My Thanksgiving Travels
Nov. 28th, 2006 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
notmattMan, I go away for a few days and it takes quite some time to catch up on LJ.
I went back east (as always) for the Thanksgiving holiday. There's a lot to discuss, so I shall do so
Our story begins Wednesday night, for that is when we flew out. Flying from San Francisco to DC takes all day. Not only is it a five-hour flight, but one must arrive at the airport two hours ahead of time, and one loses three hours due to the time change. Add to this the hour and a half drive from our hose to SFO, and that's 11.5 hours. Both of us had to work on Wednesday, and we weren't about to spend all Thanksgiving travelling, so that meant the Red Eye flight. Which indeed it was.
Having started a convection calculation to run over the holiday, I left my office around 5 on Wednesday night, which is early for me. It was actually still light-ish out when I left. That hasn't happened since we switched to Standard Time. The campus may be pretty during the day, but it's kind of spooky at night. I have to say I wouldn't want to be female and walking around there alone after dark. The paths are lit and I've never heard of any incidents, but still. The shadows just seem to absorb the light from the streetlamps.
Highway 1 is the main route between Santa Cruz and Watsonville. It's slow in the evenings under normal circumstances, so I wanted no part of that the night before Thanksgiving. Soquel Drive runs parallel to 1 until about halfway to Watsonville, and is an ideal escape route, but getting to it from campus is tricky. But the slog through downtown Santa Cruz to get to Soquel was worth it, when I drove over 1 and saw the mess below. No traffic from that point on. Upon reaching home we immediately hopped back in the car and went to SFO.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kathleenroberts had thoughtfully provided me with a bento snack box to eat on the way in case we couldn't get food later. We expected bad traffic, but there was none, and we made it to SFO by 7:30. Parking at SFO is $15 a day if you can get a spot. We parked instead at an offsite private facility, and I will always do that from now on. It's cheaper, you can make reservations, and they have continuous shuttle service to the terminal. Because the baggage claim system at Dulles is dysfunctional, we elected to do carry-on only for this trip. And by this, I mean we took carry-on size bags. It always pisses me off when people take suitcases on the plane that are larger than my car and spend half an hour cramming it into the overhead bin. There was no line to check in and no line at security. Meaning we had fully 3 hours before our flight. We did manage to find real food at a surprisingly good Japanese place called Sankaku. The flight was fairly uneventful. My boss and his wife happened to be on the same flight, but were seated ten rows ahead of us. As usual, I totally failed to sleep on the plane.
Upon arrival at 7 am, we discovered that a few months in Santa Cruz has really spoiled us for weather. We found 40 and rainy to be unpleasant rather than normal. My sister Anna acquired us and took us to my parents' house which is only 5 minutes from the airport. We had breakfast with my parents, Anna and her husband Mike. I think that was the first time that the six of us and only the six of us had been together. Then I made corn muffins. I made the high-fat version for Thanksgiving, but they were inexplicably drier than the low-fat version that was so good. I slept for a couple hours. Thanksgiving dinner was only eight people, the aforementioned six plus Mike's parents. The smallest Thanksgiving ever, but much better than two or three years ago when we had fifteen.
On Black Friday, Anna and Kate went out early to go clothes shopping and I slept in. My parents took the three of us to Jaleo, a tapas bar in the District. That evening Kate and I went to the pre-reunion party for my 10-year high school reunion, since we'd be unable to attend the actual reunion the next day. It was rather disappointing. None of the people I was really friends with were there, and I hardly recognized anybody 10 years later. The latter was true of most everyone there.
Saturday, we drove down to Kate's parents' house near Williamsburg for my father-in-lay's 60th birthday. We took my mother's mini-cooper, and did not much like driving it. It rides very rough until you get up to about 70, encouraging you to drive too fast. "House" is really a poor description of my in-laws' place. "Compound" is more accurate. They have 30 wooded acres, on which sit two houses, and two two-story out-buildings. Anyway, much of my father-in-law's family was in attendance for his 60th birthday. His half-sisters mercilessly teased him about being "old", although he really doesn't look 60.
