Travel Day ~ ALL Day!! Toronto to Ely

 

We called the Beck taxi service yesterday to schedule an 8:30 am pick-up time to go to the airport. 

Leaving the apartment

We got all ready to leave.  The traffic was definitely worse on a Monday morning than on a Tuesday night. There had been an accident, which slowed the traffic down. But we made it to the airport in plenty of time.  Kris and Jeanne got their boarding passes OK.  Kris checked her bag.  Sharon and I went up to the assistance desk since we were not able to check in online.  Sharon checked her bag. I don't know why I could not check in online. Once we all had our boarding passes we headed off to go through security.  That is when the trouble began.. 

Note the 4 'Ss' (maybe that stands for extra security) in the bottom right corner.  That means I had been randomly selected to have an extra security pat down.  Maybe that was why I couldn't sign in online before. So I had the full wand scan, then a partial pat down.  They took me over to another area and did a full pat down.  When that was done  I went back to my luggage and they went through everything in my carry-on and shoulder bag with the wand.  They almost forgot to give me my stamped boarding pass back.  When they gave it back to me they told me to be very careful to not rub off the red stamp.  If it came off I would have to do that whole pat down again.  Argh.  I was very careful with it.

Washroom art work (I liked both of PDX and MSP restroom artworks better)

We found a sit-down restaurant that we could go to for lunch.  

International condiments.

Jeanne and I split a breakfast wrap.  Not very exciting.  Sharon had a breakfast poutine and Kris had a big salad.

We managed to find our gate.  It was down an escalator in a small room gates 6d, 6e, 6f.  I don't know where a, b, and c were.  When it was getting closer to boarding time they called me forward to check my boarding pass to check if it had the stamp..  Luckily, I had been very careful so I did not have to go back through security again.

In line to get on the plane.

It was a small plane.  The flight was mostly uneventful.  When we were nearing the end of the flight we saw a flash out the left side of the plane (near Sharon and Kris) and heard a big bang.  Everyone jumped and gasped.  No announcement from the pilot or crew.  They went on business as usual I guess.  When we were getting off the plane, we asked the pilot and that is when he told us that we had been struck by lightening!!! I have never had that happen before.  We were thinking maybe one engine had blown and maybe we were going down. ;-) But it was all OK.  Just added some excitement.

We landed in Minneapolis and headed for the ground shuttle service place.  MSP is a huge airport but we found where we needed to go.  

The Shepard Road Local Parking Shuttle was waiting for us.  It is a great service.  Jeanne uses it each time they have to leave their vehicle.  It is a door to door service.  They take you to your vehicle.  It was raining so it was extra nice to go from one covered area to another covered area.  

We drove to Tobie's Restaurant in Hinckley, MN for an early dinner.  We got there about 4 pm.  But then we had lunch around 10:30 am so it was all good.  

Jeanne and I split the chicken salad sandwich and we each had tomato soup.

Then Jeanne bought some pecan caramel rolls to take home for breakfast.  I have had them before and I know that not only do they look yummy but they taste yummy.

We saw a cool rainbow which started as just a partial but soon became a full one.

We had a gas stop in Cloquet 

It rained most of the drive, but it had stopped by the time we got to Ely. We made one bathroom stop at this 3 way continental divide rest stop.  I am not sure how any figured this out.

The moon is waxing

Coming in to Ely

We got to Jeanne and Jay's about 8 pm.  Jay came out to help drag everyone's suitcases up the 30 steps.  What a guy because he also made a cheese plate for us!  We enjoyed the wine and cheese once everyone was situated.  Sharon was in Don & Margie's room, Kris was in the upstairs guest room and I was in the twin room.  When I come to visit at other times, I usually am in the upstair guest room. 

Jay had a nice cheese plate and wine waiting for us. We were going to pull out our left-over cheeses to add to the plate, when we realized that no one had actually packed the cheeses, so they are back in the refrigerator in Toronto!! 

It was a long travel day.  It will be nice to a few a days to relax.