Florida - Day 16

This was an exceedingly long and stressful travel day.  We left the house at 9:30am in order to return our rental van by 11:00am.  However, we struggled to get in to the gas station as the entrance was blocked and then traffic on the toll road to the airport was very busy, but we made it in around 10:30am.  Once in the airport, we got in a ridiculously long line for Burger King for lunch and after what seemed like almost an hour had the kids fed.  Then we boarded our flight and easily flew to Toronto.

I don't think it is a secret, but Pearson is a horrible, horrible airport.  The Canadian customs area was a gong show with self serve terminals and thousands of people with no idea where to go, because a flashing green light at the end of a long line of people is not easy to see.  Plus, the terminal only allows five people in a group and there were six of us, so we had to find a human to talk to, which is practically impossible in a modern airport.

Once we got through customs, we entered a baggage area, where it was very poorly communicated that our baggage was going straight through and then we finally exited into the main airport with no idea where to go and, again, no humans to talk to.  Our flight to Regina wasn't until 9:25pm and wasn't on any boards, so we had no idea what gate to even head towards or if we were in the right terminal.  After finally finding a human, we entered an exceedingly slow security line that was very difficult to get through.  I'm starting to hate airport security - the workers berate you for doing things wrong, but spend no time telling you what is right.

After security, we met Rene, who had left Orlando super early, spent five hours in Atlanta and had then flown to Toronto.  We had supper and found a place to park ourselves for five hours until our flight left.

Our flight was late boarding and at a crowded gate with no seats and more employees berating us for doing things wrong rather than telling us what was correct.  Once on the plane, we sat for 45 minutes, most of it without air conditioning, as they tried to get the plane working.  Of course, the plane was broken, so we had to get off of it and wait for a new plane before we could leave.  The kids were super tired at this point - Bradley was quite upset and he and Jonathan ended up falling asleep on the benches.  Finally, around 12:20am, we boarded our new plane and flew back to Regina, arriving at 2:30am - 2.5 hours late.

I went to grab a cab, but an Air Canada flight from Toronto had also been delayed and all the cabs were already taken.  The last cab leaving stopped and asked if I wanted to go with him and he would drop me off after the other passenger in the cab, so I said yes.  At home, I picked up our van and returned to the airport for my family.  We got home and got everyone into bed around 3:30am, thus ending our Florida Christmas trip.