Well, we’ve crossed the ocean. And what a crossing it was! I had fretted the entire evening prior to leaving about the whole weight of the bags versus how many checked bags, etc thing. You see, we flew British Airways this time because, well, frankly I have had it with United. We used up our free United miles to get to Spain and now I plan on canceling the card with them and recovering from our unhealthy relationship. And so I was free to date fly other airlines again.

Which meant I could go with the cheapest fare. Which, in this case, meant British. Now perhaps you more land-bound people do not realize that British Air has a…ummmm….reputation. And it’s not pretty. Similar to British people in general, they like to make up a lot of rules and live by them. For example: Your luggage ABSOLUTELY cannot be over-weight or they will charge you something like a million pounds for each pound over (heh. get it…pound for pound? I amuse myself.) Also, if you are traveling from one European destination to another European destination, you can only check in one bag each–which, of course, canNOT be over weight. But, if you are traveling from Europe to say, the U.S., you get two bags each. And ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY no more than ONE carry-on. Of course, if you can fit two carry on bags into one, then you can walk through security and unpack the second bag and then have two carry-ons—a loophole to the rule.

Well, anyways, you get the idea about the rules. So, I was concerned. Our first flight was from Malaga to London, and therefore a Europe-to-Europe destination, meaning we could only check a bag in each. Problem. We are moving home people. We have more than one bag each. But, being so intelligent as I am, we had two big bags and two small ones and two backpacks. This way I was ready for any rule. Only one bag each? No problem. Check in the big ones and attach the smaller ones in some fashion to the backpacks to get through security. Allowed two bags each (because, umm, technically we ARE flying over an ocean), no problem. Check in the two bigs and the two smalls and carry the backpacks. Now…the question of weight. See, the big bags can become heavy very quickly. So I strategically packed those full of only clothes, nothing else. The small bags housed all the books, movies, CDs, shoes, etc. This should help distribute our weight allowance.

So, as you can see, a lot of thought went into all this. A LOT of thought. Perhaps, some might say, too much. Especially when you consider how the whole check-in process went:

Agent: Passports, please. (Oh…did I mention I had accidentally, completely soaked my passport while I was in Spain? Oops…I was just hoping they would still take it. If not, I guess I would have had no choice but to live there….)

Us: Ok. Here you go.

Agent: (typing, typing, typing) Would you like me to check your bags all the way though to Canada, even though you change airlines in Seattle?

Us: Yes, please, that would be great!

Agent: How many bags?

Us: (wincing) Two each.

Agent: Ok. Just load them all up here and I will put the tags on them. Have a nice flight. Bye bye.

That was it. No weighing, no arguing, no fuss at all. Bizarre. And if you can believe it, things only got better. We got to London and went through our obligatory 28 security checks and arrived at our gate early enough to have a Starbucks coffee and spend some time on the internet. Then, when we were getting on the plane (the 10 hour flight one), we did our usual drooling over those super-snazzy sleeper beds in First Class. We passed the First Class cabin and adjusted our backpacks to head back to the cattle car when all of a sudden, we looked up and realized that our tickets said 21A and B, and there we were at 21A and B, which just so happened to be in Business Class. And not just in Business Class, but they were the bulkhead seat of Business Class, meaning no other seat in front of us. In fact, just one sheer, blue curtain separated us from First Class.

I could not believe it. We clearly did not pay for Business Class. We had stretched already to prepare for the yoga poses we would do in the cattle car. Mark started settling all in and I refused. I insisted there must be another row 21 in the back of the plane. I stood and waited for the line to walk by and then I did perhaps the dumbest thing in my life, which was to ASK the flight attendant if indeed there was another Row 21 because clearly my husband and I were in the wrong seats. The dude laughed at me. Out loud. And said in his British accent, “No, love, you are fine where you are at”. I took that as a sign to settle in. And so I did. I mean, PEOPLE, we were in a curtained area. Those poor economy people could not even enter our cabin. Heh. Heh.

So I played with the fancy TV screen that lifts out of the arm rest and reclined my seat, which just so happened to have another feature where the bottom has a foot rest that lifts up like a Barco-lounger. I tried on my little eye mask for sleeping and inspected the toothbrush you get in Business Class (you know, so we don’t smell like those Economy Class people). All the while, Mark acted like he belonged there, all nonchalant with his newspaper open and legs all crossed. As if he flew Business Class all the time.

And so the flight was fantastic! I was even sorry it ended. We caught our next 20-minute flight from Seattle to Victoria with no problems, and now we are here. It is really amazing here. Soooooo different from Spain of course. everything is all green and foresty and people have these amazing little gardens. Yesterday we walked around some of the reserves and checked out the port and downtown. We have plans to go crabbing (like on Deadliest Catch, except on a much, much smaller scale. But in my mind it will be like the TV show), and fishing, and looking for bears where the salmon are running. The nature here is amazing and the air is so clean. I can see why the Canucks are such peace-loving people.

Oh…and we are in civilization, staying with one of Mark’s business partners. So clearly, we have high-speed wireless internet, because…duh!…Mark’s business partners wouldn’t be caught dead without it. Which means that when I randomly wake up at 3am with my jet lag, I can upload photos of Spain and Canada here. Woooohoooooo! So look for them soon!