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!