Adventures in Traveling [Part one]
Seattle [Time: 8:15 a.m. HNL time // 11:15 a.m. PAC time]
I really should have grabbed a coffee before I started writing, but let me tell you, seats, let alone TABLES are a scarce in this SEATAC airport. Then again, it is lunch time here. Hmm.. lunch...
Anyway, here begins about hour 1 of my possibly 6-8 hour adventure in the SEATAC airport. I spent the first half hour or so, trying to charge my ipod. Luckily, there is free wifi in here, so I'm sure that will make the time go by a little quicker.
All I wanted to do was type up a little blog and watch the planes take off. Apparently, 300 other people wanted to do that, give or take the blogging and add in eating. It's so busy here; however, this provides the perfect opportunity for people watching; which is one of the best perks of being in an airport.
Speaking of people watching, there was totally a family of 5: Mom, Dad, 8 year old, 4 year old, 3 year old in the D.C. airport and on my plane. It seemed as though it was the parents first time flying/being in an airport.. and the children added to their confusion. It was pretty surprising to me, but they mentioned (out loud, not to me specifically) that they were on their way to Juneau, so maybe they don't fly too often.
Children... there were, no lie, like 20 children on my DCA flight. Now, this 20 includes all the way up to 18, but there were at least 13 under 10 year olds. Surprising. I guess, I'm totally not used to flying during the day, like when families are flying.
A mother and her 9 year old boy are sitting with me here. I have a 5 seater table. Hot commodity. They were eating a delicious looking burrito from Qdoba, which Allison says is a Chipotle knockoff, but I don't really care, it looks yummy. I might get that when I am done typing. The mother & son have left and a woman and a man have sat down. The woman is wearing a wedding ring, but the man isn't. Might just be traveling partners, they seem cordial to each other, but not necessarily in the married way.
There are all kinds of things to eat in here. I think I will have a snack when the crowd dies down. OOOh, a Continental 747 just took off. Wow, that's cool.
The fellow just asked the woman, "How many seconds are there in a year?" She was like, "Uh, like seconds?" And he replies, "12. January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd..." She laughed. Then he asked, "How many months have 28 days?" But he didn't wait for a reply, just a short laugh and answered, "All of them." I knew that answer, but I thought that it would be inappropriate for myself to interject into their conversation... however, we are table mates now.
Travelings... It's been 10 days since I've left Hawaii. I've been to 4 states: Washington, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.. as well as D.C., not to mention Hawaii. I've been on a turnpike. Didn't make it to West Virginia or Ohio, maybe next time. Pittsburgh is a cool city.
But now, here I am in Seattle. I've said good bye (for who knows how long) to two of my best friends. We all have our own adventures to go on, but I am deeply saddened that we aren't going on them together... but who knows what the future holds.
The man and the woman are headed for their gate, destinations unknown.
The food court, aside from it's awesome full glass windows for plane watching, is also located conveniently right in front of the security checkpoint, which is probably why it is so popular.
One woman with a 3 year old, was rushing through the food court and then stopped suddenly exclaiming, "My bag! My bag!" I guess, that's a downside to traveling with children; they are so distracting! I will find that out at Christmas when we take Kaelynn on her first adventure in the skies, on our way to Seattle. (Wow, actually, we will be coming back HERE, but not trying to waste/spend 6 hours).
Now, 6 hours here or there, that's just one of the downsides of flying standby. The flight from DCA had 22 open seats with 6 (or so) people trying to fly standby, so that was a good deal, pretty much, next to something INSANE happening, there was a great chance I would get on (and I did. I wasn't even the last person on the standby list). However, here, trying to go west, back to Hawaii, is another story.
We landed in SEATAC at 10:10 a.m. PAC time. My flight to Hawaii (which doesn't really look good or bad, could go either way) is at 5:00 something PAC time. Now, if my math is correct, that's about 6 hours. Ideally, I would have loved to spend these 6 hours back in MD with Allison, but the PM flight out of DC didn't look good, and all the flights until Saturday, didn't look good either. So I flew to Seattle. Here, if I miss the flight, Mama Thompson will come and save me, so I don't have to spend the night in the airport. Haha. Then we try again tomorrow.
