Sleeping at SLC gate C09
(Yep! I Even Brought my CPAP!)
London: Coming Home
Posted by on October 23, 2009 2 Comments
We packed up our suitcases and checked out of our hotel around 10 am. We spent a little time in the Business Centre checking flight loads again, and coming up with more contingencies. We got a breakfast croissant at the kiosk in the Tube station, made with delicious ham and emmental cheese. We scrounged together the rest of our change to pay for our tube ride to Heathrow. It took about 30 minutes to get to LHR terminal 4. We checked in at the kiosk, went through security, and walked around the airport to pass the time until our flight boarded. We got a few snacks and drinks, and crossed our fingers for seat assignments. We missed out on business class by two passengers, and got seat assignments one row apart. A nice passenger offered to let us sit together (giving up an aisle seat for a middle…talk about a good samaritan!)
We napped, snacked, read, and watched movies. I watched “Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging,” “The Hangover,” and “My Life in Ruins.” The flight was slightly longer back to the US, approximately 10 hours. We came back through customs, grabbed some dinner, and checked out the flight boards. We were hoping to catch a 9 pm flight to SLC, but we still had about 3 hours till boarding. Taylor went down to Ops to check Deltanet, and it was pretty evident we wouldn’t make it on that flight. We looked at alternate flights through DEN, HOU, ABQ, PHX, MEM, OMA, DFW, DTW, CVG and TUS, but all of those cities would require an overnight stay before the connecting flight to SLC. We were exhausted from the day of traveling, and decided to call it a night. Taylor got a $36 crew-rate hotel (with free wifi…hallelujah!)
In the morning, flight loads didn’t look any better, and we wanted a to find the most certain option for getting back to SLC…which ended up being San Antonio. Once in SAT, we ate lunch at Las Palapas Mexican Grill in Terminal 1. I’ve got to put in a plug for this place…very delicious food and insanely inexpensive for airport food. Two full meals with drinks, tax and tip came to $16. We were happy when our names were called for a seat assignment, and even more happy that we had seats in first class. First class in a short flight on a CRJ isn’t too swanky, just more opportunities for free drinks and more legroom.
We arrived in SLC in the late afternoon, picked up our car, and headed down to Lehi to pick up Rosie from my parents’ house. We shared our trip pictures with them, and got back to SF around 8:00. It was an exhausting 2 days of travel home….but it was totally worth it.
London: En Route
Posted by on October 19, 2009 5 Comments
Since our trip to London has so many details and pictures I want to post, I figured that I would split if up into sections so it won’t take so long to post about the trip. Now for part one: Getting there!
I spent the evening before I left frantically packing. I went to the store to get some trip snacks and American candy to take to my friend Emma. I was going to bake some banana bread too, but ran out of time. I think I finally got to sleep around 11:30, and my alarms went off at 4:15. I double checked that I had my passport, ipod, chargers, and other necessary items and hit the road to the SLC airport by 4:40. I dropped my car off at Park and Jet (cheapest SLC parking spot, by the way. $5/day with a free car wash), rode the shuttle to the terminal, and checked in for the 7:00 am flight to Atlanta. The standby list was sketchy, but I got onto the flight at the last minute. I arrived in ATL and Taylor picked me up for lunch. We drove to my favorite Thai spot in Toco Hills called Top Spice. Then we stopped by Great Harvest Bread to use up a gift card on bread and kahuna bars. We got back to the airport around 2:30. He dropped me off at the terminal and went back to park in employee parking. I was to print out our boarding passes and meet him near the employee entrance.
Taylor forgot to write down our confirmation code when he booked the reservation, but I tried checking in at the kiosk anyway. No luck. Then I had a Delta Agent try to help, and she couldn’t get it to work either. I waited in a long line to talk to a ticket agent, who found our reservation easily. She swiped my passport, and then let me call Taylor for his passport number so I didn’t have to wait in line again. After security, we waited in the E concourse for the flight to board. We were thrilled when we were assigned seats in Business Elite!
It was so nice to have the swanky treatment for the flight. Our FA was wonderful and spoke to us by name. We had all the Dasani water and Coke Zero we wanted. We had a lovely four course dinner:
1. Veggies and hummus, curry soup, and green salad
2. Crab cakes (me), beef tenderloin and shrimp (Taylor), ciabatta rolls, risotto
3. Cheese and fruit platter
4. Hot fudge sundae
We watched “The Ugly Truth,” then tried to get some sleep. I slept about 90 minutes, but Taylor got even less. Breakfast was served about an hour before we landed, which was an english muffin sandwich with scrambled eggs, spinach, and havarti cheese with some fresh fruit. Before we landed, I stuck off to the lav to get my LAVIATOR shot. 
We landed at Gatwick around 6:30 am, made it through passport control and customs fairly quickly, and called Emma to let her know we’d arrived. While we waited for her to “collect” us, we enjoyed looking at all the cars you don’t see much in the states: Citroens, Fiats, Vauxhalls, Peugeots. Even the Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans, and Fords looked different than their US counterparts. Although we were feeling jet-lagged, we were excited to get out and explore.
London: The Short Story
Posted by on October 10, 2009 6 Comments
Cheers! It’s me blogging from London! Just a quick list of what Taylor and I have done in the London area:
Met up with my bloggy friend Emma (twice)
Piccadilly Circus
Hyde Park (including Princess Diana memorial fountain)
Harrod’s
Science Museum
Buckingham Palace
Big Ben (Houses of Parliament)
Westminster Abbey
St. Paul’s Cathedral (all 600 stairs to the top!)
Tate Modern
Thames River Cruise
Trafalgar Square
LOTS of trips on the Tube
We head back to the states in the morning. It’s been an amazingly fun jam-packed 3 days. I’m still jet lagged and have about 15 blisters on my feet from all the walking….but I have to say I love this city!
