Hello Argentina!

Well we're HERE! First off, let's just say that flying Delta from San Francisco to Atlanta was amazing. Delta's service from the moment we unloaded our vehicle (6 large bags, 6 carry on bags, 1 chariott jogging stroller and 1 bike bag) was amazing. From the supportive lady at the desk to the flight attendants on the plan. Everyone was great. When we were at the gate, we spoke with one of the customer service representatives and he actually took our carseat on the plane to make sure it fit appropraitely for us. You might be asking yourselves this very question, "I thought they were flying to Buenos Aires?" We'll we did, but our experience with Delta was extremely frustrating in Atlanta. It truly seemed that they had there head's up there A_ _! We landed in Atlanta 20 minutes before our scheduled arrival (good tail wind I guess) and went to our scheduled concourse E2. Approximately 2 hours before our departure they changed depature gate to E32. If anyone has every flown out of the Atlanta international terminal, then you will know that E2 is on the opposite side (1/4 mile +) of E32. Therefore, we took, or should I say, I took five carry on's, car seat to the other gate. Jen had her hands full as well with Payton and our Eddie Baurer ice chest. (We bought this ice chest at an Eddie Bauer outlet in 2002 and used it extensively, it's been a part of our family ever since). At this point in time we are starting to get hungry and anxious for our flight. Now a little over 1 hour before our flight the gate attendant speaks over the intercom and informs everyone in the gate area that our plane will be departing from Gate E1. F-------Great! We heard this and left for the gate, however on our way we decided to eat before we got on the plane. We ordered our food, bagged it, and walked another 1/4 mile to the opposite side of the terminal (where we were 1 hour before). As we're edging closer to the depature gate, I started noticing a lack of people in the area waiting for depature. Well, no surprise here! I spoke with the gate attendant at E1 and they once again changed there minds and stated that our flight would be leaving from gate E32. Our previous gate. I abuptly questioned Delta's actions and thought processes behind this and the wonderful gate attendant behind the desk just smiles and apologizes. At this time, I had sweat rolling down my forehead, flushed in the face and my ass was a little sweaty as well, and it took all of my energy not to grab this guys pants and pull it above his panus and give him a wedgie. It get's better. We get on our flight 1 hour after our original departure time and board the plane, then they decide that the main cabin door is malfunctioning and not closing appropriately. Well, with every typical airline, after standing at the problem area and discussing with the mechanical liason of the airline they miracously decide it's safe to fly one more time.
Enough of that! Our flight was a little bumpy, reminded me of Space Mountain at Disneyland as we were flying over Jamaica. The pilot, calmy stated that it's always "bumpy" over this area now. GLOBAL WARMING?

After sleeping a mere 5 hours of our 10 hr flight, we landed in Buenos Aires with an inviting temperature of 94 degree's. It was refreshing, until my ass started sweating again. (I should say that I've had a couple glasses of wine befor writing this, so maybe a little too open, but leave me your comments and I can be more candor or refrained depending on your input). If we weren't so tired from our flight I probably would be upset with the fact that we didn't take one picture of us gathering our bags. It was pretty funny seeing the expressions on everyone's face as we were loading all of our luggage. As you leave the baggage area, the Argentine's have a scanner for all luggage to go through, well, the guy must have saw my face our understood a little English (you got to be f-----kidding me) when I was walking toward the scanner, he merely waved us by. Yes! The kiosk of our prearranged taxi was right as you we were exiting the baggage area. We used Manuel Tienda Leon taxi service. They were awesome. I prearranged everything from home over the internet. We used Dina from commercial services. We were referred to her because of the amount of luggage we were bringing with us. Originally, she quoted me 130 USD for a minibus to take us from Ezeiza (airport) to our apartment in Recoleta. Usually it's 20 USD for a taxi to Capital Federal. I told her that we could fit in a minivan. After a couple of days of discussing the size of our luggage she quoted me 60 USD. We waited approximately five minutes when we saw this MINIBUS (21+ passenger) drive toward the taxi area. Our driver walked by us and looked at our luggage and how many people and reconfirmed with the representative at the kiosk if there were only 3 of us going on the minibus. He was a little reluctant, but he helped us load our stuff in. Remarkable, the bike still had to go inside the cabin of the minibus becuase we filled the trunk up with our luggage. The driving needless to say is almost unspeakable. They do have a unique ability to cut each other off while driving. Some cross streets don't even have yield/stop signs. There are so many one way streets, even our driver got lost. It took him over 30 minutes driving to find our apartment. Our apartment location is awesome. We are located in the heart of Recoleta. We are two blocks from multiple coffee houses (even though I haven't had any coffee yet). A couple of blocks to the market, restaurants, and parks. Our apartment is very nice, but a little small. I think everything will be small compared to our previous 2600 sq.ft house.

The first couple of days were laid back. We had some serious jet lag, so we laid low and stayed in our neighborhood. With this posting are some pics of our apartment and Payton at the park. More pics to come, a little hesistant the first couple of days walking around a strange city with a camera straped to our necks.