My mom and I were sitting in the International Sunport airport and both of us were exhausted due to school and work. We sat there waiting to board our plane. My great grandma lives in White Rock, Canada and her one-hundredth birthday was coming up. Obviously, my family was planning a birthday party for her and my mom wanted my brother and me to go. I was excited because I wanted to explore Canada, and be in a different country. I had been to Canada before to visit my great grandma, but I was around four therefore I do not remember much. Our route to get to Canada consists of going to Las Vegas, Nevada and then straight to Canada. However, my brother, who was flying from New Jersey, went through Chicago to Las Vegas (where he would meet us) and then up to Canada. Mom was playing Sudoku on her ipad when the flight attendants called for us to board the plane. As I walked onto the plane, I was hit instantly by the disgusting airplane smell. There was an open middle seat next to an old man and I quickly settled into it. The older man turned to me and tried to make small talk. “How are you? Where are you headed? Why are you going there?” I answered all of his questions, and then he turned back to his kindle, as I put on my earphones. I slept swiftly on the plane, and we did not arrive in Las Vegas until around midnight, which was one o’clock my time. I got off the plane and headed to baggage claim. Being in the Las Vegas airport at midnight was one of the worst experiences, the people are creepy, the music is blasting loud, and the same advertisements play over and over. I was lucky because my black and white zebra striped suitcase came out of the magic black hole early; it was not as fortunate for my mom though. We at least waited for about an hour, until my mom had had enough and went to the counter to see if they had her luggage. The guy at the desk looked at her as if she was interrupting his day and decided not to help us in any way. My mom was angry, and we discovered the airline had put her bag on a different caracal, but the good news was we had her luggage.
I was thrilled to get out of there. We were supposed to meet my brother in Vegas, but his flight was delayed due to the snow in Chicago. Otherwise we should have meet up at the same time. We had made reservations at the Tuscany hotel because it was fairly close to the airport. Our options at one in the morning to get there were either pay fifty dollars for a taxi or pay seven-dollars for a bus. We took the bus. As I sat down in my chair, I thought to myself, “finally some peace and quiet” but before the bus was ready to depart my thoughts were crushed as a bunch of thirty-year-old men got on. All anyone herd the whole bus ride was, “Oh my gosh! Look it’s Cesar Palace! The Eiffel Tower! Guys we are going to get laid there!” Knowing the luck we were having, our hotel was the last stop. My mom had circles under her blue eyes and I’m sure my skin looked like a crumbling zombie. As we thanked the bus driver, we entered the inside our hotel, which was extremely noisy as well. That is something I’ve learned about Vegas, it will never be quiet. The guy at the desk was a shorter man, with a suit and bow tie. All my mother and I wanted to do was get to our room quickly and sleep. The man looked up our reservation and looked at us, “Okay, now you guys owe me two hundred sixty five” he said. My mom looked at him with astonishment, “I thought it was only fifty dollars?!” she tried to say calmly.
“Because you booked you’re reservation on a travel agency website, I have to charge extra.” My mom was tired, annoyed, and hungry. She stared at the man with a disbelief look on her face for a long time. This was something we did not want to hear at one in the morning after a difficult night, but there was nothing we could do. I opened the door to our hotel room, and smiled a little as I saw a soft cozy white bed in front of me. I walked over to it and flopped my body down on it; my cheek fell against the cushiony sheets while my arms stretched out and my eyes drifted closed. I fell asleep instantly once I hit the bed, even though I was in my clothes and starving. Mom could not sleep, she was too worried about Miles, and wanted to stay up in case he called or texted. The glorious sleep was interrupted at three in the morning when my brother burst into the hotel room frustrated. Miles had no food in his stomach, no luggage in his hands and no clean hair. One of the symptoms that runs in our family, is being hungry makes us grumpy. I was half- awake when I herd Miles explaining in a loud voice to my mother what had happened. He was not happy, but most of all he was hungry. Mom knew he needed food, and they quickly went out of the room to find some. Miles devoured the chicken strips, but not even food could have put Miles into a better mood. All of us slept, but not for a long time for our plane was leaving at eleven in the morning and we had to make sure we were there on time. We left our hotel room, and found a taxi outside waiting for us. My mom and I pilled our luggage in the trunk and all three of us squeezed in the back seat. This is when Miles told me the horror that had happened to him in the past twenty-four hours.
“I was lucky enough to get into Chicago.” He said seriously, ”When I arrived there, the snowstorm had cancelled over two hundred flights. I got out of the plane to find an airport packed with people everywhere, people standing, people lying on the floor and there was not an empty space in the building. I was starving so I quickly hopped into the McDonald’s line and ordered myself a BigMac with some fries. I found a place on the floor to eat my meal. I was in the Chicago airport for about three hours and everyone ran out of food, including McDonalds. Now in the history of food McDonalds has never ran out of food! It was like a homeless shelter, only for people who’s flights had been cancelled. They finally got back on the flight schedule, and I got onto my plane leaving behind the swarm of people. I arrived in Vegas around three in the morning and waited for about thirty minutes for my luggage, which I found out later they had lost. I called Southwest airlines and tried to see if they could send my bag to Canada. They could send it to Vegas but not to Canada, because it was not their responsibility to deliver the bag to Canada. My luggage would have arrived in Vegas at three in the afternoon, but since my flight to Canada was in the morning it was impossible for me to have my luggage.”
My brother was basically lived in a nightmare the past twenty-four hours. But all three of us made it onto the Air Canada plane safely. Before anyone was allowed on the plane, the security people had to check our passports again. The guy looked at my passport photo and then me and then back at my passport photo with a strange look on his face. I started cracking up, I knew he was thinking, “This picture looks nothing like the girl in front of me but more like a mug shot of this girl”. When I had my passport picture taken it was an absolute mess because I was coming from volleyball practice with a hoodie and a messy bun. The guy told me, “Don’t smile” and of course whenever someone says that it never works. I tried my hardest not to smile, but I had this creepy smirk in the corner of my mouth. Literally the worst picture in history, my mom and I were laughing so hard after we saw it. The guy at the counter kept saying, “Stop it! Stop it! It’s a great photo” but we both knew he was trying to be nice.
There was also a blessing in disguise because my brother basically got a whole new wardrobe in Canada. We all arrived in Canada with my mom’s side of the family, to celebrate my great grandma turning one-hundred-years old, my brother had a new wardrobe and the ridiculous part about this whole trip was that mom could have gotten Miles a direct flight from Newport to Vegas. I suppose if anyone is desiring a new wardrobe, all they have to do is lose their luggage.