Part of me hopes I don't get on the flight so I can see her again, but part of me does hope I make it. I'm ready to be home. Actually, ideally, Corey & Kaelynn, would be here with me, where all my other friends are, but we unfortunately live in the real world.
Two women joined me. A woman maybe my mom's age and a girl maybe my age. Could be mother & daughter. They haven't given too many hints to that. The girl isn't wearing a wedding ring, but the woman is.
So, I totally want to write about Genny's wedding, but I will save that for part two. But total side note, it's a tradition or it thing in Pittsburgh to have cookies at your wedding. So, much to our surprise, there were GIRL SCOUT cookies!! Yum! That was awesome. So I saved some and have those to snack on here. Also, it was something new and different because I got to take my apple on the plane! (No fruit when leaving from or to Hawaii... no flowers either, so I had to leave my bouquet in MD).
[Random: I really wish that I hadn't packed my pumping stuff because I didn't have a chance to do it this morning and I'm full, which is uncomfortable, not to mention, I don't know when I will be able to pump, so I hope that this one day doesn't ruin my whole ability to make milk. That would be irritating. However, there aren't a lot of places to pump, seeing how there isn't anywhere to put down the pump in the bathroom. Also, hopefully my milk stays cold so I won't have to throw it all away. :( Cross your fingers, seriously, that would make me cry.)
There is a girl one table away. I think she has/will be spending a lot of time in the airport. A woman sat down with her, maybe a 30something year old and the girl is college age. But they are chatting like they are old friends. It's great, but when you are a little desperate for human contact, ie, you've been talking to yourself for a while, you will be friendly to pretty much anyone. Her (the college aged girl) luggage got sent to Las Vegas but she is going to California, but she is in high spirits, actually she thinks it's pretty funny. But when you have a good attitude about traveling, then you won't be all stressed out or upset.
I try to be like that, but it doesn't always work for me. My flight is so late, that it isn't even on the monitors yet, so I don't know what Gate I need to be at. Oh well, big deal, I have 4 hours to figure that out. It's like I'm still on the airplane, except I have nice bathrooms and access to good food.
When we were getting off the plane, I was watching the baggage people take the luggage off of the plane and put it in that little cart. I didn't see my bag, which is kinda alarming (mostly for the milk reason), but hopefully, I just didn't see it on the side I was on. Anyway, I discovered two things: 1) being a luggage handler looks like a pretty hard job; those bags are heavy, awkward, as well as some are oddly shaped. The conveyor belt goes faster than you can lug the bags off of it and into the cart, which makes you get backed up. However, 2) luggage handlers are not AT ALL kind to your bags. They let them fall on the floor, they chuck them into the cart thing, they bang them around, they rattle them everywhere. I was like, "Yikes! Hope there is nothing breakable in that!" I will have to use this information to think about how I pack my suitcase better.
Wow, this is a little crazy, might be a total coincidence, however, a college aged girl just walked by with a CF tours backpack that was painted like the Italian flag and said Italy on it. Random because CF tours is the tour that Cottey always takes to Europe and random because Charlotte totally went to Italy. She has since faded into the mixture of people, so I guess I will never know. But still kinda cool.
Definitely mother and daughter duo at my table. They have since left.
I got semi snubbed by a family of 3, younger people, they didn't want to share my table. When the M&D duo got up, they were ready to swoop in to take the table, but then when they saw that I wasn't leaving, and I offered the seats to them, they were like, "Eh." Well, fine. :P I have since gotten a new lunch partner (even though I still don't have any lunch). She is 20something, maybe my age.. and she is eating Ivars fish & chips, which smells SOOOOO GOOOOOD. Maybe I'll have that. It has pretty much been 1 hour since I have landed. Maybe it's time to find some coffee, lunch, and a quiet, empty gate to spend another hour or two in.
Remember, there is wifi! So play words with friends with me!
