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?