With all of the problems, and all of the heartache trying to get to Halifax, you'd think going home would be easy.  You'd be wrong.  The only flight out with seats available was on Saturday.  By pushing the customer service person at the airport, we managed to get ourselves wait-listed for the last flight going to Seattle on Friday.  2 hours of tense waiting later, the gate agent decided the people from a Lufthansa flight weren't going to make it through customs in time and gave us their seats.

Home! HOME!!

No luggage.

We talk to the United representative at baggage claim and find out our luggage is still in Dulles.  This isn't entirely a surprise as they'd warned us this would likely happen since we'd gotten on the flight so late.  However, instead of "Your luggage is in Dulles, it will be on the next flight out.", we heard "The last scan is Dulles, but that was a while ago.  It should still be there, and we'll do our best to get it to you."  Not as reassuring.

It's now Sunday.  United Bag Track now says they can't locate our bags.  At all.  So we spent $1200 to not go to Halifax and to give clothing, shoes, toiletries, etc to the baggage system.  I'm really hoping United will help us out here, but somehow, I doubt it.  All of their rules say they don't have to help us in the slightest because we decided to go home.  Nevermind the fact that IF we had gotten to Halifax on Saturday night (the absolute earliest we could have, provided many people canceled and the flight didn't), we would have had one full day in Dorchester (essentially a one-day drive away from Halifax) before turning around to fly home.  Not the relaxing vacation we were hoping for, by any stretch of imagination.

United, if you're listening (and you will be shortly if the letter we're sending reaches anyone), please make this right. 

I decided to make the museum and the airport separate posts because one was relatively happy whereas this one... is not.  After the shuttle snafu, we still made it to the airport with plenty of time.  While the rest of the group wanted to check on their bags, we had done this the night previously and decided to head to the gate.  We said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch since we all live in the same general area and they have kids similar in age to Isobel and Henry. 

Off to the gate.  Off to depression.

I guessed that we would be taking off from the A gates since we were flying United Express but Charles wisely wanted to find a departures display before we hopped on the buses for any of the gates.  And there it was.  Canceled.  All this way, all this expense, all this rush.  Canceled.  Charles dialed United Customer Service from the number saved in his phone and we hopped on a bus to the Customer Service Counter just in case.

Once he got to a supervisor, we found out that all flights to Halifax had been canceled.   For the next two days.  We decided to go home. 

On Friday, the group of us abandoned by United decided to make lemonade out of our lemons and go to the National Air and Space Museum - Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center before our late afternoon flights.  It was about 15 minutes away from the hotel whereas everything else was more like 45 minutes. 

The Center houses many of the big planes that won't fit in the main museum like the Enola Gay, a Concorde, and the Enterprise Space Shuttle (training shuttle).  It's an amazing facility, out in the middle of nowhere.  And, while the planes were gorgeous, I was most excited about the gift shop, where we were able to find t-shirts to replace our worn-for-two-days-on-a-plane stinky ones. 

We spent about 2 hours exploring and then went outside to wait for the shuttle.  We'd agreed with the driver before leaving that he would pick us up at 1 pm so we made sure to be out there by 12:30, just in case.  But of course, given out luck thus far, the shuttle would not be arriving at 1.  It wouldn't even be arriving at 1:30.  After calling and berating the hotel and convincing them that yes, leaving us stranded at a museum when we had a plane to catch really was their problem, the shuttle finally arrived at 1:40.  Luckily, we managed to convince (coerce) the driver into waiting to also take us to the airport once we'd grabbed our backpacks.

I've included some photos from the museum for your educational edification.

Well, life is never easy. We are now sitting on the plane while the maintenance crew checks for the leak in the hydraulics that is causing the puddle. They've agreed to let us off the plane shortly to wander while they work. We've missed our connection to Halifax but the United team has been amazingly good at helping us find new routings, seats together, etc.

So we made it to the airport today only to find out that our flight to Dulles had been canceled and that I had forgotten my passport.  A truly stunning start to our Halifax adventure. 

However, silver linings and all that, we are able to have a "do-over" tomorrow on the exact same routing.  And Charles received the actual letter from the MP today, versus the fax of the letter we had, so we're that much more legitimate.  We had considered seeing if the customs folks would let two people without passports go through but the flight cancellation came up at that point, giving us a graceful way to fix the problem. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventures across North America.  Fingers crossed the worst we will face is some time bitching with the guards about Passport Canada.