Also, I'm sure no one even cared about this blah blah blah blog, but it is sure therapeutic to write it.
More later. <3
I really should have grabbed a coffee before I started writing, but let me tell you, seats, let alone TABLES are a scarce in this SEATAC airport. Then again, it is lunch time here. Hmm.. lunch...
Anyway, here begins about hour 1 of my possibly 6-8 hour adventure in the SEATAC airport. I spent the first half hour or so, trying to charge my ipod. Luckily, there is free wifi in here, so I'm sure that will make the time go by a little quicker.
All I wanted to do was type up a little blog and watch the planes take off. Apparently, 300 other people wanted to do that, give or take the blogging and add in eating. It's so busy here; however, this provides the perfect opportunity for people watching; which is one of the best perks of being in an airport.
Speaking of people watching, there was totally a family of 5: Mom, Dad, 8 year old, 4 year old, 3 year old in the D.C. airport and on my plane. It seemed as though it was the parents first time flying/being in an airport.. and the children added to their confusion. It was pretty surprising to me, but they mentioned (out loud, not to me specifically) that they were on their way to Juneau, so maybe they don't fly too often.
Children... there were, no lie, like 20 children on my DCA flight. Now, this 20 includes all the way up to 18, but there were at least 13 under 10 year olds. Surprising. I guess, I'm totally not used to flying during the day, like when families are flying.
A mother and her 9 year old boy are sitting with me here. I have a 5 seater table. Hot commodity. They were eating a delicious looking burrito from Qdoba, which Allison says is a Chipotle knockoff, but I don't really care, it looks yummy. I might get that when I am done typing. The mother & son have left and a woman and a man have sat down. The woman is wearing a wedding ring, but the man isn't. Might just be traveling partners, they seem cordial to each other, but not necessarily in the married way.
There are all kinds of things to eat in here. I think I will have a snack when the crowd dies down. OOOh, a Continental 747 just took off. Wow, that's cool.
The fellow just asked the woman, "How many seconds are there in a year?" She was like, "Uh, like seconds?" And he replies, "12. January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd..." She laughed. Then he asked, "How many months have 28 days?" But he didn't wait for a reply, just a short laugh and answered, "All of them." I knew that answer, but I thought that it would be inappropriate for myself to interject into their conversation... however, we are table mates now.
Travelings... It's been 10 days since I've left Hawaii. I've been to 4 states: Washington, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.. as well as D.C., not to mention Hawaii. I've been on a turnpike. Didn't make it to West Virginia or Ohio, maybe next time. Pittsburgh is a cool city.
But now, here I am in Seattle. I've said good bye (for who knows how long) to two of my best friends. We all have our own adventures to go on, but I am deeply saddened that we aren't going on them together... but who knows what the future holds.
The man and the woman are headed for their gate, destinations unknown.
The food court, aside from it's awesome full glass windows for plane watching, is also located conveniently right in front of the security checkpoint, which is probably why it is so popular.
One woman with a 3 year old, was rushing through the food court and then stopped suddenly exclaiming, "My bag! My bag!" I guess, that's a downside to traveling with children; they are so distracting! I will find that out at Christmas when we take Kaelynn on her first adventure in the skies, on our way to Seattle. (Wow, actually, we will be coming back HERE, but not trying to waste/spend 6 hours).
Now, 6 hours here or there, that's just one of the downsides of flying standby. The flight from DCA had 22 open seats with 6 (or so) people trying to fly standby, so that was a good deal, pretty much, next to something INSANE happening, there was a great chance I would get on (and I did. I wasn't even the last person on the standby list). However, here, trying to go west, back to Hawaii, is another story.
We landed in SEATAC at 10:10 a.m. PAC time. My flight to Hawaii (which doesn't really look good or bad, could go either way) is at 5:00 something PAC time. Now, if my math is correct, that's about 6 hours. Ideally, I would have loved to spend these 6 hours back in MD with Allison, but the PM flight out of DC didn't look good, and all the flights until Saturday, didn't look good either. So I flew to Seattle. Here, if I miss the flight, Mama Thompson will come and save me, so I don't have to spend the night in the airport. Haha. Then we try again tomorrow.
