Gosh, it seems like Fairbanks was so long ago! I had my week's vacation after that...I don't remember what I did! During those days, though, I celebrated my birthday! Oh wait, I DO REMEMBER part of what I did! I went to VEGAS! Over 1 1/2 years ago, I purchased tickets to see Celine Dion in Vegas before she ended her summer run. Jen and James met me there and we had a wonderful weekend! It was VERY HOT. And while we were there, it RAINED! And boy, when it rains, IT RAINS. Very heavy, for about 10 minutes or so, and then it was gone. Unfortunately, it causes flash floods in some areas, but nonetheless, the locals all ran outside and were so happy!
While we were in Vegas, some major family drama erupted. Very damaging family drama. I'm feeling destroyed by this. Very nasty things were put into writing that were directed at me and Jen, and it is so very hurtful. But, as usual, we're being told to "turn the other cheek" and just move on. I have no cheeks left (face or butt...well, I WISH I didn't have as large of butt cheeks as I do... but that's a whole 'nother story). Anyway, I am not a believer of "cutting all ties" or "never talking to someone" ever again, but I'm feeling that's what's happening to me. The sad thing is, is that NO ONE will stand up for me. NO ONE. Status quo, unfortunately.
The following weekend, I had a layover in NYC and was able to meet Jen and James for brunch in their city! We went to an "upscale" Mexican restaurant, and it was delicious! After a short visit, it was time for me to go back and hit the skies again. My next night was in SLC, and I did a whole lotta nothing while I was there.
When I got back home on 8/22, I couldn't go to sleep right away. So I stayed downstairs playing on the computer. At approximately 11:45PM I heard a very weird noise and a weird shaking or "rolling." It turns out that there was a 5.3 earthquake centered near Trinidad, CO. Wow! The next morning I did a "walkabout" around the house to see if there was any damage to the house, and I found that our garage floor is now cracked. Lovely. I will have to call the insurance company (yes...we've had earthquake insurance ever since we bought this house).
With the earthquake behind me, we prepared for the hurricane - I was scheduled to fly in/out of DCA and LGA during the hurricane. Hmmmm. I wasn't too thrilled about that. First, however, I had an overnight in DCA. Fortunately, we were a day or two ahead of the storm, so I was able to enjoy a nice visit with Greg's parents and one of my longtime girlfriends, Kathy. It was so good to catch up! We visited for awhile, went out to lunch at the Olive Garden, and then it was time to go back to the hotel to get ready to fly back to Milwaukee and then on to LGA.
We (the crew) were not happy about the pending LGA trip. Mainly because, the city of New York was shutting down the entire MTA (subway and bus) system at noon on Saturday. I was really bummed - I had planned on another brunch with Jen and James, and we were going to meet up with my sister, Nancy and a longtime family friend, Sister Barbara. They were going to be in town to have lunch and see "Jersey Boys" - but everyone's plans got changed. Broadway canceled all its shows for Sat/Sun, Nancy and Sister Barbara canceled their day trip to NYC, and since the MTA was shut down, I had no way to get to see Jen and James. Our return flight was scheduled to leave at 5:49PM on Saturday night, and then the flight got canceled because the City was closing the airport at noon. Fortunately, our company put us on a flight out of NYC at 11:59AM - thank goodness! We had over 20 crew members that were being "evacuated." We were originally scheduled to go to Denver, but we eventually got there via Milwaukee! I had already decided to stay at a friend's condo north of Denver - because I was starting another 3-day trip the next day. So I got to settle in for a quiet evening with a much shorter drive.
I was so glad that this 3-day ended. It started out just fine, and then little-by-little, things started going wrong. The other two flight attendants were "picking" on me. I'm not sure what I did to tick them off, but they thought that having me do all the work was funny. One of the flight attendants fit the stereotype of a flight attendant - she was inseparable from another crew member, and she let passengers know when she thought they were attractive. A little bit of flirting is fine, but practically throwing yourself at someone is a bit harder to take. I even asked her if she wanted me to leave (she was flirting pretty heavily with the passenger in seat 1D, and yes...he was cute, but she was over-the-top), as we were getting ready to take off! Sheesh. Talk about feeling like a third wheel.
Today's trip will be with two of my classmates, so hopefully it will be much better because we'll all work well together. I just wonder who our Captain and First Officer will be. My fingers are crossed.
I am very happy that no one that I know was injured or lost any property due to either the earthquake or the flood. Let's hope that the natural disasters stop for awhile!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
The Fun Continues!
On day 2 of our adventure, we called the Discovery III Riverboat to see if they had any space for us to take the 3 hour riverboat cruise, and they said that they had a few seats, but that it didn't look promising. Not satisfied with that answer, the three of us showed up at the dock and ended up getting complimentary tickets for the tour (a $54 value). Go back to the link in the last post and look at the pictures that I added to my album.
