Ever since my little sister Abby got her mission call, I was planning a trip to come pick her up. I didn't care if she served in Iowa or in my own backyard...I'd be there when she finished. Her getting called to Brazil was just the icing on the cake.
Throughout her entire mission experience, the ups and downs, the 6 months home in between, the sickness, the frustrations, the baptisms, the experiences, the joy and the exhilaration - I felt like I was living it with her. Maybe it was the mother in me - but her highs and lows were my highs and lows. I was so proud of her for the incredible journey she'd been on and through over the past two years.
So OF COURSE I was going to pick her up! Up until about November, I didn't know who else, if anyone, was going to come with me but I knew I was going. Around Christmas the crew was put together. Grandma and Grandpa Clark, Mom, Dad, Liza and Camille (cousin). Eight people including Abby.
I was put in charge of the entire trip. 7 people, coming from 4 cities to meet up in Brazil? Me. Transportation? Me. Plans? Me. Itinerary? Me. It consumed me for months but in the end it was worth it.
Oriah and Jonathan came out and later in the week, delayed because of wind and snow, Aunt Alyson made it to MN as well.
So the afternoon of March 14, I left my babies and started on a 24 hour adventure to pick up my baby sister.
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I started at MSP, flew to DFW and met up with the LA and SLC crew. G&G, Liza, and Camille. We flew together from DFW to Sao Paulo. We entirely lucked out with a more than half empty flight. After taking some selfies with Grandpa, I sprawled out over four seats and conked out knowing (of course knowing because I planned the whole thing) the long day ahead of us in Salvador.
The original plan was to meet up with my parents in Sao Paula and we were scheduled to all fly together to Salvador like one big happy family. Well our delayed flight caused us to miss the connection in Sao Paulo. Once we did arrive in Sao Paula, G&G fell asleep in typical fashion anywhere, while we enjoyed the amazing warmth and sunshine! 85 degrees! Coming from the frozen tundra is was an amazing feeling. It was a little touch of home when in the seat back pocket on the flight from DFW to Sao Paula, the TAM magazine had cover story on Harvard Business School Made me smile.
With no cell phone or internet, we kept our fingers crossed that we would all met up in Salvador...
Sure enough as we walked towards the baggage claim in Salvador, there was my dad sitting on the bench waiting for us. He and my mom had already gone out to meet Abby but he had talked his way back through with the security guards. That was about the story of our trip.
We waiting for our bags and cued up our phones for our long awaited Abby reunion. It was glorious and everything we wanted it to be.
And that's when the adventure began to unravel. While they were waiting for our flight to arrive, they went to pick up our rental car. Our big van we had reserved, with a driver and a GPS was no where to be found. The reservation had been lost so my parents accepted their consolation offering of two small cars. No GPS and no driver. Lovely.
(hot humid air never felt so good!)
We did manage to shove all of our bags in the two little cars and as we finally got settled and tried to reverse out of the parking spot we learned one car didn't go in reverse. It took us about 20 minutes to get out of the airport parking lot because my dad lost his ticket and we had to reverse (Abby pushed) out of the one lane checkout stall. This is about 30 minutes into us being in Salvador.
About two hours later - what should have been a 30 minute trip - we made it to our apartment. I just considered this to be a driving tour of Salvador and all part of the plan :) That GPS would have been nice...
To our surprise, the apartment which was 1 block to the beach with 8 beds, a doorman and a parking spot was pretty nice. Bonus points to airbnb. We even had cheese bread on the table waiting for us.
The spot did have a parking spot, but not two. Abby and I talked with the doorman, scouted out the spot and decided we would try to get two in the spot. At this point anything was worth a try. Tricky with no reverse, but it was a success.
By now it was dark, we were all starving, dropped our bags and headed out the door to tackle the streets of Bara beach at night. Maybe not our best choice but we were starving. We found a little place, all ordered hamburgers and called it good. We even met some lovely American girls who were randomly in Salvador for a graduate program. Salvador has so much swag that even the graffiti is art.
The food was decent, the company excellent, we walked back and all crashed from complete exhaustion and in preparation for a full Sunday ahead of us. I thought I would sleep through anything, but it was so loud in the apartment - it made me miss my kids noises at night :) But there was no reverse. I missed Spencer and kids like crazy already, but there was no going back. I had to love and embrace the next week and live it up because this was hyped to be a trip of a lifetime. It didn't disappoint.
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