty five minutes, it doesn't feel very real. I mean, yeah, it's still super early in the morning, and I'm not completely awake yet, but it wasn't until we started seeing signs for the airport that I started realizing that it was finally happening.

After Uncle Jon helped us get the bags out of the car and to the check in station, he left, leaving the three of us in a very large building with hundreds of other people who were about to do the same thing we were...except to places all over the world.

We went inside and stood in line for awhile, waiting in line for security. When it was finally my turn, I went up, and stood in that weird machine, and all of a sudden, a large "ERROR" flashed across the screen. My heart nearly stopped when the woman said that I may need to go back to another room to be searched. I had no idea what was going on. I knew I didn't have any weapons or explosives in my pocket, but the machine said otherwise. We tried again, and then it said I was clear, but it did give me a mini heart attack. I still have no idea why it did that.



Anyway, so once we were through security, we did more sitting in a small area with dozens of others who were going on the same plane we were. I tried to read, but my mind was wandering, too excited and anxious for the five hour plane ride to Phoenix ahead of me, and another hour trip to Ontario.



Our plane left at 6:35am...or at least was supposed to. We boarded around 6:15am. We got seats right on the wing on the right hand side. The plane was packed with people. Not one seat was empty, which of course made it feel extra stuffy.



We took off just as the sun started to rise. It was so beautiful. In fact, I spent the next fifteen minutes just taking pictures.







There was an app you could download that showed you where you were, and how high up you were, and how fast you were going. I spent a lot of the time watching it on my tablet.



I also brought some books and magazines to keep me entertained.


The plane ride seemed to take a long time. One of the reasons why, was because of a snow storm. We had to fly around it, which meant going through Minnesota, instead of right down to Phoenix. Although I knew that it was taking a little more time, I didn't think much of it. But let's just say that because of that storm, the rest of our day was going to turn out completely different than we ever would have planned.