We had to leave frustratingly early on Sunday in order to be sure to make the flight. We left Kate's folks at 10:15 and didn't get back to NoVa until nearly 2. There were a LOT of accidents on the road. We couldn't even get ON 64 and had to take an alternate route most of the way to Richmond, where we found another accident. Looked like somebody lost a couch and someone else hit it. There were bits of wood and fluff and cloth everywhere. 95 was also slogged, so we had to take 1 part of the way. Returned my mom's car, and they fed us and took us to the airport. We were warned about an air-traffic problem and encouraged to get on standby for an earlier flight. The earlier flight announced they were super-overbooked and there was no chance. Our flight boarded on time and then hung around for a bit. One well-intentioned passenger informed the flight attendant that her seat would not stay up all the way if she leaned back. They promptly booted her off the plane, since it was "not safe" to use that seat. Note to self. If that ever happens, say nothing. They called a tech out who spent 20 minutes failing to fix it, while we're crammed into seats 42 E and F in the back center of a 777. Then they discover there's an unclaimed seat, so they just give that to the original passenger. Don't know why they didn't think of that first. We take off about 45 minutes lated (of course this still somehow counts as an on-time departure). Watched "The Devil Wears Prada" on the plane. OK, but glad I didn't have to pay for it. Well, ok, except fot the cost of the plane ticket. Landed an hour late. This put us on the road an hour late, just in time to get stuck behind a major accident on Highway 17 near Scotts Valley. It's a twisty mountain road with little access, making it difficult for the emergency vehicles to get through. We were stopped dead for an hour and a half. One person's battery died and had to get a jump. We finally staggered into the house at midnight. The trip from the airport was 2:45, 1:30 of which was stopped on 17. I never managed to find out what happened.
It was a good trip, but I do hate flying. Our copy of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess arrived today, but too tired to play it tonight. How sad is that?
I went back east (as always) for the Thanksgiving holiday. There's a lot to discuss, so I shall do so
Our story begins Wednesday night, for that is when we flew out. Flying from San Francisco to DC takes all day. Not only is it a five-hour flight, but one must arrive at the airport two hours ahead of time, and one loses three hours due to the time change. Add to this the hour and a half drive from our hose to SFO, and that's 11.5 hours. Both of us had to work on Wednesday, and we weren't about to spend all Thanksgiving travelling, so that meant the Red Eye flight. Which indeed it was.
Having started a convection calculation to run over the holiday, I left my office around 5 on Wednesday night, which is early for me. It was actually still light-ish out when I left. That hasn't happened since we switched to Standard Time. The campus may be pretty during the day, but it's kind of spooky at night. I have to say I wouldn't want to be female and walking around there alone after dark. The paths are lit and I've never heard of any incidents, but still. The shadows just seem to absorb the light from the streetlamps.
Highway 1 is the main route between Santa Cruz and Watsonville. It's slow in the evenings under normal circumstances, so I wanted no part of that the night before Thanksgiving. Soquel Drive runs parallel to 1 until about halfway to Watsonville, and is an ideal escape route, but getting to it from campus is tricky. But the slog through downtown Santa Cruz to get to Soquel was worth it, when I drove over 1 and saw the mess below. No traffic from that point on. Upon reaching home we immediately hopped back in the car and went to SFO.
