Outstandingly Breathtaking...

After returning to Denver from St. Louis, we flew a turn to Seattle. As we were getting ready to land, I noticed all the passengers leaning over to look out the aircraft left windows. What the heck were they looking at?

Mt. Rainier as seen from the airplane's window.



Our plane's winglet with Mt. Rainier in the background.



Absolutely gorgeous.

What a wonderful thing to see! And to top that off, when we got back to Denver, I got released to my day off! How can life get any better?

Last Minute Trip

Yesterday, I started out by sitting the couch at DIA at noon. I had my lunch, magazines, a book, and lots of plans to catch up with friends. At 12:30PM, crew scheduling calls me off the couch to start a 3-day trip. The flight attendant on the first turn of the trip (to Minneapolis) showed up to work not feeling well early that morning, and as they got back to Denver she felt even worse. So she called in sick, and I had 35 minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart!

That is a prime example as to why the airline has us sit "ready reserve."

It was a fun crew - Fred and Chris up front, Brenda and Kelly in the back. Lots of teasing, lots of joking. You have to keep it light when you are flying to Los Angeles...sometimes there can be strange characters on board. But yesterday was fairly normal, the flight went well, and we got into LAX in the early afternoon. I felt the ocean calling to me, so I changed my clothes and hopped on the trolley that'd take me to Manhattan Beach. What I should have thought of is that it had reached 114 degrees that day in Los Angeles, so the beach wasn't necessarily going to be a "cool" place to hang out.

So when I got to Manhattan Beach, I decided to eat an early dinner at a restaurant called the Kettle. Jen and James went there the last time that they were in Los Angeles, and Jen raved about the Tortilla Soup. Even though it was hotter than hell outside, she said it'd be worth it! So that's where I went.

Chicken Tortilla Soup from The Kettle Restaurant

After I was done with dinner, it had cooled off a bit outside, so I walked down to the beach and pier. It was so absolutely beautiful! I spent time walking in the sand, walking on the pier, and doing A LOT of people watching. It was the perfect afternoon!

The sun was setting, but no one seemed to notice.

A beautiful day on the beach.

Looking south from the pier.

The aquarium at the end of the pier.

After walking around awhile, I headed back to the trolley pick-up point. It's a really nice system - the trolley picks-up at around 5 or 6 different "stops" around a bunch of hotels near the airport, and the first stop is Manhattan Beach. Then after you leave Manhattan Beach, there are two additional stops before returning to the hotels - both are malls. One is an indoor mall and the other is an outdoor mall - with lots and lots of stores and restaurants to choose from!

However, I chose to return to the hotel because that 5AM van was going to be ready for us before we knew it!

After returning to Denver, we kept the same plane and prepared to fly to St. Louis, MO. We got a new first officer, Juan, but kept the other crew members. There were a bunch of siblings sitting in the back of the plane - they had all just flown in from Oregon, Washington, Utah and Minnesota, and were all gathering to spend time together in Missouri. It turns out that one of their sisters recently passed away, so they were going to spend some quality time together before another one passed on. What a great idea!

Fortunately, it wasn't as hot in STL as it was in LAX, but I still didn't feel like sightseeing. The rest of the crew had met the night before to have an early dinner at the happy hour in the hotel bar, but I had chosen to go to the beach. So tonight I decided to be social, and I met the rest of the group in this hotel's bar. They had the most awesome tomato bisque soup...yummy! We had a great time laughing, telling stories, just hanging out. And we were done at 6PM...because our van time is 4:55AM tomorrow! (Which, is really 3:55AM Denver time...)

Tomorrow, we'll fly back to Denver (and everyone but us will be sleeping), and then we head to Seattle and back. When I return at around 2:30PM, I hope to hear those magic words, "you are released to your day off!" Keep your fingers crossed!

Where Has September Gone?

I haven't done a lot of flying this month...but the little that I did was GREAT!

I had to sit the couch twice, but on my way to the airport for the second sit I got a call from Crew Scheduling telling me that I'd be heading to Houston later that evening. Cool! Houston is one of my favorite layovers because I have friends there, AND it's one of my favorite hotel rooms.

Well...a tropical storm was blowing through Houston, my friends weren't available, and I got an inside room which overlooks the lobby. Needless to say, I got a lot of TV watching done! I believe I watched a marathon of "LA Ink."

