Vacation tri-athalon

I'm not good at the relaxing vacations.

My sister and I have been going since she stepped off the plane last Friday afternoon. I'm paying for it now.

We went to a party with some of my work friends Friday night, and met a couple of them for breakfast the next morning. Then we went hiking in the wilderness area nearby where I live. Sunday after church we did a 30-mile bike ride, the last hour of which was in the dark.

Monday we went for a run and took a little time by the pool before packing up to go camping Monday night and climbing Tuesday.

Amanda joked that she felt like she was in fat camp. Yeah, because she really has gotten chubby for a skeleton.

Still, it felt a little like our hardcore old days, just with more neck pain and sore muscles.

Lessons learned: She may have a different last name now, but she's still hardcore.

Crossing my fingers

My sister, Amanda, is coming to see me tomorrow!

Maybe I shouldn't write this, or I might jinx it. Usually I'm not so superstitious, but my sister has a travel curse, and I am definitely tempting fate. Especially considering she only has a half-hour layover. Normal uncursed people would probably arrive on time and slip onto their seat on the next plane with their luggage right behind them.

I am predicting a tsunami will overrun Great Falls, Montana, where she lives, and wipe out the entire five planes that make up the airport's fleet. They will put her on a bus to Missoula to catch a second plane, but the bus will be hijacked by members of a Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization. My sister is pretty savvy, so she will escape and hitchhike the rest of the way to catch her flight.

By then of course, she will have missed her connection and have to stay over night in Salt Lake City. But, there will be a cold snap that selectively freezes all the fluid lines in every plane flying to Sacramento. (I don't even know if there are such things as fluid lines in planes, but if there are, they will freeze.)

In the meantime, she will discover a new rule passed overnight requiring passports to travel to California, and realize that her passport is in storage back in Montana. After having it overnighted to her, she will arrive only to find out her luggage was sent to Guam.

So I'm being over-dramatic, but I've learned to expect the unexpected when my sister gets in a car or airplane.

Lesson learned: I am not as creative as her real-life curse.

Travel curse strikes again

My little sister has somehow inherited my dad's bad travel luck. It never fails. Whether her car blows up and she ends up hitchhiking on the Interstate or her Rugby team gets pulled over on suspicion of drug trafficking, something always happens.

So part of me wasn't surprised to see the subject in an email from my mom: "Amanda missed her flight." We were to arrive about the same time in Tokyo and meet up at the hotel Saturday.

The reason that Amanda missed the plane was because she had forgotten her passport. And by that, I don't mean left it on the kitchen table. It hadn't even made the list of things to bring when she was packing. It just so happens that she is in the process of moving to a new place, so all her things are packed up in storage. She had to call a cab (she had taken a taxi to the airport) then rifle through her boxes. She made it back to the airport just in time, but security wouldn't let her through.

After some scrambling, pleading and begging, she made it on a flight the next day. But that one was cancelled because the plane had hit a bird upon landing. The flight she arrived on was delayed because of birds on the runway. They actually landed and took off again.

As if to add insult to injury, the beautiful warm weather turned cold and rainy today.

I'm just glad she made it at all. I thought for sure her plane would get hit by a mile-high tsunami or would spontaneously combust.


Lesson learned: If Amanda wasn't such a good travel partner, I should find a new one. It could save my life.