It was a very interesting cruise. We had several times where we stopped in the river and talked with someone on the shore. The first guy was Dave Monson who owns the Trail Breaker Kennel - his wife was Susan Butcher who won the Iditarod 4 times! She passed away 5 years ago this month from cancer. It was fun watching his demo of having a dog sled team pull him in an ATV (with the engine pulled out). They are fast! I also enjoyed watching the dogs hang out on the tops of their doghouses. Our Kodi, a miniature husky, likes to do the same thing!
There was also a float plane that took off and landed, and then took off again alongside the riverboat. We passed many beautiful homes - and these are not summer homes! People up here stay here ALL YEAR. And it can get down to -60 degrees! Yowza!
We also saw a beaver doing his thing, a couple of owls just sitting on a log alongside the river, and then we spent a couple hours at the Chena River Village. At the village they showed us the typical clothing that the Athabascan wear, the different types of animal skins, and they had beautiful gardens to look at, buildings we could go into, and a pen with a bunch of sled dogs - all huskies - where we could lean over the fence and pet the cuties.
It was a fun morning! I spent the rest of the day relaxing, blogging, and taking a nap! We leave here tonight at 9:30PM and will be back in Denver at 5:30AM. Once I'm back, I'll be off work for a week for vacation!
Next adventure? I'm meeting Jen and James in Vegas on Friday, and we're going to see Celine Dion on Saturday night - her second-to-last night in Caesar's Palace!
It was a very interesting cruise. We had several times where we stopped in the river and talked with someone on the shore. The first guy was Dave Monson who owns the Trail Breaker Kennel - his wife was Susan Butcher who won the Iditarod 4 times! She passed away 5 years ago this month from cancer. It was fun watching his demo of having a dog sled team pull him in an ATV (with the engine pulled out). They are fast! I also enjoyed watching the dogs hang out on the tops of their doghouses. Our Kodi, a miniature husky, likes to do the same thing!
There was also a float plane that took off and landed, and then took off again alongside the riverboat. We passed many beautiful homes - and these are not summer homes! People up here stay here ALL YEAR. And it can get down to -60 degrees! Yowza!
We also saw a beaver doing his thing, a couple of owls just sitting on a log alongside the river, and then we spent a couple hours at the Chena River Village. At the village they showed us the typical clothing that the Athabascan wear, the different types of animal skins, and they had beautiful gardens to look at, buildings we could go into, and a pen with a bunch of sled dogs - all huskies - where we could lean over the fence and pet the cuties.
It was a fun morning! I spent the rest of the day relaxing, blogging, and taking a nap! We leave here tonight at 9:30PM and will be back in Denver at 5:30AM. Once I'm back, I'll be off work for a week for vacation!
Next adventure? I'm meeting Jen and James in Vegas on Friday, and we're going to see Celine Dion on Saturday night - her second-to-last night in Caesar's Palace!
Fun in Fairbanks!
This is my third time trying to get to Fairbanks, Alaska for a 48 hour layover...and I made it!!! One of the wonderful perks of this job.
We arrived last night at around 9:30PM, but you wouldn't have known it - it was still light out...kind of an early dusk feeling. One of the other flight attendants called ahead to make sure that we were assigned to the cabins at the hotel - they're right near the Chena River. The cabins are so cute!!
Here's a link to my photo album on Facebook - I tried downloading the pictures to this blog, but let's just say that it was a pain in the neck...! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2342076914086.137627.1314851818&l=119af651e0&type=1.
The captain and first officer brought fishing poles and they've disappeared off the face of the earth. So the flight attendants decided to go out and have fun sightseeing. So this morning we met up after breakfast and started looking for a rental car. What we didn't know is that the Army is holding some sort of exercise this week, and all the small, medium and large cars are all gone...for every rental company. There were some SUVs available as well as some pick-up trucks. We decided on an SUV - we felt it was overkill, but it was either that or sit at the hotel all day.
We started out heading to the North Pole, Alaska. It was really cute. All the stores, restaurants, etc. had candy cane striped poles holding their signs. The street lights were candy canes. The nearby Church was St. Nicholas Catholic Church. We stopped at the Santa Claus House to see what we could spend our hard earned money on, and I'm proud to say that I spent nothing. Yay! I saw a couple ornaments that I liked, but they weren't exactly what I wanted. So we took a few pictures, visited with Santa's reindeer behind the store, and headed on down the road. We were disappointed that Santa wasn't there yet - we had an hour to wait. So we moved on.
Our next stop was at a couple overlooks along the Tanana River on the way to Delta Junction. The scenery was just gorgeous. It was overcast and a bit drizzly, but we still managed to get a few great photos. We were looking for animals along the way, but all we saw was a German Shepherd!
