*HUGE AMOUNT OF PICTURES AHEAD. OKAY, YOU WERE WARNED*

Friday, October 25 was a Professional Development day for the entire province. Crystal and I applied for some funding from our Pro-D committee to go to a SMART Learning conference in Penticton. We were very excited to be approved and head down for some inspirational learning.

We had to fly to Vancouver first as there was no direct flight. We had a few hours between flights. As I'm from the coast, and have been to Vancouver many a time I decided to take Crystal on the Skytrain for some shopping. The picture above was texted to her husband who asked if we were riding on a rocket ship. No, we were not. Although that did make it sound more fun.
We stopped first at Vancouver City Centre. That takes you right downtown, to Granville Street. We were STARVING. I figured this was a better choice for food than the mall - who likes eating at a food court? Not me. So, we were on the search for something to eat that we couldn't get at home. Something different. We stumbled across this place:
The sign said "all food only $4.95 all day". Sounds pretty cool. The outside looked kind of vintage. We went in. We walked into a loud music, dark, snowboarders on the tv, waitresses with lots of tattoos bar. I looked at Crystal and said "are we cool enough to be here?" She responded with "no." We shrugged and went in anyway.
Two teachers skipping school and this is what happens. That wine bottle has water, by the way.
We ate some amazing food! Wings, mac and cheese (with cornflakes.... weird but tasty), some awesome foccocia bread, soft taco wraps..... It was under $20. Delicious and affordable. I'm cool enough for that!
And, so with full tummies we head to Metrotown for some serious shopping. I needed pants. A lot of pants. I couldn't find pants. They were all skinnies. I am not a skinny pant person. I nearly had a meltdown. (Ask the woman in Winners.) Luckily I had my good friend to keep me going and I ended up with 4 pairs.
We began our sky train journey back to the airport for our second flight. Simultaneously, both of our phones went "bing!". We looked. Our flight was cancelled. It had been rescheduled for 10:00 the next evening. Well, that wasn't going to work! The conference would be over. After some serious rescheduling, we were on standby for a flight to Kelowna, which is an hour away from Penticton. We figured we could rent a car and get there. No big deal. That is, if we got on.
In the waiting room, we met two men who lived in Kelowna, but worked in Fort St. John. What are the chances? We told them our story and the one went and sweet-talked our way on to the flight. We couldn't sit together - but no big deal.
Crystal sits down and hears the woman behind her say "I'm so happy I got on. I have a huge conference to give tomorrow". She turns around and says - "are you Susan Close?" The woman says "uh, yes". So, they got talking and she scored us a ride to Penticton with the Key Note speaker and developer of SMART Learning. Now that's amazing luck. What a spectacular ride that was. An hour alone with Susan Close chatting about the program we were off to learn more about. Super cool.
We checked into the hotel and passed out at 1:30 in the morning. We awoke at 7 and were ready to learn!
Here we are just before the conference began!
There were so many inspiring things about the day, I can't even begin to pick the best one. So sad the day only went 9-3.
The morning after the conference Crystal and I went to
the Penticton airport to head home. We had an uneasy feeling as it was
once again very foggy outside. We arrived early in case there were
troubles. Things seemed positive. About an hour before our flight, we
overheard that the plane took off from Vancouver, but it was unlikely to
land. They put everyone through security as normal. We were hopeful.
The room was small and had no air. We were both annoyed, because they
took away our bottles of water. Then, we heard the plane roar over,
and.... not land. A lady came in and told us that they would try
again. Second try didn't work. Our flight was cancelled.

Everyone was understanding and we all filed out, cellphones ready to
make new plans. We knew that we were lowest of priorities and
investigated things on our own. There were no flights from Kelowna or
Kamloops. We tried to rent a vehicle, but both places were franchised
and would charge us a $600 drop off charge in Vancouver. We weren't
even sure that if we got to Vancouver that flight would even take off.
I was sick before the conference, and feeling very ill that day.
Crystal needed to get home to her children. We did the only thing we
could justify. We took a charter van to Kelowna, rented a truck and
drove home. Fourteen hours. You'd think things would start to look up
from this point. But, you'd be wrong.
The trip started out very foggy. And that fog turned to
rain. At a few points, we had intense rain and fog together. You know,
just for fun. Worst of all, we had issues at every stop we made.
Starbucks had no cups, there was no toilet paper in the bathroom, no
restaurant we went to had any soup (and I really just needed some
soup). But, we persevered.
The final trial we went through occurred around midnight just
past Chetwynd. We drove up the hill, and it suddenly began to snow.
And, of course, not just little tiny flakes. Big flakes. Lots of
flakes. We are talking about white out conditions. It appeared as if
we were driving backwards and sideways. Luckily Sylvie (we had named
the truck at this point) had some awesome headlights and we were doing
this. (There was no safe place to stop or turn around and it seemed
ridiculous to stop an hour and a half from home.)
And then came 100 deer. Truly. They were panicking about the snow and all out for a last feast. They were everywhere.
It took us 3 hours to drive the last hour and a half. We made it home at 3:00 in the morning.
Truly, this was the best conference we could have asked for. We'd repeat all that chaos again for it. Now, off to implement new ideas!