*The Tuesday before I left * - I headed to Des Moines to "sell" my car at CarMax. Yes, my intentions were to leave without a car that day before I left for the airport the next morning, but I drove away with the car once again. The dealers gave us about $3-$4,000 less than what we were expecting/hoping for! It was a rough day to start off the trip. Our awesome parents are taking care of selling it back in the states, which we are SO grateful for! Tony ordered new tires to have delivered to his parents house, so hopefully that will help any resale! Embarrassingly enough, when I was on FaceTime with Merlene and Wally, I asked Wally if he knew how to even put tires on. After I asked, I realized how absolutely ridiculous this sounded - that's like asking a tennis player if he or she knows how to serve. Andrew sure got a kick out of that one. ooooooh, I'll never learn with that Brown family ;)
So anyways, Tuesday night my parents and I stayed at my uncle Tom's place in Des Moines. We were spoiled with great company AND great wine :) not a bad last night in the states i'd say :). It was a lot of fun to be with Tom and Cathy - I hadn't been to their place for many years! It's such a beautiful place!
*Wednesday morning* - came bright and early. My parents were rockstars (along with Tom) helping me get things organized, packed, and ready to go. My flight was to leave at 9:37am for Denver. Mom, Dad, and I had breakfast at the airport, shed a few tears, and off I went to my gate for my flight - THAT DIDN'T END UP LEAVING UNTIL 1pm! Long story short, there was a storm in Chicago which prevented our plane that were were taking to Denver to never get to us. I missed the flight to Tokyo. D@**. I ended up staying in a nice hotel (thanks Beth Hoden for booking for me) that turned out to be ok. It was a huge bummer to go another 24 hours without seeing Tony, but If we can do months and months, we can do 1 more day. In hindsight, it turned out fairly well. I was able to mark off one connection flight, get a good workout in at the hotel, enjoy room-service, and get a decent night's sleep .
*Denver to Tokyo flight* - It was 11.5 hour flight. I thought going in it was going to be 13 or over, so this was GREAT news :) I'm sure most of you will argue with this, but 11.5 hour flight truly isn't that bad. I slept for a couple hours, watched 3 movies, ate 2 meals, one snack, and all the sake, wine, or beer I wanted (it was free). If you dive in to the thought of knowing you will be in that seat for that amount of time, you do make the best of it.
*Tokyo-Okinawa* - Once I arrived in Tokyo, a bit drowsy, and not too sure what to expect...it turned out pretty well. It took a little bit to get my whereabouts in order. I first went through customs, got my bags (see picture below), went through customs again - and then checked into my domestic flight. That was a pain in the butt because of all the bags I had to lug around. I couldn't see overtop of the cart..sure I ran over some toes on the way. And knowing how nice the natives are, they would have just smiled at me saying it was ok. Anyways, the flight to Okinawa was a bit long. 2 hours and 23 minutes. Long because I was so ready to see Tony, long because I felt like the trip should have been over after the 11.5 hour flight and getting my bags from the carrousel in Tokyo...but one more.
*Okinawa* - Finally. Arrived. As I was walking to get my bags, I was smiling ear to ear. Wide awake, feeling how great it was going to feel hugging Tony in a matter of seconds. I saw him, BUT he was on the other side of the glass door not able to come in to the baggage claim. You have got to be kidding me! So here he was, 30 ft from me and I had to wait about 20 mns for my bags to come out, load them onto the cart - and THEN go see him. Torture! :)
*Heading through the glass door* - Stopped the cart, arms wide open, and I was home.
Oh my gosh, total bummer about re-writing this, I hate when that happens! But..thank you for re-writing!! I am smiling ear to ear to read this and know that you two are finally together and "landing" somewhere for what I'll call an extended period of time:) I can't imagine those last minutes waiting for your luggage! No gross kissing the glass? :) Love you!
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