Most everyone else with whom we
returned to San Jose was to leave for the airport mid-morning, for their
respective flights back home. Our flight -- a non-stop to Dulles -- did
not, however, depart until 4pm, so had the day to ourselves. I'd used
some of the preceding day's bus ride to locate a spa near the hotel, at which I
booked massages and/or facials for the three of us. It was interesting to
do, as I did it all over Whassup and had to use the auto-translate feature, as
neither of us shared a common language. They had agreed to open 30
minutes early for us, so that we could all be done by noon, which would leave
us time to eat, do last-minute packing, and be ready for our airport transfer
at 1:45pm.
It was Tuesday morning, and the
preceding Sunday had been the major snow and ice storm that hit the U.S. East
Coast. DC was caked in ice and the government had already been closed for
two days. Flights were snarled all over, too. I had been tracking
our flight, which seemed unaffected, particularly as our plane was originating
in San Jose (we flew on Avianca). At breakfast this morning, however, we
found that all the other members of our group had had their respective flights
cancelled. They were all on flights to either Miami or Houston, and
everything was shut down. They had all been rebooked, but they couldn't
get out for two more days! Everyone with whom we spoke was taking it in
good spirits, but they were also trying to figure out for what they'd be compensated,
who would cover the hotel costs, etc.
The night prior, Monica had
told us that the effects of the East Coast storm would be reaching Costa Rica
the following day. Evidently, whenever there are major Polar vortexes in
the Eastern U.S., that drives very cold air down into the Caribbean, which
begins a chain reaction, with unexpectedly cold air being swept up the spine of
Central America, toward the Pacific coast. In a kind of oppositive
vortex, and that results in winds upwards of 60 miles an hour sweeping across
the country, causing all kinds of problems. We heard the wind in the
hotel during breakfast, and as we walked over to our spa, the winds got
stronger and stronger, to the point that we were afraid of having our phones
blown out of our hands or being physically blown over. During the spa
treatments, even though there was relaxing music playing, we could all hear the
wind howling outside like a tornado. On the walk back to the hotel
afterwards, I kept checking the Avianca app, as I was concerned about planes
being able to take off in such winds. Alas, everything still appeared on
time, and we were appropriately ready when our airport transfer arrived later.
The airport was not too busy,
but I was surprised at the number and variety of airlines, to include all the
major European carriers. The transfer service had set the departure time,
and as it turns out, they were overly generous, so we had about 90 minutes to
kill in the lounge before departure.
 |
| Still Fighting the Winds! |
Our flight actually departed
early and arrived about 45 minutes early into DC. The winds were fierce
during the takeoff, which was rough, but it soon smoothed out. We landed
about 10:00pm, and I was not sure how the remaining snow and ice would affect
us getting home, or even finding an Uber. It took a long time to get our
luggage, probably due to the extreme cold, but getting an Uber was surprisingly
not an issue. Our neighbor had arranged to have our driveway cleared, so
it was pretty easy to get to and into our house. The storm had been bad,
and our dog sitter had been unable to reach Chip for two days. We were SO
FORTUNATE that our neighbor across the street, who was herself home alone
during the storm, was able to save the day.
Anna and Katherine had to work
the next day, and I had been hoping Anna would stay the night with us and just
head to the office in the morning. She was, however, determined to get
home, despite the hour. It soon became apparent, though, that she would
be unable to get to her apartment, as she has street parking, and the roads in
Arlington are very narrow and we'd read about the problems trying to get them
cleared. She ended up diverting to Austin's apartment, as he has a
parking garage, and she was able to crash there, before he drove her close
enough to her apartment the following day, that she could walk over.
I felt guilty not having to get
up the following morning, but it was nice to have all that time to get things
unpacked and cleaned, and then begin to reflect on what a great trip we all had
together!
No comments:
Post a Comment