During a Skype conversation with Charles, the Executive Director of Live Different a whirlwind trip for us was planned, where four days later we would unexpectedly making our way to Canada to meet that contingency of the organization. We never imagined that they would have invited us to our home country to have a face to face with everyone, but it was amazing timing as they are having a presentation that most of their staff will be attending and this way we could solidify our presence in the organization in person. On top of all this we also saw how it would be a fun trip where the girls would get to play in the snow, this is the first time for Ellia as our last time in Canada she was in infancy, and maybe the second or third time for Arias.
In four days we had time to pack up our things, clean up the boat, and get our ciguateric butts to a new country. Side note: we were a bit scared of going into the cold of a Canadian winter with ciguatera, because of our bodies’ current temperature confusion, but figured we could handle it.
Our day of travel to Canada started real early, as it was on a Saturday and ferries off of Culebra run three times a day and we had to catch the 6:30am one to make it to the airport for our flights on time. So at 5:45am we hopped in our dinghy and met up with Jac and John from Jacasso, went to town to catch the ferry, from there we rented a car, with them, to drive from Fajardo to San Juan, got on a plane to JFK, then to TO, and finally got in a 12 seater van to drive to our hotel where we could rest our heads, at the late hour of 11:30pm. But of course we didn’t, we stayed up for a little while, catching up with my little sister Renee who came to visit us for a few days.
I was excited when I saw the train at JFK that takes passengers between terminals, because then we could have said that we did actually take planes, trains, and automobiles, all in one day, but unfortunately our terminal was close enough that they took us by bus instead of a train.
Other than one grumpy flight attendant, an eccentric couple seated behind us, and a half hour delay, our travels were painless. Our girls are veteran travelers and can take extended hours of sitting still quite well. They did eat enough Fruit Snacks to feed a small army of children, and we did have a few meltdowns due to sore muscles from our sickness, but all in all we have to be happy that they didn’t scream their way through 6 and a half hours of flight time.
Lucky enough for us the Live Different staff were ready for us on this end and packed us two full suitcases of warm clothes for this wintery weather because we were very ill equipped for this type of weather with our crocs and linen pants.
This is what Ellia looked like after a full day of travel. |
Arias was immediately in the snow. |
and apparently she had no qualms about throwing snowballs at her Mama |
Awesome! It's so good to see you guys in the snow again! Love the pictures. Glad to hear you're safe and sound. And I'm just so sorry we couldn't see your faces in real life
All my love
(Auntie) Jaa