Travels with the Trouts - Part 1

We are not Travellers.   We go to the same place for our holidays every year, the same place camping every year.  I have not been on an airplane since 1990 (how sad is that?).  So when Drunken Oma wanted to take us to Bermuda for March Break, we were all pretty excited.  She has been visiting the island for several years and thought it was something her grandchildren should see.  So Science Girl, Lego Boy, myself, my sister-in-law and niece boarded an Air Canada flight to Hamilton, Bermuda at some ungodly hour of the morning on the 7th of March.

The whole flying experience has drastically changed in the last 24 years.  I was a little taken aback, when I booked our flight, to find my "ticket" was just a piece of paper with a scanny thing on it and not the rectangular thing with the 3 pieces of carbon paper.  The travel agent must have thought I was a wee bit simple because I asked him about three times, "So this is my actual ticket?"  I was able to print our boarding passes the day before departure, again with the scanny things on them.  And when we got to the airport, we could actually print our luggage tags at a little computer.  I was beginning to wonder if I would come in contact with a human before I boarded the plane.

Air Canada, being what it is, does not provide you with any complimentary food; not even some sketchy peanuts or stale cookies with your drink which they do provide.  It was like being on some penal transfer van or something.  They probably only gave you liquid because there's likely some law that says you can't deprive people of fluids if they're in the air for more than an hour.  It reminded me of when Luddite Granny and I used to go to Ottawa on the Grey Coach at March Break when I was a kid.  She used to pack a lunch that she'd drag out about half way there and it was always warm and gross but you had to eat it because that's all there was.  

The flight there was quite turbulent; LB and I were trying not to barf and I had to dole out the Ginger Gravol and drink some pop so I didn't actually barf.  Good thing too because our row didn't have any "air sickness receptacles".  And did you know that the Safety Demonstration is not done live by the stewardesses flight attendants cabin crew anymore?  You watch the screen on the back of the seat in front of you, the same screen you can watch the latest movies on, which LB thought was the awesomest thing ever.  Where's the big screen at the front of the plane? 

After 3 hours, we arrived in Bermuda.  We got off the plane on the tarmac and walked to the terminal.  They only have 1 gate at the Bermuda International Airport which means there is only 1 plane landing at a time. Immigration was a snap, retrieving our luggage was a snap.  And there was a cabbie with a sign with our names on it waiting for us. 

So our adventure had begun.

What we saw as soon as we left the airport.