kathleenroberts had thoughtfully provided me with a bento snack box to eat on the way in case we couldn't get food later. We expected bad traffic, but there was none, and we made it to SFO by 7:30. Parking at SFO is $15 a day if you can get a spot. We parked instead at an offsite private facility, and I will always do that from now on. It's cheaper, you can make reservations, and they have continuous shuttle service to the terminal. Because the baggage claim system at Dulles is dysfunctional, we elected to do carry-on only for this trip. And by this, I mean we took carry-on size bags. It always pisses me off when people take suitcases on the plane that are larger than my car and spend half an hour cramming it into the overhead bin. There was no line to check in and no line at security. Meaning we had fully 3 hours before our flight. We did manage to find real food at a surprisingly good Japanese place called Sankaku. The flight was fairly uneventful. My boss and his wife happened to be on the same flight, but were seated ten rows ahead of us. As usual, I totally failed to sleep on the plane.Upon arrival at 7 am, we discovered that a few months in Santa Cruz has really spoiled us for weather. We found 40 and rainy to be unpleasant rather than normal. My sister Anna acquired us and took us to my parents' house which is only 5 minutes from the airport. We had breakfast with my parents, Anna and her husband Mike. I think that was the first time that the six of us and only the six of us had been together. Then I made corn muffins. I made the high-fat version for Thanksgiving, but they were inexplicably drier than the low-fat version that was so good. I slept for a couple hours. Thanksgiving dinner was only eight people, the aforementioned six plus Mike's parents. The smallest Thanksgiving ever, but much better than two or three years ago when we had fifteen.
On Black Friday, Anna and Kate went out early to go clothes shopping and I slept in. My parents took the three of us to Jaleo, a tapas bar in the District. That evening Kate and I went to the pre-reunion party for my 10-year high school reunion, since we'd be unable to attend the actual reunion the next day. It was rather disappointing. None of the people I was really friends with were there, and I hardly recognized anybody 10 years later. The latter was true of most everyone there.
Saturday, we drove down to Kate's parents' house near Williamsburg for my father-in-lay's 60th birthday. We took my mother's mini-cooper, and did not much like driving it. It rides very rough until you get up to about 70, encouraging you to drive too fast. "House" is really a poor description of my in-laws' place. "Compound" is more accurate. They have 30 wooded acres, on which sit two houses, and two two-story out-buildings. Anyway, much of my father-in-law's family was in attendance for his 60th birthday. His half-sisters mercilessly teased him about being "old", although he really doesn't look 60.
We had to leave frustratingly early on Sunday in order to be sure to make the flight. We left Kate's folks at 10:15 and didn't get back to NoVa until nearly 2. There were a LOT of accidents on the road. We couldn't even get ON 64 and had to take an alternate route most of the way to Richmond, where we found another accident. Looked like somebody lost a couch and someone else hit it. There were bits of wood and fluff and cloth everywhere. 95 was also slogged, so we had to take 1 part of the way. Returned my mom's car, and they fed us and took us to the airport. We were warned about an air-traffic problem and encouraged to get on standby for an earlier flight. The earlier flight announced they were super-overbooked and there was no chance. Our flight boarded on time and then hung around for a bit. One well-intentioned passenger informed the flight attendant that her seat would not stay up all the way if she leaned back. They promptly booted her off the plane, since it was "not safe" to use that seat. Note to self. If that ever happens, say nothing. They called a tech out who spent 20 minutes failing to fix it, while we're crammed into seats 42 E and F in the back center of a 777. Then they discover there's an unclaimed seat, so they just give that to the original passenger. Don't know why they didn't think of that first. We take off about 45 minutes lated (of course this still somehow counts as an on-time departure). Watched "The Devil Wears Prada" on the plane. OK, but glad I didn't have to pay for it. Well, ok, except fot the cost of the plane ticket. Landed an hour late. This put us on the road an hour late, just in time to get stuck behind a major accident on Highway 17 near Scotts Valley. It's a twisty mountain road with little access, making it difficult for the emergency vehicles to get through. We were stopped dead for an hour and a half. One person's battery died and had to get a jump. We finally staggered into the house at midnight. The trip from the airport was 2:45, 1:30 of which was stopped on 17. I never managed to find out what happened.
It was a good trip, but I do hate flying. Our copy of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess arrived today, but too tired to play it tonight. How sad is that?
