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xaq_the_aereon"I may not go back to the convention tomorrow. I'm thinking a visit to the museum is in order instead, followed by a late-night trip to the airport to get myself through customs and checked into my flight for tomorrow morning, so as to dodge a 4 AM wakeup just to make it on time. (That, and to be entirely honest, a cold stone floor and a suitcase-pillow may be more comfortable. A Hilton this may be, and awesome to look at the room may be, but HOLY CRAP THAT BED SUCKS.)"
That was my prognosis for the last day of my Toronto trip.
The museum visit did, in fact, happen, and the convention was indeed skipped. I must say, the Royal Ontario Museum is awesome...I'd actually forgotten how giddy I got as a kid looking at dinosaur fossils, but even as cool as that was, it paled in comparison to the exhibit they had on China's First Emperor and the Terracotta Army. They even had a few of the soldier-statues there, and I must say, those things were damned impressive.
Then, as planned, I went out to the airport that night, got through customs with virtually nobody in line ahead of me, got to my concourse, got as cozy as I could, set my alarm...
...and things immediately went to hell in a hand basket after that. Apparently, around 10:30 Eastern time, the concourse that Canada-to-US flights fly out of closes down, so I had to be escorted by security back out to the main side of things.
No problem, I figured, there was a Sheraton hotel right across the way, and 4 hours of sleep would still work...
All rooms booked.
My only saving grace was that the food court at the airport was open 24/7, so I went, must to my dismay, with plan C: Get a couple of Mountain Dews, slowly sip them through the night, and stay up until my Chicago-Anchorage flight.
Managed that, went through customs again, and found out something very not-fun: Lack of sleep + excess of soda = Perpetual state of extreme shakes and wanting to vomit. A state that lasted from, going by current local time, from 9:30 last night to about noon today, only going away during those points in time where I basically lost consciousness.
Add in the fact that I had about 10 minutes to bolt my happy ass from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 at Chicago to make my transfer from American to United and...well, let's just say my long-standing hatred of O'Hare Airport hasn't gone away. Didn't help any that the Wolfgang Puck I had to go by twice (once to pick up my ticket, once to get back to my gate) made that vomiting urge so much worse...
In any case, I've made it back to Anchorage for now, with my flight home taking off in about 3 hours, and I'm happy to say that I'm finally feeling a hell of a lot better, and much wiser for the wear.
Once I get home, I'll see if I can't upload the photos I took and share them, but in the meantime, let me just sum things up thusly:
TORONTO: Awesome city.
FLYING TO TORONTO: Sucks.
That was my prognosis for the last day of my Toronto trip.
The museum visit did, in fact, happen, and the convention was indeed skipped. I must say, the Royal Ontario Museum is awesome...I'd actually forgotten how giddy I got as a kid looking at dinosaur fossils, but even as cool as that was, it paled in comparison to the exhibit they had on China's First Emperor and the Terracotta Army. They even had a few of the soldier-statues there, and I must say, those things were damned impressive.
Then, as planned, I went out to the airport that night, got through customs with virtually nobody in line ahead of me, got to my concourse, got as cozy as I could, set my alarm...
...and things immediately went to hell in a hand basket after that. Apparently, around 10:30 Eastern time, the concourse that Canada-to-US flights fly out of closes down, so I had to be escorted by security back out to the main side of things.
No problem, I figured, there was a Sheraton hotel right across the way, and 4 hours of sleep would still work...
All rooms booked.
My only saving grace was that the food court at the airport was open 24/7, so I went, must to my dismay, with plan C: Get a couple of Mountain Dews, slowly sip them through the night, and stay up until my Chicago-Anchorage flight.
Managed that, went through customs again, and found out something very not-fun: Lack of sleep + excess of soda = Perpetual state of extreme shakes and wanting to vomit. A state that lasted from, going by current local time, from 9:30 last night to about noon today, only going away during those points in time where I basically lost consciousness.
Add in the fact that I had about 10 minutes to bolt my happy ass from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 at Chicago to make my transfer from American to United and...well, let's just say my long-standing hatred of O'Hare Airport hasn't gone away. Didn't help any that the Wolfgang Puck I had to go by twice (once to pick up my ticket, once to get back to my gate) made that vomiting urge so much worse...
In any case, I've made it back to Anchorage for now, with my flight home taking off in about 3 hours, and I'm happy to say that I'm finally feeling a hell of a lot better, and much wiser for the wear.
Once I get home, I'll see if I can't upload the photos I took and share them, but in the meantime, let me just sum things up thusly:
TORONTO: Awesome city.
FLYING TO TORONTO: Sucks.
