Travelling to Haiti..!

I was super excited about the trip to Haiti that I couldn’t wait to leave work for the day… I was counting down the minutes until it was time to go.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my job… but this was a trip of a lifetime… a weekend getaway to enjoy two friends getting married in another country with 11 other friends. 

Matthew and I carpooled down to Portland with two other couples.  I was a little anxious when we started off the trip later than expected and then ran into traffic in Tacoma.  We were way behind schedule but I didn’t want Chris and Sarah to know since the Pastor that was going to marry them happened to be in the car with us.  Thankfully, we made it down in the nick of time and the airport was empty.  Matthew was delayed at security like usual to get inspected so we got through just in time for me to run to Burgerville for food while he checked in at the gate. 

Once we finally settled on the plane I was finally able to calm down and eat… of course Matthew decided he wanted some of the burger after all (I even bought the fries and drink for him even though he said he didn’t want anything).  So, I shared my burger with him knowing we could get more food at the next stop and we had plenty of snacks on the flight.

Finally eating some food on the plane... 

I didn’t sleep at all between Portland and New York… I was too excited.  So, I watched a couple movies on my kindle and enjoyed the extra leg room they gave us for Matthew.  In New York, I plugged in Matthew’s battery for his portable O2 concentrator while he went off with Mariah and German in search of pizza.  They came back with two large pizzas.  The others were not sure about eating pizza so late/early but the smell eventually won them over and everyone partook in the pizza (except Rebecca and Jay)… we were all thankful for the pizza when our next meal did not occur for another 12 hours but we didn’t know this at the time.  

Pizza in New York..!

Mariah and I excited about the food... 

I slept for about two hours (of light sleep) on our next flight to Port-au-Prince Haiti.  Once at the airport Matthew and I were ushered through the wheelchair assessible lines and quickly made it through… they almost stopped to search us but decided not to and we continued our way out of the secure part of the airport.  We waited for the rest of the group to catch up and were soon re-united with the Washington crew and Nate and Stephanie from California.  Since we had a couple hours to wait for the last three to arrive, Nate smooth talked us into a restaurant (that served coffee and pastries) to wait over in the departure part of the airport.  

Resting in the cafe in Haiti

We finally embarked on our last leg of our trip… a shuttle ride to the resort.  Since the country is still in a level 3 (out of 4) we ended up having a police escort to the resort.  We only  had one detour due to a road closure, and one unexpected stop at a police station where Mariah and I used the restroom while we waited for a shift change.  Once we made it past a broken down semi blocking most of the road (where minimal damage was incurred to the shuttle bus) we had smooth sailing the rest of the way to the resort.  

We are all finally on the shuttle... 

Matthew and I enjoying the views on the shuttle... 

Our police shuttle... to the resort

Enjoying the sunset along the way

Squeezing by the semi... barely

After traveling we were all ready to make it to our rooms to freshen up and then meet back up for dinner (our first meal since pizza in New York for most of us).  The resort was absolutely amazing but I will show you more of that in my next post… Our first night we didn’t make it over to the show in time so they brought the show to us… it was the first hint that this weekend everything would be catered to our group.  The resort was pretty empty due to the crisis in Haiti.. while I feel horrible for the people… and country as a whole.. it did make for an amazing stay at the resort for this weekend getaway. 

Excited to meet up with friends... 

They brought the show to us... 

Sarah's Getting Married tomorrow..!