Tired, swollen, excited, and stunned...these are the words that I would use to describe me right now! The trip started out yesterday morning at 8:30 am it is not 5:00 pm the next day (Island time) and I am just heading to bed. I don't have the insight or the brain power to provide an good up date right now but we will be in Accra for a couple of days and have wireless at the hotel so I'll post a better one tomorrow.

Well it is now tomorrow! I slept like the dead last night and awoke feeling incredible. The melatonin that mom gave me seems to have worked well...it could also have been the 36 hours of travel with no sleep (I was awake for the better part of 45 hours!!) or the Smirnoff Ice I had on an empty stomach!!

Wednesday April 22 - Our flight left Vancouver at 12:05 and we were officially off to Ghana. It still didn't feel real though as we were all getting in our "lasts" of the trip. Trevor was excited to see a Tim's in the airport; whereas I was inclined to get my last Chai latte of the month! Everyone was busy getting rid of the Canadian money as it won't be used again until we return.

The flight to Miniapolois was good but the flight we were on didn't have any entertainment so we were left with reading and actually talking to each other! Our flight path took us over the Rockies and then through the Mid-west US. We flew of Fargo, ND but due to clouds were unable to see if the rivers were still flooding. Landing in Miniapolis showed that it is a community that plays baseball (think of the view of swimming pools when landing in L.A.) and does a lot of shipping. Everywhere we looked there were distribution warehouses with a lot of trucks parked in the lots. The airport is great but make sure you wander around and take a look at the options...it is rather like a mall. We ended up hiking to one end to eat only to discover that there was a much larger version of the same resturant much closer to our gate!!

The flight to Amsterdam was approximately 9 hours...just long enough for my ankles to turn to cankles! I guess I should have borrowed Gran's compression socks! The flight (Northwest Airlines oporated by Delta) was good. The food was okay but the entertainment was excellent. We had our own tvs complete with games, movies, tv, music, and more. Our flight path took us over Ontario, Labradour, and then just south of Iceland. Somewhere around Iceland we crossed over the Night/Day line and suddenly it was daylight when my body was saying...NIGHT!

I had a pretty amazing moment and was feeling really connected to Janay and my family...this occured when I flew over Scotland! The clouds parted and the sun was shinning and I had the opporutnity to just stare out the window and wonder about family, history, and of course...men in kilts! I could almost hear the bagpipes playing in the background! I may just have to go there on the way home next time. Once we had passed by the UK we coninued across the North Sea where the only thing visible for 100s of KM were the oil rigs. You would have to be a special person to be willing to work way out there. It made me think of the documentries that I've watched that showed how bad the storms can get in that area...marking isn't so bad!

Landing in Amsterdam was amazing - it looked like someone had made long snakes of differents coloured plasticine and layed them out in the fields. These are the Tulip fields - next year I may have to see if I can leave a couple of days early as I think seeing these fields in person would be an amazing chance. Anyway - the picture below is one that I took of a postcard as I was too busy looking out the window to take any photos on the flight!

The airport wasn't all that impressive where we were but I've been promised that other sections are amazing. As we have 8 hours to kill there on the way home I hope so. We quickly met up with Rick and then the Rotary crew but none of us saw Maggie so we were all boarding with a sense of anxiety. Of course she had arrived way before us and was sitting in the incredibly croweded section near our boarding gate...she was there the whole time we just didn't see her! I was incredibly thankful to see her when we boarded the plane.

Amsterdam airport requires you to go through security screening just before boarding the plane. The line up for our Boeing 777-200 started about 1 hour before departure and was HUGE! I now understand why...there were a LOT of people on the plane (seats were 3-3-3)! The screening was quick and unlike our experience with American customs (Jen S!!) no one got to experience the full pat down!

The flight path took us over the Alps and the Sahara which were both amazing. KLM was an amazing airline to fly with. The entertainment and food were great and the plane was good. The flight was about 7 hours and my cankles were nasty by the time I arrived.

I know that I'm way behind in postings but the trip has been pretty busy and tiring. I'll up date the post and catch up on monday.