Enter the U.S.

Our adventure started at Pearson international airport in Toronto on Aug.21, 2008. Waiting in line for the U.S. customs officer, we overheard a mother tell her (probably 6 year old) son the hard fact of life:

"You're going to be waiting in lines all your life, buddy."

to which the son protested

"But I HATE this line!"

An omen for things to come... 

We got to the airport 3 hours early to apply for Janice's visa. (I already got mine two weeks earlier at the Niagara-Buffalo border.) Ample time? Think again. We waited... and waited... and waited. Boarding time for our flight (bound for Houston) was 8:20am, and by 8:10am the customs officers hadn't called Janice up to look at her file yet. In all likelihood, it was looking like she was going to miss the flight, so we made the decision that I was going to go first, take the shuttle that we had booked up to B/CS to check into our apartment, rent a car and then drive back to Houston to pick her up the next day (assuming she would get on the same flight the next day).  Sound complicated?  Indeed - this wasn't going to be easy to coordinate, considering that we had no phone number in the U.S. yet. But we parted ways, and hoped for the best. I passed through security and then booted it over to the flight gate. Boarding time was scheduled to be 8:20am and it was 8:25am now. The gate for this flight appeared to have moved?!  I check the flight status and... our flight was delayed!  I couldn't believe this stroke of luck. Turns out Janice got out of the holding room 30 min later - I can't tell you how happy I was to see her at the gate!