It’s time!
My cousin Shelley picked us up 6:30am and drove us to Whistler to catch the charter shuttle to YVR – 2 adults, 1 toddler, 2 boxed-up bikes and 1 boxed-up trailer, 1 large duffel, 2 carry-on panniers and a small backpack. Thank you, Shelley!
Axel was mesmerized by being on the bus – he loved being up high and looking out the window, seeing a ferry on the sea to sky, driving through the city and arriving at the (much anticipated) airport. We checked in, took our carefully packed bike boxes fully apart to get them checked by security, packed them back up, then made our way to our gate. Axel was pretty wound up at the gate, very excited to look out the window at all the airport activity, play with trucks on the floor and do some “yoga” and running around. We boarded last and Axel was quite worried about how loud take off would be and wanted headphones (we didn’t have any) so I put my hands over his ears and as we taxied prepping for take off – he fell fast asleep with his head in between my hands (very cute! but kind of awkward). So, he missed take off but was excited to be flying when he woke up and we were up in the air. We did make about 7 trips to the bathroom which did finally end in a successful (woo). We also read lots of books and had many snacks, which made for a pretty smooth flight to Toronto and a layover where we found dinner and made a friend to play trucks with at our gate, then boarded at 11pm.
Our red eye to Faro was not very exciting (yay!), no bathroom trips, Axel mostly slept (on Ryley, so Ryley really didn’t), I slept a bit. We all made it. Axel did want to go home to take the bus again but we said it’ll have to wait!
Of note: Ryley and I both opted for a 6am shower – unsure when we’ll see our next one! We’ll check back in on this later
Axel quote of the day: “Axel had a little fart on dada’s penis” – on the bus in the way to the airport