Let me start off by saying that my week at home was amazing! It was so great to visit with friends and family. On Monday my brothers and I drove to Spokane to spend the evening with two of my fellow counselors who are on a different tour. I absolutely loved catching up with Paige and Evan!!!
Here's Paige, Evan, and I at River Front Park
My brothers and I
Also while I was home I was able to visit my two favorite nephews Rocket and Trey!
After a fantastic week at home, I headed to the Pasco airport yesterday morning to start the second half of my summer adventure as a Destination Imagination Air Force Base Camp Counselor.
Everything seemed to start off fine! I got to the airport early enough to have a nice breakfast with my parents. They walked with me to security where just as I was about to wave goodbye I was stopped by the security lady because my name on my ID didn't match the name on my boarding pass. I looked at my boarding pass and sure enough, it had the wrong name on it. Since my name is obviously not Kristen Basil, I had to run back to the Horizon counter where I found out they not only checked me in as the wrong person but they also marked my luggage with her name and I apparently paid for her luggage with my credit card. After getting that all sorted out I headed back to security where I prepared myself for the normal full body search. I was pleasantly surprised when the lady recognized me as "the girl with the whole backpack full of liquid meds." Just as if we were BFF's she let me through with a smile and a wave and no questions asked!
My connecting flights in Seattle and Detroit were both extremely quick so I literally jumped off one plane and ran onto the other. I really thought I was having an A plus day until I boarded my flight from Detroit to Newark, NJ. I'm not sure what I did to offend the flight attendant but something about me seemed to really annoy him. It all started when they decided to ask trivia questions to give away free seats in first class because it wasn't a full flight. After the first question was about a bar, I asked if I could just move to the seat behind me because I knew I wouldn't know the answer. The flight attendant put his hand on his hip and said, "FINE but that WILL be your LAST move!!" I was extremely startled by his unpleasant tone so I just smiled and said, "okiedokie, no problem." The guy sitting next to me finished my sentence for me by saying, "Ummm we just aren't up to date on our bar trivia so excuse us for not knowing the answer." I smiled and gave him the thumbs up while I moved to the seat behind him.
Just when I thought we were ready for take off I look up to find the extra grumpy flight attendant glaring down at me AGAIN. He then announced to the back of the plane (while staring at me the whole time) that he needed three volunteers to follow him. Since I knew I'd need all the good karma I could get for my drive to base, I volunteered. When I began to take my backpack full of meds with me he instructed me to leave those right where they were because there would be no room for them where I was going. Not wanting to make a scene while the whole plane was watching me I just smiled once again and followed him up to the front few seats behind first class. I realized that my attempts at good karma backfired and I no longer had my own seat. Luckily the flight went by pretty fast. So when we landed I walked to the back of the plane to get my backpack before I followed everyone else off.
I would just like to say that it was very exciting to actually have my luggage arrive at the same place as me at the same time! Maybe my good karma move did work? :)
This is where the journey gets a little scary...
After I got my luggage, I dragged my two suitcases, my backpack, and shoulder bag up 3 flights of stairs where I realized I had to take the air train to the rental place. Once I arrived I dragged all the bags back down 3 flights of stairs into the National car place. Once I gave all my info my instructions from the guy were to "go ahead and follow the path outside. All the keys are inside the cars, pick anyone you'd like." Naturally I was super excited when I walked outside and the first car I saw was a shiny gold Cadillac SRX with a push button start. REALLY excited now, I put all my stuff in that one. Just when I was about to pull out I nearly jumped out of my seat when I heard a knock on the window. I looked over and a lady was yelling, "MAM THAT'S NOT YOUR CAR!!!!" Startled, I got out and unloaded all my stuff while trying to explain that "the guy told me to pick any car and I thought that one was the cutest." Apparently, he forgot to tell me I couldn't take a luxury car. Ooops....
Finally I was pointed in the right direction of my correct car which turned out to be a white toyota corolla. Oh well, it was like being reunited with an old friend.
When I finally loaded all my stuff in the "correct car" it was 12:30am. I put on my brave face and began my 62 mile drive from the airport to my hotel outside base by myself. Naturally right when I started moving it began to pour rain. It was rain like I've never seen before. Luckily it only lasted 15 min because I literally couldn't see anything out the window. I guess the lack of visibility during the rain led me into a huge parking garage where I had to turn around and completely start over. Thank goodness I have the greatest dad in the world who stayed on speaker phone with me the whole time and read me google map directions. I will say that I was really confused when I drove up to a thing called a "toll." Yea, we don't have those in Washington so i just kinda took a ticket and went with the flow. With the help of my dad and a GPS that "recalculated" pretty much every 5 minutes I finally made it to my hotel at about 2:00 am. I literally plopped down on my bed and didn't wake up till morning.
I'm excited to head to the youth center and set up and jump back into the swing of things!
Stay tuned for more adventures and what I'm sure is going to be a fantastic week of camp!!
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