Back to the Homeland

Long friggin' day.

I couldn't sleep well because I kept thinking that I was late and going to miss the plane. Finally got up at 3:15 and woke Keith up, took the next 45 minutes to cram everything that was so poorly packed into a manageable amount of baggage to carry--IE: one checked, 2 carry on and a pillow (stuffed like a carry-on)!

Had to wake Anibal up to get money for the cab and to say goodbye since his stoneage cellphone alarm didn't go off. Once again I almost lost it. I'm telling you...it's the people that make it so hard for me to leave a place.

There was an electric storm over the mountains beyond the city lights that creep up the hills into the crevices where the rivers run down...hasta luego, San Jose.

Keith and I were craving CR food as was clear from our search efforts through the airport for some gallo pinto before we left. No luck...only pizza hut, burger king, and cinnabon. We settled for the latter. Saw Linsey arrive just as we were boarding the plane...goodbye Costa Rica.

I passed out immediately...didn't even make it long enough to watch as we flew away.

Got to Colorado slightly early, around 11:55, and attempted to look into standby for an earlier flight to either San Fran or San Jose but it was a good $150 so we decided to forget about it and chilled out in an airport bar for 4 hours just talking.

1st sign of withdrawal was flying in and seeing how flat the US is, and the second was going to the bathroom and not knowing where to throw the toilet paper since there was no TP garbage can available...I'm still boggled.

After 4 hours or so, Pat Quintana from CUA (and Mission Honduras, as may be remembered) showed up to rescue us from our 9 hour layover and take us to downtown Denver, CO. It was actually an absolutely beautiful city and I really appreciated the public transportation and mall that were created along a pedestrian street. If only Buffalo could get their acts together to restore and regenerate...it could be that incredible....*sigh.*

Hit up the Hard Rock Cafe, because what's more American than that? The portions here are ginormous...I need to watch out.

By 8pm we were back at the airport, saying goodbye to Pat, thanking him for the beer bottle in the trunk that had exploded on my pillow case, and for the great afternoon in Denver. And before we knew it, we were back on a plane headed to San Francisco.

The turbulence was scary and I was so uncomfortable in the center seat that I wanted to crawl out of my skin...and be anywhere but on that plane. I finally fell asleep for the last 30 minutes of the 3-or-so hour flight...miserable.

Got in and were greeted by Keith's parents, and headed to San Jose. We've been up talking and need to wake up super early in order to make it back to SFO for Amber's flight in the morning with the traffic so it's officially bedtime.