Air Time

Am I an rarity or just odd, to admit that I love hanging out at airports? We're flying back east to visit family this summer and already I'm looking forward to heading to the airport. In fact I enjoy the whole process of getting to the destination which for us will entail a bus ( 6 hours) a ferry ( 2 hours) another bus, a subway, a 5 hour flight ( red-eye economy, I saw you shudder) than another bus or buses to get us to our final destination. From start to finish 22 hours.

I haven't racked up many air miles but I'm lucky enough to get into the skies every few years. Our flights seem to always end up being marathon events. A few years ago after delivering a catamaran to Tahiti from Ecuador, our return passage took us to Honolulu (24 hour lay over) than on to LAX, arriving at 6am with a 12 am departure for Costa Rica, 2 hour lay over than on to Quito, switch to smaller plane that on to Manta, where we than had only a 3 hour taxi ride ahead of us till we reached our home sweet home. I had over packed to the point of insanity, at least 10 separate pieces of luggage and boxes, not ONE item was lost, misplaced, misdirected or damaged. Thank god those ridiculous extra fees for extra bags hadn't been thought of yet.

I can cruise around an airport for hours and never get bored. People watching is as good a reality show as it gets. After getting rid of our bags than standing in line waiting for the requisite pat down, which reminds me, what is it about my looks that I always get asked to step aside and get the extra groping? Am I sending out some sort of vibe that's saying,  "hey I wouldn't mind a little extra attention here.” I just go with the flow, because that's me. Not really meaning to (maybe it was the “bad” devil on the shoulder)  I once managed to get the better of the security officer, a.k.a groper. When asked to raise my hands above my head , I spun around planted them high on the wall and spread them, just like in the movies. She was speechless and realized I was causing a little too much attention in her direction. I was told to put my things back on and “proceed.” Translation: get moving smartass!

The grand prize for travelling with monstrous loads of luggage ( I use this term loosely) goes to..... Tahitians. Prices in the south pacific are totally outrageous but not flights to Hawaii. This may explain why everyone was dragging coolers through the airport to check in. We're not talking about your picnic cooler that holds a chicken and a doz beers. These mega-size 264 quart coolers could accommodate an entire cow and likely did ,since many of them were actually packing meat in them to bring back home. I kid you not.

Starting up a conversation (which Mike will do, can do and does do everywhere) with a couple of women sitting next to us because we were kinda curious about the bags they were lugging around. Each of these bags were the size of .....well lets just say that Mike and I could have jumped into one, together, tied the top and flown as baggage. What was in them, couldn't say, they weren't very forthcoming.

We've only been delayed once. First announcement was for 3 hours than when that deadline was upon us it was changed to 24 hours. They knew that “our” plane was delayed in Europe so why not just say 24 hours from the get-go. Another 4am wake up to get to the airport only to be told it was still delayed but was “in the air.” Is this the same as “it's in the mail?" Vouchers for a buffet brunch were handed out, covering there bases, feeding us breakfast and lunch. By the time we actually got into the air, 8 hours later, we had miss our connection to the island. No problem, vouchers for a hotel room and dinner were handed out. Hey bonus for me, I got to eat out twice and stay at a nice hotel on their dime. I love to fly.