Tuesday, January 8th; The Longest Day.
Bob: Our neighbor Dee drove us to the airport on her way to work and our adventure began with a flight from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles. I had used some old frequent flyer miles to upgrade to First Class for the first leg of our flight, and it was interesting to contrast the intensive service, free food and beverages, and huge, cushy, comfortable seats in United's First Class section with the crowded cattle-car conditions, overworked staff, and pay-as-you-go conditions of coach. The snow in the Rockies and along the rim of the Grand Canyon made for some interesting views along the way, but Monika was on "picture duty" since she was sitting on the window side. Since I was on the aisle seat, I spent the time completing the initial set of revisions on Wanderung 15 before my memories would be erased by our new adventure. The trip from D.C. to L.A. was uneventful, which definitely not true of the second leg from LA to Honolulu on Northwest Airlines. |
Monika: Going from East to West always seems to be a loooooong day. This one was no different. We got up at 5:30 ... we used to always get up at this time, but after five years of retirement, we certainly weren't used to it anymore. Our neighbor Dee had offered to drive us to the airport since she worked in the Dulles area, and so we got to the airport in plenty of time. We had used precious frequent flier miles to upgrade to first class for the first part of our trip from Washington to Los Angeles. It was interesting to see how the upper one third flies. We could board the aircraft early, had plenty of space for arms, legs, and just stuff, were served coffee immediately, and for breakfast had a big white cloth napkin and a very nice omelet with fruit. Bob and I were both editing our write-ups from Wanderung 15, so that I could convert that to HTML and put on the web when we came back. But when we crossed the Rockies, I got my camera out and took some interesting (I hope) pictures. After the captain had announced that Hoover Dam was on the right hand side, we on the left hand side saw a big ditch, which only could have been the Grand Canyon. Very interesting to see it from the air. |
Bob: We were flying coach on that leg, and the cramped seating, minimal service, and pay-as-you-go strategy was clearly also being used by Northwest. We were both crammed into center seats, which brought up the usual hassles with sharing the armrests with the people on either side of us. To be fair, the turkey sandwich that I purchased for $5 had a large portion of turkey meat and was all together a decent sandwich for the money, but it was still irritating to pay for things that used to be included in the price of a ticket. Not providing any food on a 5 hour flight strikes me as a rather callous attitude to take to your customers, but that seems to be common in the legacy airlines of the U.S. nowadays. Maybe Air France will buy one of them out and start providing decent food and service. Our flight got interesting, unfortunately, when we had to cross a north-south running jetstream while heading west over the Pacific. Transitioning into the jet stream we encountered moderate to severe turbulence where the plane was rocking, rolling, pitching, and yawing around like a roller coaster. I know we went to slight negative G force at one point as I was starting to push up against my seat belt, and I think we had about + 2 Gs on the down side. Fortunately the moderate to severe turbulence was only for a couple of minutes, but I did wonder why the Captain didn't throttle back to maneuvering speed to reduce the stresses on the airframe. After that rough patch things went quite smoothly, so we arrived in Honolulu airport on time. As we deplaned and started to walk back through the terminal to baggage claim, I was surprised to see that the terminal didn't really have exterior walls. Instead it was just open to the elements. I suppose it's cheaper to build that way than to actually put up all exterior walls and I know the climate is mild, but how can you really have airport security when you have an entire wall open to the sky? When the shuttle bus dropped us off at the Aloha Surf Hotel, I was once again confronted with a hotel that had no front wall; we just kind of rolled straight in from the street to the reception desk, which struck me as distinctly odd. I wondered about critters getting into the hotel and found out later than indeed several flocks of birds fly around inside as well as outside our hotel. Our hotel was otherwise a quite normal hotel with very nice, airy rooms complete with a refrigerator, microwave, and coffee maker as well as free Internet access, but the lack of walls in the lobby and in the courtyard where we ate breakfast took a bit of getting used to. It was well past our usual bedtime and after twenty hours and two long flights we were dead tired, so once up in our room we did the minimum necessary unpacking before preparing for bed. I delayed my bedtime by just a few minutes to take advantage of the free internet service to sent a "we arrived safely" email back to our friends and relatives, and then we hit the sack for the night. |
Monika: In LAX we had to switch terminals and even had to get our boarding passes for the next flight since it seems United and Northwest don't talk to each other. Luckily their baggage handlers at least worked together so we did not have to worry about our suitcase. We were assigned two middle seats behind each other and were told to try to get it changed at the departure desk. No luck there, since the plane was booked completely. But at least one of the boarding passes had the little word "exit" next to the seat assignment, so Sherlock Monika deduced that this was an Exit Row seat and probably had more leg room. Indeed this was true, and Bob survived the 5 Hour leg to Hawaii without having his knee caps squished. We both purchased a turkey sandwich on board for $5.--. Not a bad price for a very nice, big sandwich with plenty of turkey, Swiss cheese, and lettuce. They even gave you mustard to put on the sandwiches. And soft drinks and juices were free, so although this definitely was not first class service, it kept us going. We got into Honolulu around 6 local time (11 body time) and we both were happy to see our suitcase come up the baggage chute. Bob found a shuttle bus that took us to our hotel. Our rooms were ready, and we both were happy to see a large, comfortable, king-size bed. Bob also noticed an internet connection, luckily he had brought the cable, and quickly checked our email and let everyone know we made it. But then, around 8, we both just collapsed. |
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