Grabbed his boarding pass and we zipped through security without so much as a pat-down (TSA is slipping). We decided to have a celebratory drink in the wine bar...once we saw the prices we decided it would be more economical to simply split a bottle...so we did :) We also shared a cheese plate for dinner (my dinner anyway) and polished off the Sav Blanc (with crisp notes of bosc pear, apple and honeysuckle- or so the description read) while notifying our respective credit card companies of our travel plans...
We stopped in Borders and lost track of time...made it to our gate just as they were making the final boarding announcements. Our flight to Houston was uneventful...I fell into a state of grogginess where sleep seems inevitable but still eludes you. I kept rousing just enough to look outside and was surprised at how clear the skies were and how I could even see the lights below (or maybe I just had too much wne?) The plane was freezing...thankfully Brian gave up his fleece so I could use it as a blanket! I realized now that ditching my own at the last possible second in Philadelphia wasn´t the smartest idea...We arrived in Houston arond 11:30 pm and it was COLD! Brian called for our free airport shuttle and let me wait inside until it arrived :) The driver picked up one other couple and the woman looked at my feet in flip flops and said: ´oh I feel like I should give you a pair of socks´to which I responded that I had my own and the words hung in the air for the rest of the trip...I really didn´t mean for it to come out sounding so rude...
We arrived at the Super 8 around 12:15am- for only $51 per night you can´t beat it! Brian criticized my choice but I argued that for < 6 hours it wasn´t worth it to spend any more. I was secretly relieved though when we opened the door to reveal a huge, spotless room. Aside from the horrific noise the heater made, it wasn´t half bad...
We woke up to our automated wake up call at 6am and after a healthy continental breakfast of raisen bran and whole milk the shuttle was back again to bring us to the airport. We made it through security once again with an extra quart bag of liquids and a razor. I felt like a rebel! A quick stop for grande coffees at Starbucks (Brian´s in a venti cup) and we shared our second breakfast of the day: we split a seasame bagel with plain cream cheese toasted in a pizza oven...yum.
This plane was half empty and much nicer than the one to Houston...but still very cold. I was getting excited for the weather in Nicaragua! We were served our third breakfast on the plane (and thank God I forced it down because it was quite a while before we ate again!). It was actually quite good...egg and cheese on a biscuit...(Brian had his with hot sauce)...and then we read up on Nicaragua and reviewed our itineraries...I fell asleep for a bit (it was nice to stretch out over 3 seats...) and Brian woke me up to see the volcanos as we approached our destination...
we saw at least 2 out of the plane window, the second one had steam coming out of the top and blackened areas spilling down the sides that (to my untrained volcano eyes) appeared to be recently cooled lava...there seemed to be a small town not too far away from the volcano which made us wonder what it must be like to live there...?
We arrived in Managua
and changed over some money...the woman was wearing a crisp cerulean blue uniform and spoke very loudly into the microphone as she counted out exactly how much I was changing over and then proceeded to count out each bill individually. I was glad that we were still safely in the customs section of the airport and out of earshot of the general public...the bills were brightly colored with flowers and buildingsetched on them...we piled our bags up on a conveyer belt for their final scan and went through the double glass doors where we were greeted by Vida and her sign ´Allison and Brian´...
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