Day 1 - Toronto + Newark

Day 1 - Toronto + Newark #genevajordan2022

And we're off, I'll give up on the crazy idea that I'll finish tweeting about the last days of previous trips and just use my energy to start strong

This trip will be to Switzerland to visit my dad and the Jordan for a cousin-in-law's wedding, I think the second half will be more stressful just because it'll be a lot more family type obligations and commentary, Switzerland part we're more psyched about

Not to say the wedding itself won't be nice, just all the associated drama with being there especially for the wife, it's much easier for me as an outsider

Anywho, we're up early because from all reports the airport is a shit show here and we don't want to take any chances, we even put airtags in our checked baggage and bought a very cheap upgrade to first class for the first leg to Newark to hopefully not get owned by lines as much

Flight is at around 2pm in 7 hours or so but we're hoping to be there by like 9:30? Desperate times...

Just for future reference this is what I mean re: airport

"Toronto's Pearson Airport is so unbelievably bad that the New York Times is writing about it"

Now in the Uber to the airport, 10ish mins off schedule but predicted ETA is about what we planned.

At the airport, checkin and baggage drop off lines were basically nonexistent and our first leg first class upgrade for $100 let us skip most of the (not too terrible) security line so far, waiting and next up US immigration

The line I wish we could take but my wife, while approved for Nexus, hasn't been able to get an appointment for an interview so in solidarity I go with the plebs today

Finally made it through, me being American let us skip a fair amount of the line

Now at the Maple Leaf Lounge due to our tickets, honestly it's not that great since I'd assumed Air Canada'd have a better one at their hub airport

Someone has a gorgeous cat with blue eyes walking around the lounge on a cat leash, it's so cute but I'm too scared to take a picture of it

Lounge time over, flight from Newark seems to be on time so we're gonna shop a bit

Forgot we're in the US pre-clearance zone which probably explains why the Air Canada didn't go all out since I'd imagine their bigger one is in the non-cleared zone. Our flight should arrive in 10 mins and then boarding in 20 after that.

People who start lining up 20 mins before boarding start are a vibe

Finally boarding

Now seated

Plane door is closed, taxiing soon

The united app and our airtags seem to indicate the bags are loaded onto the plane 😅

Liftoff soon, won't have roaming in Newark so until I get wifi 👋

Newark on time, next flight is close by so we have time to eat

All the food places have these tables that you can't actually use to order but so the wifi is garbage, it's not a great system if you're roaming...

I've been waiting like 40 mins to get an overpriced churrasco sandwich and she just got her burger that has literally no condiments, hate airport food places, wish they'd just have had a McDonald's or something

Food was unsurprisingly extremely unmemorable, now waiting for our flight that's been delayed 20mins due to some technical thing

At least the app says our baggage is already loaded onto the plane

Now leaving 6:05, another 15 min delays

It says 6:25 now but also seems like we're starting boarding now

The captain said the delay was due to an AC unit not quite allowing them to control the temp which is nice to let people know over a generic "technical difficulty"

Since I won't have signal on the plane I leave you all here, see you in like 8 hours

Just kidding? Looks like the free internet tier that's supposed to be for chat works for Twitter too?

Does it work for pictures too? Is it morbin' time?

(spoiler alert it was not, nor will it be morbin' time)

Ended up watching Moana in Japanese just to see how it went since I hadn't seen it but figured it be easy to follow and it was, then I got like an hour of sleep but not much else

It's quieted down a bit but I feel bad for the wife cause she's struggled to sleep with yelling kids which I'm actually insanely good at tuning out and the person in front of her moving a ton

Just listening to some lofi while I read book 1 of The Expanse and I think we're like 2 hours out and change from landing

I'll probably start day 2 once we land since it'll be 7:30am

Landing in like 25 mins or so and then hopefully my travel esim works there

We. Have. Landed!