Part of me hopes I don't get on the flight so I can see her again, but part of me does hope I make it. I'm ready to be home. Actually, ideally, Corey & Kaelynn, would be here with me, where all my other friends are, but we unfortunately live in the real world.
Two women joined me. A woman maybe my mom's age and a girl maybe my age. Could be mother & daughter. They haven't given too many hints to that. The girl isn't wearing a wedding ring, but the woman is.
So, I totally want to write about Genny's wedding, but I will save that for part two. But total side note, it's a tradition or it thing in Pittsburgh to have cookies at your wedding. So, much to our surprise, there were GIRL SCOUT cookies!! Yum! That was awesome. So I saved some and have those to snack on here. Also, it was something new and different because I got to take my apple on the plane! (No fruit when leaving from or to Hawaii... no flowers either, so I had to leave my bouquet in MD).
[Random: I really wish that I hadn't packed my pumping stuff because I didn't have a chance to do it this morning and I'm full, which is uncomfortable, not to mention, I don't know when I will be able to pump, so I hope that this one day doesn't ruin my whole ability to make milk. That would be irritating. However, there aren't a lot of places to pump, seeing how there isn't anywhere to put down the pump in the bathroom. Also, hopefully my milk stays cold so I won't have to throw it all away. :( Cross your fingers, seriously, that would make me cry.)
There is a girl one table away. I think she has/will be spending a lot of time in the airport. A woman sat down with her, maybe a 30something year old and the girl is college age. But they are chatting like they are old friends. It's great, but when you are a little desperate for human contact, ie, you've been talking to yourself for a while, you will be friendly to pretty much anyone. Her (the college aged girl) luggage got sent to Las Vegas but she is going to California, but she is in high spirits, actually she thinks it's pretty funny. But when you have a good attitude about traveling, then you won't be all stressed out or upset.
I try to be like that, but it doesn't always work for me. My flight is so late, that it isn't even on the monitors yet, so I don't know what Gate I need to be at. Oh well, big deal, I have 4 hours to figure that out. It's like I'm still on the airplane, except I have nice bathrooms and access to good food.
When we were getting off the plane, I was watching the baggage people take the luggage off of the plane and put it in that little cart. I didn't see my bag, which is kinda alarming (mostly for the milk reason), but hopefully, I just didn't see it on the side I was on. Anyway, I discovered two things: 1) being a luggage handler looks like a pretty hard job; those bags are heavy, awkward, as well as some are oddly shaped. The conveyor belt goes faster than you can lug the bags off of it and into the cart, which makes you get backed up. However, 2) luggage handlers are not AT ALL kind to your bags. They let them fall on the floor, they chuck them into the cart thing, they bang them around, they rattle them everywhere. I was like, "Yikes! Hope there is nothing breakable in that!" I will have to use this information to think about how I pack my suitcase better.
Wow, this is a little crazy, might be a total coincidence, however, a college aged girl just walked by with a CF tours backpack that was painted like the Italian flag and said Italy on it. Random because CF tours is the tour that Cottey always takes to Europe and random because Charlotte totally went to Italy. She has since faded into the mixture of people, so I guess I will never know. But still kinda cool.
Definitely mother and daughter duo at my table. They have since left.
I got semi snubbed by a family of 3, younger people, they didn't want to share my table. When the M&D duo got up, they were ready to swoop in to take the table, but then when they saw that I wasn't leaving, and I offered the seats to them, they were like, "Eh." Well, fine. :P I have since gotten a new lunch partner (even though I still don't have any lunch). She is 20something, maybe my age.. and she is eating Ivars fish & chips, which smells SOOOOO GOOOOOD. Maybe I'll have that. It has pretty much been 1 hour since I have landed. Maybe it's time to find some coffee, lunch, and a quiet, empty gate to spend another hour or two in.
Remember, there is wifi! So play words with friends with me!
Also, I'm sure no one even cared about this blah blah blah blog, but it is sure therapeutic to write it.
More later. <3