Team Norris: Day 7

Finally, sleeping in! We didn't get up until almost 8am. All we had on our agenda was to check out of the hotel (ask them to watch our bags) and do some last minute shopping. We headed out to a market to find a shawl for Linze and a T-shirt for Brian. After that, we headed to the main square, where we discovered a parade forming. We stood watching the parade for a long time. We are still unsure of what most of the costumes and dances were representing. They were very strange looking. After a while, we worried that we were getting even more sunburned (it was so nice out). I spotted a balcony overlooking the parade route that was open for lunch. We quickly ran up and grabbed a table with an amazing view. We watched for hours as we leisurely ate lunch. We left after the parade had been going for 3 hours and was still showing no signs of being over.

We made it to the hotel, used the bathroom, got our stuff, and then our guide picked us up and took us to the airport.

We waited in the airport and filled out postcards. Our flight was on time to Lima, so we boarded at 4:45am. We arrived at 6pm back at our favorite airport. Here we ate dinner of Papa Johns, wasted time, and then boarded the plane at 10:50pm. The plane was nice and we were able to sleep some on the flight.

We landed on time at 5:20am Sunday, and sat in the airport of Miami. We had breakfast while we waited. When we boarded our Miami to San Fran flight at 7:30am we got the best surprise of our lives. We found out that our seats, which were not together (2 and 2)were the best seats on the whole plane. They were origionally for the flight crew to sleep, but had been turned into coach seats. The seats fully laid back and had foot rests that came all the way up. We were given comforters (not scratchy blankets) and fluffy pillows, just like the first class seats! There were no seats behind us or in front of us. We were almost in a pod like space. Since the flight was 6 hours long, we enjoyed our sleep for the whole 6 hours!

We arrived in San Fran very well rested. We waited FOREVER! for our luggage. Finally, we were off to our parking space. Once there, we realized that we could not find our receipt saying we already paid. So, we had to pay again and get a form to fill out later to be reimbursed when we find the receipt.

Then, again, finally we were off to Portland via an 11 hour drive. I drove the whole way and we stopped a few times to eat, but otherwise had a very uneventful trip back. We got home at 10:30pm and collapsed in bed after a very nice shower.