Tuesday afternoon, while at work, Justin called me and said that his brother, Eric, was getting worse. He checked into a hospital in Thailand on Sunday for severe pain in his right leg/hip area. Justin said that his mom was getting more concerned since the usual tests and explainations weren't panning out and he was alone. She was trying to find a way to get to Thailand to be with him and she didn't want to go alone, so he asked if I would go with her.
I said- I will if I can.
Well, the next day, she got the call that the plane tickets were booked and we would leave the next morning. We wouldn't be back until July 4th, which meant 14 days total.
So, after a busy day at work and a long afternoon of packing, shopping, and softball, and 3 hours of sleep, I woke up at 4am Thursday morning. Melanie picked me up at 5am, and we hit the road. We had to stop at Justin's Uncle Morris's house to pick up a fed ex package. After getting the package we had to navigate through/around a wreck, we finally made it ti diamond parking. We valet parked the car and took the shuttle to the airport. When we got inside we eralized Melanie's carry on- with all the homeopathic medicine she wanted to take to Eric, was still on the shuttle. We called them and had them loop back around 15 minutes later with the bag, and we were on the way again.
Once we got to the counter to check in and get our boarding passes, they informec us that our flight to San Francisco was delayed by 30 minutes. They tried everything they could to re-route us to make sure we didn't miss our International flight to Tokyo. They couldn't find any other way to get us there, so we decided to chance it and headed through securty.
Now- the homeopathic drops Melanie was bringint to help Eric can not be exposed to X-Rays so we had to talk to 7 different agents to finally recieve a hand check for the medicine and met the most Ronchy cow of a TSA Agent you've ever met in your life. After a full cavity search of her person and hand checking her bag and the medicine for "explosives" we finally made it to the gate.
Justin called me as I was watching this happen from afar off and asked me what was going on. I more accurately described it to him as her "being she-raped on the other side of a glass cubicle." It was intense. We finally made it to our gate, and it didn't take long for our flight to be delayed again- and again- and again. Our plane was supposed to leave @ 11, and we finally departed at 2:24. While at our gate we met two middle aged ladies who were traveling to Thailand also.
They visited with us about what was going on with Eric and were friendly. We all missed the connecting internation flight to Tokyo for sure, so Melanie booked a hotel and we flew over to San Fran.
Walking off the plane there was a sweet little agent named Lilly who hwas holding a sign with our named on them. She had been notified as a global support agent of our situation because of Monty's status as a premier meember which was what landed us the great flights in the first place. She had already issued us new tickets to depart the next day, hotel rooms, meal vouchers etc. She was an angel.
We didn't have to run to see if the plane was still there- hoping it had been delayed because of weather also. I was so glad to see her.
After she helped us, she also helped our two little friends from SLC, she change dtheir flights also and Melanie gave them the reservation she had made for us since we now had new ones.
We got our shuttle from the airport to the Water Front Embassy Suites where wee were staying and got checked in. We were both staving and so we ate at the hotel restaurant for dinner. Grilled Salmon for Melanie and Penne pasta Marinara for me. Their artichoke spinach and cheese appetizer dip was to die for. After we filled up on that we got back on the shuttle and went back to the airport to find the BART station, which is San Francisco's version of a subway.
We rode from the airport down to Powell street where we got on "the nations oldest moving monument" which were the calbe trolley cars that are sitll a major part of the city's transportation syste. While we waited in the long line, we watched brake dancers in the street and differen't homeless men playing the "drums" on 5 gallon buckets, wine bottles, frying pans- etc. They were actually really good.
Once on the trolley it got crowded really fast, but we would still see out the windows behind us. We headed down the city of "rolling hills" towards Pier 30 and the Fishermans Warf. All the hills and "bookshelf houses" reminded me of something you would see on an Italian country side. It was so picturesque. There were beautiful- and not so beautiful wrought iron gates over all the doors and windows. We passed one shop owner closing down his store and we counted him lock 4 different padlocks on the gate before he left. It was unique and creepy and beautiful at the same time. Once we got to the pier, we had to stop and buy extra jackets because it was freezing cold outside, and the cold breeze made it so much worse.
We walked around the Pier and saw the Berdidi store where they made all different kinds and shapes of an amazing french bread. We didn't go in, but walked by as Melanie told me all about it. We walked out to a lookout to take pictures of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge. Then we went to the Ghiradelli store and got Ice cream and looked through the galss at the old original 1832 equipment that explained the process of making their chocolate while we got to see it in action. After ice cream, it was getting dark and cold and late so we went and stood in another huge line to catch the trolley back down to Powell street. We passed Lombardi street that time, which is the crookedest street in the world, and also passed China town. We landed right bck where we started and ran into the 3 story Forever 21 store to bouy me some clothes for today since my checked bag got forwardedto the international flight for the next day. We made it back to BART then back to the shuttle at the airport and finally back to the hotel. We were both so so tired. Neither of us remembered laying our heads on our pillows.
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