Toronto, Niagara and US Airways...

It was long weekend last week...So Girish and I along with my parents decided to take a break and head to see some water falls and more flat land. We had our flight booked like months ago including stay and car.

On 26th evening we packed all our bags and moved over to our friend's house that is very close to the airport and we can wake up a little late since it is just a ten minute drive from the airport. We stayed up very late playing X-Box and watching the MAVS game...Which the MAVS won of course.

Shahid, Sammy, and Kaps dropped us off at the airport and we began our journey to Buffalo, NY after a stop over at Chicago. Mom and dad had already reached and were waiting for us. After picking up our car we headed towards Ontario to our Hotel at Burlington, ON in Canada about 76 kms from the airport. Yes Kms...As it is Canada and they do distances like the Brits (metric).

All of us slept for a good three hours..Very tired. Woke up and headed to my friend Vijay and Zubine's house. From there to Saravana Bhavan at Missisauga to have dinner. After dinner dropped mom and dad back at the hotel and we headed back to Vijay's house for a tour of Toronto Downtown. We bloody forgot our camera...We were frustrated...But here is a visual recount of what I saw...

Downtown is very impressive. There are these tall residential buildings facing the lake and it is just spectacular. Reminded me so much of India for some odd reason. The downtown feels amazingly safe...We went to Richmond Street, the club district and another street that bar district. We hung out at a bar for sometime before heading back home. It was almost three and we were tired.

Next day (28th of May), we woke up and headed towards Niagara. This was my second visit but first for everyone else. We saw one of natures beautiful creating in its splendor. When we see such things we realize how small we are in the grand scheme of things...We did the maid of the mist and the journey behind the falls...By the time we were done it was almost seven in the night and we returned back to our hotel to relax. We stopped at a desi restaurant near our hotel. Then we saw another MAVS game and we beat the Suns again taking on a 2-1 lead. Very happy we slept.

On 29th, May we headed towards Saravana Bhavan once again so that we can eat lunch before heading to Buffalo to catch our flights. I was very excited that both our parents and us were flying back till Charlotte together before they took off to Asheville and us to Dallas. We left Saravana Bhavan at 12.50pm and out flight was due to take off at 4.55pm. The drive was pretty smooth until we were about a mile from the Canadian border...The American checkpost was hardly moving...We inched and inched and it was two hours before it was our turn and we sped from there to the airport as it was already 4.00pm.

We reached the airport at precisely 4.20pm...Ya we cut it real close...Not by choice but that's what happened. Then we met the worst US Airways official ever. Ok this is what happened...

My father gave her his passport. She gave him the boarding pass. She told him repeatedly, "you are not going to make it." But we had like 3o more minutes. Anyways. So I gave her mine and Girish's passport (I did not have my DL on hand at the moment and had my passport accessible from the border trip). She took, and refused to issue us our boarding pass. She repeated ten times "you are not going to make it out of here tonight."

I was angry. I told her I need my passport back. But she did not give it to me. Then she took back my parents boarding pass and told us that they cannot go to Asheville before 30th. Which was scary because we would then have to do alternate acco. and all that. I was mad...I took the boarding pass from her and gave it to my parents and asked them to rush to the flight. Which they did and the sad part...I did not tell them a proper bye. I was very upset.

So, I continued standing in front of her hoping she would give me my passport and my boarding pass and she did nothing but to remind me once again that I will not get out of Buffalo that night. I do not know if she was just being a racist pig or just being mean...

So Girish and I requested to talk to her supervisor who turned out to be a bigger B!@#$. She ignored us till the aircraft took off and my parents called and told us that they were safely in the flight with no trouble whatsoever. Then the supervisor reminded us that we would not get out of Buffalo that night again. Now I am mad...and then I start cribbing about how they split my parents from me and how meanly we were being treated and so on...Then she thought about for a few minutes and then somehow managed to get us on an Airtran flight headed to Dallas which was going to reach Dallas at 12.15am instead of our original schedule of reaching Dallas at 9.30pm...So since we did not have any choice. We took the flight and cribbed a lot sitting for two hours in the Godforsaken airport...

The whole trip was almost perfect but for the US Airways non-co-operation. Most aircraft people always try to get their passengers on the flight as far as possible...But the lady (whose name was BELLE) was just a mean person...and so was her supervisor Jackie Hitchcock...I am so mad...

Anyway...That was the whole trip story...Now it is Tuesday and I am watching another MAVS Vs Suns game...Hoping MAVS will win again...But they lost and it was an ugly loss...