More details when I return 
My Memphis Valentine
Posted by on February 15, 2009 8 Comments
A few months ago, the radio station I listen to had a contest called Lovers in Japan : tickets to see Coldplay in Tokyo on Valentines Day. Needless to say, I didn’t win the contest, but it did get the wheels spinning to do something special this year. Taylor’s February schedule gave him 2.5 days off for the V-day weekend, so it sealed the deal. We would have a Valentines Date away from ATL. It would be the first trip Taylor and I took away from home, just the two of us, since our honeymoon in 2004. Some friends from our new ward agreed to watch Rosie for us, and we were off to Memphis, TN!
We flew into MEM Friday night. We picked up our rental car and drove across the Mississippi border into South Haven. We got dinner and dessert at O’Charleys. The caramel pie didn’t live up to my expectations, but the mural on the wall was pretty cool. After dinner, we headed to our hotel. We got a great rate at the Fairfield Inn…but I won’t fill you in on the sordid details of our hotel time 
In the morning, we had our free breakfast. I like staying in Fairfield Inns because they have comfortable beds, and good hot breakfasts! After we ate, we checked out and headed into town. We stopped at the Memphis Pyramid – it was build with hopes of being a destination convention site, but as far as we know it sits vacant as a spot for photo ops.
Then we crossed the bridge over the Mississippi River into Arkansas. I have never been, and really don’t have reason to. We just went so I could cross it off my U.S. map.
We stopped for drinks at the Pilot. I made him pose for this shot. He wasn’t amused.
Then we drove back across the MS River back into Memphis. The city is definitely more interesting coming in from AR than it is from the suburbs.
Then we had the sentinel moment of our weekend…Corky’s Bar-B-Q! We shared the ribs for two set up, with rolls, beans, and fries. We had half a slab of dry rub (Taylor’s preference) and half a slab of wet (my preference).
More than anything, we love the Apple BBQ sauce. We could drink it straight! (At least, I would)
Next we went to Beale Street…which is what Memphis is probably most famous for. We were immediately greeted by a drunk wino asking for money. I immediately slung my purse over my shoulder, inside my jacket. that’s why my butt looks bigger than usual in this pic.
Random Elvis Mural
Random Elvis Mural
What do you think, can I pull off this look?
There were blues bars a-plenty, but none were offering daytime karaoke (much to Taylor’s relief)
Boas a-plenty! I chose the red one for Valentines Day (don’t worry, I didn’t buy it)
Who wants some totally uncensored pork?
More Elvis paraphenilia than you’d ever care to find.
This is my favorite find of all the kitschy stores: A tin that says “Well behaved women rarely make history.” Appropo, no?
After Beale Street, we drove back to the airport, turned in our rental car, were harassed by rude TSA agents (who threw my lingerie out for all to see, and made Taylor check his bag for no good reason…even though he had his crew badge). We flew back on the 3:40 flight, and were home for a quiet evening with Rosie by 7:00 pm. Memphis, I’m sad to say, is probably not a place I’ll visit again (other than Corky’s) but we had a great, memorable time.
22 Hours in Utah
Posted by on January 18, 2009 1 Comment
On Friday night, I’d decided not to come to SLC because the flight loads were yucky and I needed to take it easy to recover from bronchitis. My mom called to guilt-trip me about it, but I told her my mind was made up. But I woke up at 3:30 am and started IMing my sister Mary. She had driven 4 hours down from college for the weekend and really wanted to see me. I checked the flight loads for the morning flights, and they were quite positive. Taylor was on a high speed to Pittsburgh, and would be on another one to Dayton the next night. I dragged Rosie out of bed, packed up our overnight bags (couldn’t find the camera because of all the moving mess), and drove to the airport.
There were 55 open seats on the flight, and all 55 people on standby got on (the plane was totally full) Rosie was across the aisle from a nice girl a bit older than her, also the child of a pilot. They chatted through much of the flight, which helped the 4 hours go by. We arrived in SLC at 10:30, and my sister’s friend Melina picked us up. We made a few necessary stops (Sunflower Market, Seagull Book, Downeast Basics, etc), had lunch with Melina, Mary and her roommate Katie, and went down to my parents beautiful new home in Lehi.
My friends Esther and Emily both visited, and the three of us went up to South Towne Mall to do some shopping. I came back for my mom’s 51st birthday party. Dad made teriyaki chicken, I made my famous Better than Sex Cake, and all the family was together for a few hours, sans Taylor 
Since I’d been up since 3 am EST, I was totally dead tired by 11 pm MST. Mary will be taking me to the airport at 6:30 am, and I’ll be back in ATL around 2:00 pm..as long as flight loads cooperate. Wish me luck!
Non-Rev Roulette
Posted by on December 25, 2008 2 Comments
I decided on a new term for the luck required in flying non-rev…Non-Rev Roulette. I coined the term while punching in a Twitter message about crossing my fingers about getting a seat from SLC to LAX on Monday night. There had been a lot of weather delays through the day, and the airline had reassigned many passengers to my flight. The flight had 48 seats available in the morning, and an hour before I needed to leave for the airport the flight was overbooked by 6. However, several flights never made it in and the flight ended up being wide open. I got my boarding pass, lugged my bags through the jetbridge, and realized that our seats were in FIRST CLASS!
Rosie and I got free movies, pillows, blankets, Sunchips and comfy seats. I watched 97 minutes of American Teen, and Rosie watched Wall-E (when she was not listening to her new pink MP3 player from Grandma and Grandpa Watson) It would have been nicer to have seats in first on a longer flight, but we were happy to have a little pre-Christmas perk!
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