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So, after being rejected at the museum (it had been closed for hours already) I decided to find food. I wasn't super hungry, but I was downtown, and there were lots of restaurants, so I should eat. So I moved my car once again, this time finding a nice underground parking garage (what I had wanted from the start but couldn't find the first couple of times.) Going up the elevator from the parking garage of course led me... back into the maze of shops and tunnels.
This time I had an idea of where I wanted to go though. There was this one pub/restaurant I had seen. So I navigated my way through the maze, back past the library and other landmarks, to a restaurant that in fact was only a block or so from where I had stayed that first night in Winnipeg. It was "Pasta La Vista". I just liked the name. Plus it was open, seemed to have a nice croud, but not too crouded, etc.
I sat in the bar/lounge half of the restuarant and had a mahgerita pizza. It was a fine pizza. I read the local newspaper while eating.
After having my fill, I headed straight back to the hotel. That was enough excitement for one evening. I settled in for an evening of catching up on email, working on the trip log, and watching various news channels on the television.
Once it got late enough that I was thinking I should probably go so sleep so as to be rested for the flight, I turned the lights out and went to sleep. Got a good 8 hours.
In the morning, I had to pack up to leave. I had tried to open as little as possible while at the hotel, since I had basically packed up back at the lodge. Butt I took this opportunity to take some of the stuff that I had with me in the car... the GPS, the satellite radio, the cell phone charger, and stuff them in my big suitcase so I wouldn't have to carry them on the flight with me in my backpack. I wore the nifty little dual layer sweathurt thing I'd gotten at Big Whiteshell Lodge, and then checked out and headed for the airport.
They had just installed new self-checkin machines that the staff was all excited about. So one of them grabbed me out of the check in line and asked me to use the machine. He said he would guide me through it. I actually knew how to use them, so he didn't have to tell me much. But two of them were watching over my sholder the whole time, obviously very excited about the new system. It worked perfectly and printed my pass, which they then still had to manually review for secuity and put a little mark on. Then it was off to US customs. As I left, the boarding pass gave me a nasty papercut on my right thumb.
As I walked up to customs, the guy held up a little clicker, said I was #90, so they were going to do a detailed inspection of my bags. Lovely. Meanwhile, my thumb was bleeding. And in order to carry them more effiently, I was wearing both my coats. I am swealtering. And now with this customs thing, I was really starting to sweat. When they did the review of my bags they might find my illicit... uh... well... nothing. All I had was a bunch of clothes, my GPS, and some magazines and info packets from grad schools.
But I went in the little room for the customs search. The lady opened up my bag, poked around a little bit, then said all was fine. So I had to struggle with the suiotcase again to get it closed, then I was on my way to the real security check. They finally took my big bag to be put under the plane (checked all the way to Newark) then I went through the standard X-Ray thing. The two coats were getting to me. The blood coming from my thumb was getting to me. I was extremely hot. I probably looked quite suspicious. I was sure the full cavity body search was next. "Sir, could you open your bag for us?". Yup, the laptop batteries got their attention. They just wanted to search the bag though. I once again opened it up and they rooted through it. Nothing suspicious. Thank you very much sir.
Then it was a 30 minute wait or so for my flight, then into the plane and up into the air.
The flight to the US was short, but as I was passing over the border, I had enough time to finish watching that Twilight Zone DVD. The only thing left were some of the extras, which were all just text things. So I didn't take that long. Other than that it was just up, over and down.
Minneapolis was supposed to be a short layover. Less than an hour. So after arriving, I headed straight for my gate, although stopping to grab some lunch would have been nice. I passed by dozens of stores and shoppes and such in the central area.
On the way to my gate I saw a sign advertizing wireless internet in the airport. Woo! If I had any time I'd be able to get online. And sure enough, when I got to my gate the plane was delayes. It was at the hanger completing some "routine maintenence" and would be at the gate "any minute now". I sat down at my gate, with a view of the plane they had inside the terminal for show and play.
Since I had some time I got online using the 802.11b supplied by the airport, although you had to pay, which is annoying. And at first it didn't like my credit card, although it took it on the third try. I must have been doing something wrong the first times.
So I got online, did a little email and such, and then the plane finally arrived. I let them board a bit while I finished a few emails, then hurried and put my laptop away and was one of the last people to get on the plane.
On the flight home I looked out the window...
Then I read the Globe and Mail newspaper from Canada, I listened to some music, and I wrote some of my trip log. Minneapolis to Newark is a surprisingly short flight. They didn't even give us a meal. Just pretzyls, although I did get three of the little bags of them. Thank Northwest for that.
As we arrived in Newark and we were getting ready to get off the plane, I made one big mistake... I checked the voicemail on my cellphone. There was a message from Loretta at work. A meeting had been scheduled for 14:30 UTC the next day (I normally don't come in until 15:00 UTC at this time of year) with myself, my boss and my boss's boss, to go over my project, and "change the approach and priorities" because there were some issues. Grrr! I had no idea what the changes were, they might even be good (or they could be bad). I had no idea. But my nice relaxed vacation state was over. I could feel my blood pressure rising. I could feel the stress growing. I was getting mad as well. Ugh! Welcome back to New Jersey! (As a postscript, the meeting turned out to not be that bad, and not be a major change, just a couple of additional things to do which were no big deal.)
So, with my mind racing and stewing over all that, I headed to baggage claim. And the baggage belt kept malfunctioning. The airport people kept having to climb up on top of it and hit the reset button. So it seemingly took forever, and eventually my bag came.
At around this time, I realized that I couldn't find my parking stub. On trips like this I usually keep it in one particular pocket of my backpack. It wasn't there. I quickly checked all the other pockets I could easily access. I even considered opening up the main suitcase and rummaging through everything. But that would be too messy, and take too long to repack.
I got on the monorail to the parking lot, found my car, and decided to just head for the exit without the stub. At the gate I told them I had lost it, and expected to just end up paying some astronomical "maximum stay" number. But instead, they took my licence and registrtion, photocopied them, asked me when I had parked, and basically pretended I had the ticket and let me go. but they did hold me there about 10 minutes while they SLOWLY did everything. And then they let me go.
Usually in these cases, before I leave the airport lot, I get all my car electronics hooked up again. But this time I was in a hurry. I wanted to be home before 00:00 UTC so I wouldn't have to log a full day 7 for the web site. So I left the GPS and XM radio in the suitcase, and got on the turnpike. Which was slow to a crawl. (Turns out someone was broken down and everybody was going around them.) It was also rush hour I suddenly realized. Drat! Late rush hour, but still rush hour. But the jam did not last too long. I sped the rest of the way home at full speed.
I got to my apartment. I dragged my big heavy bag up the stairs. The key was where Kathy said she would leave it. And then I was in. Home! Yea! (Except for that whole work stress and not being on vacation any more part...)
The birds (Nacho and Brain) were happy to see me.
Well, OK, they were scared and ran to the back of the cage. That's happy, isn't it?
And thus ended Day 6, and the 2002 Q4 random vacation.
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