We finally arrived at the Visitor's Center at Delta Junction. There were lots of cool displays, as well as lots of cute gifts. But again I resisted. I found the state bird of Alaska outside of the Visitor's Center - in fact, there were two of them.
It was time for lunch, so we headed back towards Fairbanks and stopped at Rika's Roadhouse in the Big Delta State Historical Park. Rika was a strong woman back in the early days and had a roadhouse that served the men who worked on the Alaska State Highway and worked on the communication systems for the military during WWII. Most of the original buildings are still there, and are now filled with antiques for our enjoyment. There is an operating restaurant that we stopped at, and I had the most incredible crab/corn chowder bisque and strawberry rhubarb pie! Delicious!
Afterwards, we drove down the road a little ways and watched as some men were working on the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline. They were tethered to the pipeline (over the river), and were adding pieces to the pipeline. It was interesting to watch as their co-workers brought a piece of metal from the yard, loaded it onto their speedboat, drove to a spot beneath the pipeline, and the guy tethered to the line lowered a line with a hook on the end. The guys on the boat attached the metal, the worker above pulled up the metal and then attached it to the pipeline. It was also fun to read the threatening signs posted near the pipeline!
As we headed back to Fairbanks, we were disappointed that we hadn't seen any wildlife! Then right outside the fence along Ellison AFB, we saw a moose! Yay!
Once back in Fairbanks, we went to "downtown" to see what it looked like. It wasn't horrible, but I think Anchorage had much nicer shops. We also walked over to Golden Heart Park and looked at the First Unknown Family statue that was erected in 1983. It was very beautiful and honored the first Inuit family. On our way back to the hotel, we dropped off the SUV and now we're without transportation, sort of. The hotel shuttle is supposed to take us wherever we want to go within Fairbanks - so we'll see what happens.
We had thought about going to the infamous Salmon Bake at the Pioneer Park - they have an unlimited buffet of Salmon, Cod and Prime Rib. Had they also had crab legs, I would have gone. But one of my co-workers doesn't eat fish, and I wasn't totally convinced that it was worth the cost...so we decided to eat at the hotel. Instead of having an Alaskan specialty, I ended up with a delicious grilled cheese sandwich!!! It was so good. After dinner, I took a walk around the local area while taking pictures (the sun had FINALLY come out), and then retired to my room.
We should have another full day of fun tomorrow before we have to take the van back to the airport at 9:30PM. It's been a fun visit, and I look forward to coming back again (and reserving a car beforehand!) - it will be a fun time!
We arrived last night at around 9:30PM, but you wouldn't have known it - it was still light out...kind of an early dusk feeling. One of the other flight attendants called ahead to make sure that we were assigned to the cabins at the hotel - they're right near the Chena River. The cabins are so cute!!
Here's a link to my photo album on Facebook - I tried downloading the pictures to this blog, but let's just say that it was a pain in the neck...! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2342076914086.137627.1314851818&l=119af651e0&type=1.
The captain and first officer brought fishing poles and they've disappeared off the face of the earth. So the flight attendants decided to go out and have fun sightseeing. So this morning we met up after breakfast and started looking for a rental car. What we didn't know is that the Army is holding some sort of exercise this week, and all the small, medium and large cars are all gone...for every rental company. There were some SUVs available as well as some pick-up trucks. We decided on an SUV - we felt it was overkill, but it was either that or sit at the hotel all day.
We started out heading to the North Pole, Alaska. It was really cute. All the stores, restaurants, etc. had candy cane striped poles holding their signs. The street lights were candy canes. The nearby Church was St. Nicholas Catholic Church. We stopped at the Santa Claus House to see what we could spend our hard earned money on, and I'm proud to say that I spent nothing. Yay! I saw a couple ornaments that I liked, but they weren't exactly what I wanted. So we took a few pictures, visited with Santa's reindeer behind the store, and headed on down the road. We were disappointed that Santa wasn't there yet - we had an hour to wait. So we moved on.
Our next stop was at a couple overlooks along the Tanana River on the way to Delta Junction. The scenery was just gorgeous. It was overcast and a bit drizzly, but we still managed to get a few great photos. We were looking for animals along the way, but all we saw was a German Shepherd!
We finally arrived at the Visitor's Center at Delta Junction. There were lots of cool displays, as well as lots of cute gifts. But again I resisted. I found the state bird of Alaska outside of the Visitor's Center - in fact, there were two of them.
It was time for lunch, so we headed back towards Fairbanks and stopped at Rika's Roadhouse in the Big Delta State Historical Park. Rika was a strong woman back in the early days and had a roadhouse that served the men who worked on the Alaska State Highway and worked on the communication systems for the military during WWII. Most of the original buildings are still there, and are now filled with antiques for our enjoyment. There is an operating restaurant that we stopped at, and I had the most incredible crab/corn chowder bisque and strawberry rhubarb pie! Delicious!
