The AMAZING RACE...without the cash prize

What an AMAZING RACE…and not in a fun million dollar way.

I awoke at 3 am and we left the house at 4. Upon arriving at Norfolk International Airport, my daughter (lovely Sami) insisted she wait with me to make sure my luggage was not overweight (50 lb limit). We had weighed it at home and it was at 49.5 pounds.

So, we are waiting in a line that reached out the door. There are only two United attendants on duty!!!! As we approach 5 am, a worker comes out to tell us that the United flight to Dulles was cancelled! Okay, now what? I looked around to see if anyone looked like they were packed like me…we have special tags for our luggage. Kathleen was three people away. We introduced ourselves and said “let’s stick together.” As we approached the desk (after waiting another 15 minutes), we announced that we were together and needed to get to San Francisco. After an agonizing wait, the lady said she would rebook us on Northwest Airlines to leave at 6:15. Mind you, it is 5:45 by this time. She told us we needed to take our luggage to NWA and have it checked. We did, they made a mistake on Kathleen’s luggage, we waited and, finally, off we RAN. When we got to the security desk, we found the wrap-around “fake you out Disney line.” Finally, we are up to the scanner and they call for “an escort” for both of us. We waited. They took us separately to different areas, searched our luggage, wiped it down, patted us down, aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

In the meantime, we can hear our names being called. When security let us go, we all out RAN down the hall. Fortunately, Kathleen had little luggage and is much younger and got there pretty fast. I was about 15 steps behind her. We walked on and they shut the door. Too close.

Uneventful flight to Detroit. When we get ready to get on, Kathleen had not been assigned a seat and they didn’t have her going to San Francisco. Fortunately, ONE seat was available. What else can happen?

The next five hours, I sat in the center row.

When we finally arrived in SF, we were, of course, at NWA. We waited and waited and waited for our luggage. Remember we were the last ones on the plane. Yea! It was there. We then walked and walked (with luggage) over three terminals to meet our group.

We were bussed to the Sheraton (lovely), quickly fed lunch (we were starving), asked to change into our “meet the ambassador” clothes and then had meetings the rest of the afternoon.

I met the other people in my group…fascinating. I’ll tell you about them later.

That evening we went to the Official Residence of the Japanese Consul General Yasumasa Nagamine. His beautiful house overlooked the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.

I met a girt I was with at Pearl Harbor last year, talked to the Consul General, and discreetly covered my many yawns. I was exhausted.

About 1 am (my time), we got back to the hotel and collapsed.

Just found out I had free internet access here in the lobby of the Sheraton...so I am waiting for the bus to take me to the airport. I will talk to you soon.