Oh Canada!

Brad and I had to go to Oakville Canada for the International School Experiential Education Network Conference (ISEEN) last week. When we were asked to go I thought, Yes! That would be a great get away for the 2 of us right before the baby comes, but, as the time got closer I started to get a bit nervous about the whole thing. Everyone kept saying how they couldn't believe that "they" were letting me go…I couldn't figure out who "they" was, my doctor, the airlines, the insurance companies? My doctor said all was well. I went to see her just before I left, I definitely didn't check with the airlines or my insurance. We just hopped on the plane and hoped for the best.
Luckily, there was no baby drama on the planes.  We flew out of RIC to O'Hare and all was well until we got to Chicago. The plane left and arrived on time in Chicago but when we arrived, they apparently didn't have a gate for us. So, we sat on the tarmac for almost 2 hours. That was less than comfortable and took up our entire layover. Once we finally got off the plane we had to bust it as fast as we could to get to our next gate. We got on the plane on time, moved about 6" back from the gate, and then sat…for another 1.5 hours. UGH! My poor back. We arrived in Toronto pretty late and our rental car was re-rented to someone else. Nice. So, we just took a cab to Oakville (about 30 mins) rather than try to find another one. The bad part of not having the car was that we lost our flexibility. I booked us a day early so we could go to Niagra Falls in the morning before the conference started and we weren't able to do that. It was about 1.5 hours each way and not something we could do without a car. So, we made due. We strolled around Oakville and took in the sights. It's an adorable little town.
The conference itself was busy. We were up and moving from 7am - 9pm but it was exciting and we both got so much out of it. Next year it's at Andover in Boston and I would definitely like to head back.
Our flights home were uneventful and I was less nervous heading back. Everything was on time and on schedule and when we got to the airport in RIC our sweet Cy jumped out and surprised us. My parents brought him to meet us at the airport, it was such a wonderful surprise after not seeing him for 5 days!