Afterwards, we drove down the road a little ways and watched as some men were working on the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline. They were tethered to the pipeline (over the river), and were adding pieces to the pipeline. It was interesting to watch as their co-workers brought a piece of metal from the yard, loaded it onto their speedboat, drove to a spot beneath the pipeline, and the guy tethered to the line lowered a line with a hook on the end. The guys on the boat attached the metal, the worker above pulled up the metal and then attached it to the pipeline. It was also fun to read the threatening signs posted near the pipeline!
As we headed back to Fairbanks, we were disappointed that we hadn't seen any wildlife! Then right outside the fence along Ellison AFB, we saw a moose! Yay!
Once back in Fairbanks, we went to "downtown" to see what it looked like. It wasn't horrible, but I think Anchorage had much nicer shops. We also walked over to Golden Heart Park and looked at the First Unknown Family statue that was erected in 1983. It was very beautiful and honored the first Inuit family. On our way back to the hotel, we dropped off the SUV and now we're without transportation, sort of. The hotel shuttle is supposed to take us wherever we want to go within Fairbanks - so we'll see what happens.
We had thought about going to the infamous Salmon Bake at the Pioneer Park - they have an unlimited buffet of Salmon, Cod and Prime Rib. Had they also had crab legs, I would have gone. But one of my co-workers doesn't eat fish, and I wasn't totally convinced that it was worth the cost...so we decided to eat at the hotel. Instead of having an Alaskan specialty, I ended up with a delicious grilled cheese sandwich!!! It was so good. After dinner, I took a walk around the local area while taking pictures (the sun had FINALLY come out), and then retired to my room.
We should have another full day of fun tomorrow before we have to take the van back to the airport at 9:30PM. It's been a fun visit, and I look forward to coming back again (and reserving a car beforehand!) - it will be a fun time!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
This is the Life!
It's Thursday afternoon, and I've spent approximately the last 30 hours relaxing at my cabin in Breckenridge, CO. Nice. Very nice! Normally, I come up alone during the summer (Greg likes to come up in the winter to ski, and I used to come up with Jen until she left for college), but this time I brought two of my Frontier co-workers and one of their husbands.
We've been spending our time eating, drinking, talking, swinging in my hanging chairs, Erik went fishing, and Jenn went hiking. It's been so relaxing!
I fly again on Sunday when I do a turn to Louisville, KY and then spend the night in Chicago. Unfortunately, it's a relatively short layover and it's mostly in the morning on Monday, so I doubt I will get together with anyone. Then later that evening after I'm back in Denver, we'll head Fairbanks, Alaska for 48 hours. Unfortunately, the friend who was supposed to go with me a few weeks ago cannot come this time. So I invited my lovely daughter, Jen. But the day after the trip ends, she and I and her husband are meeting in Las Vegas for a concert. Jen wasn't thrilled about flying cross country twice in two days, so I think she'll pass on this adventure. I've invited a neighbor to join me, but she's already got plans, too. Alas, I will be going alone. One of the other flight attendants is bringing her husband, and maybe I'll be able to tag along with them.
No matter, I will have an absolutely WONDERFUL TIME during my first visit to Fairbanks, Alaska.
My last two trips were really good - I got along well with the crew, everything went well on the flights, the hotels were nice, and the layovers were just right. I'll be putting in about 97 hours this month, which includes a week's vacation during my birthday. The goal for this month is to relax and take it easy!
We've been spending our time eating, drinking, talking, swinging in my hanging chairs, Erik went fishing, and Jenn went hiking. It's been so relaxing!
I fly again on Sunday when I do a turn to Louisville, KY and then spend the night in Chicago. Unfortunately, it's a relatively short layover and it's mostly in the morning on Monday, so I doubt I will get together with anyone. Then later that evening after I'm back in Denver, we'll head Fairbanks, Alaska for 48 hours. Unfortunately, the friend who was supposed to go with me a few weeks ago cannot come this time. So I invited my lovely daughter, Jen. But the day after the trip ends, she and I and her husband are meeting in Las Vegas for a concert. Jen wasn't thrilled about flying cross country twice in two days, so I think she'll pass on this adventure. I've invited a neighbor to join me, but she's already got plans, too. Alas, I will be going alone. One of the other flight attendants is bringing her husband, and maybe I'll be able to tag along with them.
No matter, I will have an absolutely WONDERFUL TIME during my first visit to Fairbanks, Alaska.
My last two trips were really good - I got along well with the crew, everything went well on the flights, the hotels were nice, and the layovers were just right. I'll be putting in about 97 hours this month, which includes a week's vacation during my birthday. The goal for this month is to relax and take it easy!
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