Day 1, Toronto to Quito, Ecuador

It’s hard to believe that’s its been a year in the planning. A lot has happened since we booked this trip. Both our daughter, and our son announced the coming of their first born children, to be our first granddaughter and grandson. Such an exciting year for everyone, making our departure for 6 weeks filled with mixed emotions.

Last night Dan and I travelled to our co-conspirators home (Glenn and Gwen) in Mississauga, from our son and daughter-in-law’s new home. Alex and Jen’s move in date was last Monday, and we were able to spend two days helping them put some of their new home together. Balancing unpacking around painters and carpenters can be challenging (thanks to Suzanne for her kitchen organizing skills!!!) but we had the supervision of a sweet 3 month old baby boy who was always ready to greet us with a smile or a wobble…melting our hearts and letting us know about the true priorities in life! We look forward to seeing phase 1 of the construction finished when we get back…and yes, we just might pitch in for a little more unpacking and sorting!!

With big squeezes to our family, we headed out to G and G’s for wonderful steak dinner. The celebration was punctuated with great wine, champagne and a wee dram to end the night. Final planning, packing and talk of things to see filled the evening with anticipation!

Today we awoke and went for a lovely walk just to shake out the cobwebs and give our legs a bit of a stretch before our long day of travel. Then, at 10:30 we left for the airport, arriving in plenty of time for check in, customs clearance and even a bite of lunch.

Our first leg today takes us from Toronto to Houston, about a 3 ½ hour flight. Then a short 1 ¾ hour layover, then back on our next flight from Houston to Quito Ecuador. This flight is scheduled to take about 5 ½ hours…so it will be 11 hours or so of elapsed travel time before we land and figure out how to get ourselves to our first hotel!
Needless to say, this is getting posted early !  Looking forward to  telling you all about the rest of our day!