What an adventure. The moving company picked up our furniture on Friday April 27th. We packed until 1am the night before at which point we ran out of boxes and I had to be creative. Who knew a laundry basket could be such a great ‘box’ for pillows? Thursday was also the first night we started sleeping on an air mattress using towels as pillows (man, my neck hurts).
My last day at work was quite emotional. I’ve always been ready to move on whenever I resigned from a job. Not this time. I loved my job and the people I worked with. I was not ready to leave. My coworkers were so thoughtful. My immediate team prepared a “me” gift basket which included a beautiful necklace, a bed for Kinki, baby food (my favourite!), an electric toothbrush (I brush 6 times a day), and the soap my manager uses (to remember her!). I also received four books about San Francisco from my extended team. My manager and I were both crying like babies when she escorted me out!
We needed to vacate the condo for the tenant on Sunday so we went to a hotel. It was an interesting experience with Kinki. We wanted a convenient, cheap hotel that accepts cats. Let’s just say that it was yucky, but Kinki made himself right at home.
We drove to the airport Monday morning with our 9 luggages and Kinki. We’re usually light travelers so it felt quite weird. We had to reorganize the luggage at the airport because one was 35kg (limit 32kg). I think the computer and the three bottles of wine inside did it, oops. I was not leaving without my computer! Kinki was checked in and all was good.
I had the scare of my life in Toronto. Kinki was beyond traumatized. When they returned him to us, he was rolled up, hiding in the kennel as much as he could, not moving. I thought he was dead. It was the worse feeling in the world. R started yelling “Kinki” and he finally moved. He was shaking and not meowing. He was completely traumatized. I guess the flight training should have involved airport chaos, not just take off. He had peed all over himself. The water and food had spilled all over. The kennel needed a make-over, but I didn’t have time to fix it. We had to go through custom.
By the time we were done, it was 3 pm. Getting our visa was extremely stressful. We gave the paper work to a custom officer and waited until we were called. Two hours later, R was asked a couple of questions, his degrees and our marriage certificate. After that, it took about an hour to get our visa. It was a smooth process, but still stressful as the custom officer has the power to deny your application for pretty much any reasons. Although we had a strong case, there was no guarantee we would go through easily.
By that time, Kinki was feeling much better. He even ate a bit. I cleaned up his cage and we were off to US security. They asked that I take Kinki out of the kennel to X-ray it. Fine, except that the kennel was clearly too big for the machine and BROKE. I was almost in tears with a traumatized cat in my arms in the middle of the busiest airport in Canada. How the heck were we supposed to catch our flight to San Francisco without a kennel for Kinki??? Even if the kennel was fixed, there was no way AC would allow it on the cargo as it was not in perfect condition. I’ve seen a lot of incompetence in my life but the airport staff was by far the most incompetent people I have ever encountered. They were standing there doing NOTHING. They were like “oh well, too bad”. Needless to say none of us needed this extra stress. Thanks to wonderful Air Canada staff, we managed to buy another kennel. While I was holding Kinki as tight as I could trying not to burst into tears in the middle of the airport, R and an Air Canada person rushed out of the terminal to buy another kennel. The Air Canada person was so amazing. Once you clear custom, you are theoretically not allowed to come out. She escorted him to the store and back in 30 minutes. Then we had to put the kennel together. I felt like I was in a bad reality show. Kinki was so scared and I was about to have a nervous breakdown.
When the drama was over, there was about 40 mins left before boarding. We had a bite in the AC lounge (like I was hungry). The five hours flight went smoothly, but I was dead worried about Kinki and the condition I was going to find him in. When he came out, he seemed in a much better shape than he was after the Ottawa-Toronto flight. The kennel was a mess, he was shaking, but at least he was moving. If we have to move again, I don’t know what I am going to do with him. I never want to put him through that again.
We grabbed a mini-van taxi for our giant luggages and Kinki. We made it here at 20:45 pacific time (so 23:45 Ottawa time… about 15 hrs after we left Ottawa). I was nervous about seeing the apartment in real life. The location is awesome. The architecture of the place is very cool, but it’s a bit old (like 1920s old!). It’s got character, that’s for sure! I’ll post pictures after I am done with the make-over and we get our furniture.
We were exhausted. The air mattress had never been more comfortable! I can’t believe we’re finally here.
As we got closer to the coast, the weather stopped cooperating. Monterey was windy, rainy, and cold. There isn't much to do in Monterey itself. We had a delicious dinner at Montrio Bistro and went to bed.