The big question about this trip was whether or not we were going to make it back to Denver in time for our next flight - to ANCHORAGE! Yahoo! Only one other flight attendant and I were going on to ANC, so we started figuring that the airline would recrew our positions...we made up time in the air heading back to DEN, and lo and behold, the plane was loaded and ready to go when we got there! They waited for us! Mitch and I settled in to our positions and then we took off.

The plane was probably 2/3 full of men in various form of hunting and fishing gear. The hunters told me that they were going after bear, and the fishermen all had their poles safely tucked into the overhead bins.

We arrived in ANC late at night. Last year, in August, it was still light outside. But this time, in September, it was dark. Our return flight would be leaving about 24 hours after our arrival, so we had time to do some fun stuff. I gave my friend, Connie, a call when I got the trip and she had the morning and early afternoon available to show me around town. We went to a little town called Palmer, enjoyed a delicious lunch and did a little bit of shopping/browsing at a couple of the town's shops.

On the way back to ANC, we stopped at a Russian Orthodox Church that had a very unusual graveyard. Each grave was topped by a small house that contained some of the deceased's valuables. It's amazing how the native tribe still maintains those "houses," which were painted in bright and beautiful colors.

Connie and I made one more stop before she took me back to the hotel - there's a beautiful place called Kincaid park that overlooks the Inlet. It's where she usually takes people to see moose, bear, and other assorted wildlife, but that day they were all hiding!



Connie and me in Kincaid Park.

 A sign in Kincaid Park that could not go unphotographed.

When Connie dropped me back at the hotel, I figured it was too early to take a nap in preparation for our all-night flight back to DEN, so I decided to take a walk...around a lake...! If you look at the following map, our hotel is located in the lower right corner - it's called the Millenium Hotel. That's where I started. 

The world's largest floatplane lake.

One of the many floatplanes that I saw during my walk

I don't believe that I have ever seen as many floatplanes as I did that day. Each "dock" had a little house holding the flight equipment, and the floatplane was tied up next to it. Some were surrounded by cute little picket fences (a woman's touch, no doubt), others were plain with no little house, and others looked like they had sleeping accommodations. During my walk, I'd see guys coming to the lake after work, locking up their cars, readying their planes for flight, and then leaving their dock and taking off on the water!

There were also quite a few hangars and "parking lots" for other planes without floats. There was a taxiway around parts of the lake that led to a runway - I lost count of the number of planes that took off that way during my walk. It's definitely a different lifestyle that what I'm used to.

After that trip, I had a few days off and then got assigned a 20 hour layover in Kansas City, MO. Again, it's a very nice hotel...but there is NOTHING to do nearby. This time, we arrived early in the morning and I got ambitious. I had heard that there was a mall nearby - Zona Rosa. I decided to walk there, and then have the hotel shuttle bus pick me up later in the afternoon.

Well...let's just say that it wasn't the nicest walk I've ever been on. The road you walk on paralleled the highway, there was no scenery to speak of - the most exciting thing was looking at the trash that had been thrown on the roadside as I cautiously stepped over it. I wish I had brought a baggie with me, and I would have collected some of it...but since I hadn't, I just looked at it, tried to figure out what some of it was, and then moved on. It was also VERY hot and VERY humid. And...of course, it was around noontime.

Silly me...I didn't follow directions and took a road across the highway and ended up at a Target shopping center (with a JC Penney, a Famous Footwear, and several other stores). I asked for directions to Zona Rosa, and instead of sending me back the way I had just come, they sent me the opposite way and instructed me to cross under the highway. That's when I came upon a WalMart shopping center (with a Lowe's, Bed Bath & Beyond, and a Borders, and several other stores). Not where I wanted to be.

I needed to get to Zona Rosa's Barnes & Noble, because that is where the hotel shuttle would be picking me up at 3PM. So I kept trudging along, and FINALLY found what I was looking for. Zona Rosa had a ton of "high-end" boutiques (read as EXPENSIVE), and by that time all I was interested in doing was sitting inside in AIR CONDITIONING, drinking WATER. I'm guessing that my diversion turned my walk from a 4.5 mile trek to at least 6 miles or so. Thank goodness I had my MBT shoes on, gently shaping and firming my buttocks and calf muscles!

