Tag Archives: airports

Flying on New Year’s Day! Is There a Better Way to Greet 2017?

Leaving Boston Logan Airport

Leaving Boston Logan Airport

From the first moment I set foot on an airplane (I was 12 years old and headed to the Bahamas) I have loved flying. I loved it so much as a teenager that I even looked into being a flight attendant (at 5 foot 1 inch tall, that was a no-go).

I started traveling when I was 6. My life was pretty dull and I remember very little of it before then. But once I started going places…well, now THAT was something. Pre-flying I remember Cape Cod, Lake George, Lake Placid, and the Catskills (all in upstate New York; my family being from New York City), Vermont, New Hampshire, Bar Harbor and Freeport, Maine. Those are the places I remember most fondly.

And then once my family started flying…oh, the places you go! While I was a teenager we went to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Mexico City, Acapulco (back when that was still an amazing place), Hilton Head Island in South Carolina , and Hawaii.

Made Premier 1K with United Airlines!

Made Premier 1K with United Airlines!

No need to innumerate all the places I’ve been since then, because that is what this blog is about. Lets just say I feel completely at home flying and, well, going. Which is a good thing since so much of my family lives on the other coast, and also a good thing since my husband and I share traveling as a hobby.

Back to today. Applause to United for a great experience flying; my first as a Premier 1K. I cleared both of my RPU upgrades (one last night and one at the airport). I already had printed out my boarding pass for the one that had cleared yesterday but they still called me at the gate and gave me a new and improved boarding pass that said in giant letters PREMIER 1K at the bottom. Since this was my first notice that all had gone as planned for my December 30th flight I was a happy camper. Continue reading →

2Hippos and Off I Go!

Me, at SMF airport after waking up at 4:30AM to catch an early flight

Me, at SMF airport after waking up at 4:30AM to catch an early flight

When you live in a small city on the West Coast, going anywhere on the East Coast generally requires waking up at a horribly early hour; most flights I need take off between 5:30 and 6:30am; we live 1.5 hours from the nearest airport (thanks, United, I’m still bitter about you ending flights to our local airport in 2014…please come back). I’m not a morning person; the wake-up time math is ugly.

This time we stayed at the Residence Inn near the airport but we still had to wake up at 4:30am (and thank you to Marriott for the very nice Starbucks gift cards you had for me at reception as a Welcome Back gift…you know the way to my heart!). We parked in 2H at the airport (hence 2Hippos…its how we remember where we are parked; take the floor and the letter and imagine the correct number of a memorable animal).. We flew through TSA Pre, navagated the long but quickly moving line at Peets coffee, got to the Gate with 15 minutes to boarding time, and I am on the plane as I type.

I am heading up to Maine for a multi-purpose trip. We have friends and family along to see my daughter’s production of Sherlock Holmes (she is the director) at Bates College. We are staying at a favorite place, the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport, my son is joining us from Boston, and we are scoping out possible rental locations and rentals for Summer of 2017. So pretty busy for a 4 day trip, and I’m hoping to have some time for blogging and photography as well.

And for those new to my blog, I also post travel images and micro-blog daily over at Instagram, at TheTinyTravelholic so follow my page and check back often; I also followand interact with my community on Instagram as much as possible; I love seeing all of your travels and adventures!

Post-Vacation Depression

Processed with Snapseed.

Vacation memories may fade a bit but some will always be in technicolor. Carnival Breeze.*

My cruise vacation is over, and I have a classic case of post-vacation depression. My cruise was everything I hoped it would be, I had a huge amount of fun and sun, and now I am home and reality hits hard.

The trip back was uneventful although a little more difficult than the trip out; on the trip to Galveston we had a direct flight from Sacramento to Houston on United, but due to timing issues, on the way back we had to travel Houston-San Francisco-Sacramento. Plus roughly 1.5 hour drives each way to the airports. We had some minor travel delays due to air traffic control in San Francisco (typical) but nothing too troublesome.

The most troublesome part of my trip home was that I had somehow sprained my ankle dancing away the evenings on the Carnival Breeze. I attended the line-dancing deck party, and then the fabulous Rock-N-Glow 80s party, and danced twice at Club Liquid.  As an ex-dancer, I’m going to dance on vacation whether or not my RA is effecting body parts. I knew my right knee was bad due to the RA and also an old injury, so I think what happened is that I overly-relied on my left side (as I often do) while dancing all week. The last day of the cruise I woke up to a really swollen and painful left ankle. I didn’t feel myself injure it, but it definitely was sprained. Continue reading →