I got released upon my return to DEN the following morning, and then got assigned to a stand-up to Spokane that night. The perfect ending. I hate stand-ups, but if I have to do one, the best time to do it is on your last day of duty. That's because you HAVE to be released to your days off when you return. And that's exactly what happened.

On my first day I accompanied my hubby to his surgery appointment for his right hand. Surgery took a lot longer than last time, and that was because the condition of his hand was a lot worse than his left hand. There was a lot of arthritis in his thumb joint (which has now been replaced), as well as a lot of scar tissue surrounding one of his nerves. He also had the carpal tunnel surgery done at the same time, so in time, his right had should be almost as good as new. Well...maybe not that good...but at least it'll be a lot less painful than it has been.

I was supposed to start six duty days just a couple days after his surgery, but I opted to take sick days instead. Since this was Greg's right hand, it took him a little longer to get used to doing things without it. Plus, I was concerned because this surgery was a lot more in depth than last time...

I'm now at the end of my next set of days off, and am scheduled to go back to work for three days. I've been reading my friends' updates on FaceBook, and have truly missed not being a part of their trips and traveling fun. However, I truly have NOT missed driving to/from Denver. I really look forward to the day (maybe early next year?) when I have control over my own schedule and fly a comfortable amount of hours, with a minimum number of round-trip drives to Denver...or maybe even round-trip flights from COS to DEN. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Sitting on the Sexy Black Leather Couch...

My three-day trip to LGA and SLC was great! I had several hours with Jen and Liza - though we did not make it to Central Park. It was too hot and humid! So we stayed inside at her apartment, and ordered in lunch. Very short, but very sweet.

I slept when I got to SLC - I was so tired for some reason and just needed to sleep. And that's what I did. It was great!

I had a great cabin crew on the SLC overnight, but one of the flight attendants on the LGA overnight was a bit different. She was nowhere to be found at show time, and when she did arrive she had a long story about the hotel van. The other flight attendant in the back used to fly with her all the time, and said, "she always has such creative stories." Hmmmm. The thing is, she was the CPT's pet, so nothing will ever be said to anyone in charge.

Speaking of which, has anyone ever heard of a guy getting a "kitchen pass" from his wife? A co-worker told me that a CPT hit her with that line a couple weeks ago - he wanted to know what she could do for him! OMG. How disgusting is that?!?!? She had gone to the flight deck to give the first officer a potty break, and this is what the CPT said to her. She replied, "So...where are you taking the kids for vacation this year?" Good comeback for an uncomfortable situation!

Speaking of uncomfortable situations, when I was on the NYC subway the other day heading to Jen's apartment, a strange looking man boarded my car and said to me, "Are you rich?" I just looked at him and laughed! Then he started hitting on the young girl sitting across from me. At first she listened to him, and then she went back to her book. Finally, he gave up and got off at the next stop - when a woman walked on, he said to her, "Stay good looking, cause if you don't you'll be ugly!" I wonder how long it took him to come up with that comment.

Today when I arrived at DIA to sit the couch, I walked from one end of the A concourse to the other to get a bit of exercise, and I saw some of the strangest looking outfits! First, there was a family of five - the older couple were dressed like "Dr. Quinn - Medicine Woman," as were the younger couple, pushing a stroller with a young'un. And, of course, I later saw one of the couples in the leather-goods store on the concourse! The other strange-looking person was going to Detroit. He was very tall and very thin, dressed all in patchwork leather. He had lace-up boots, and his leather pants were tight, tight, tight! His outfit was topped off with the kind of hat that Robin Hood would wear - complete with a foot-long feather! If I had had my camera, I would have snapped a pic - but how do you do that without them seeing you and punching you in the face?

I am off duty in 15 minutes. I started out with two others, but they were both sent on trips. So sad. So I cleaned up the crewroom, organized the "Lost and Found," and did all my online training courses (one was due before I go to my annual training, and all the other courses were due by the end of this year)!

I fully expect to be sent somewhere, sometime...I just don't know when or where. As a co-worker said to me today, "I'm finding that meditation, medication and alcohol are helping me tolerate being on reserve." So true, so true.