noflyingfan
04-30-2007, 08:44 PM
Well, I'm back from my honeymoon. There's tons to tell (and tons of pictures -- I have more than 200), but I'll try to keep it to the flying stuff.
First, I've decided to take the opportunity to turn over a new leaf now that I'm married. Erika E. was afraid to fly. Erika G. is not. Not even a little. I flew from Chicago to Phoenix and Phoenix to Maui with nary a whimper. I was really impressed with myself, too, because we took off late from Chicago, and then we kept being re-routed around thunderstorms (which you can see in the tracking stuff Barb and others posted). Plus, the captain kept having the flight attendants stop drink service and stuff and sit down because of turb -- I kept thinking, woah, big turb is on the way, but it never happened. There were a few shakes here and there, but no big deal whatsoever. But the captain was awesome; he kept us informed every step of the way.
Phoenix to Maui was boring. Matt and I tried to play a connect the dots game but got bored after about five minutes. We watched the movie, which was OK, and I read pretty much the rest of the way. I kept looking out the window (yup, still just ocean), and I was surprised that I wasn't bothered that we were nowhere near land. But when we landed, it was an awesome sight -- at first I wasn't sure whether it was really that beautiful or if I was just happy to see any land, but anyone who's been to Maui can tell you, yes, it really is that beautiful.
The trip back was brutal. Our flight out of Maui was scheduled for 8:35 p.m. yesterday, but we had to be out of our hotel by 11. We couldn't spend the day on the beach or doing any big activities, because we had no shower or anything, so we just kind of drove around. We visited a few little spots we hadn't seen, but basically, we were bored out of our minds. Finally we just took the car back and went to the airport, thinking maybe we could veg at the terminal, but ATA wouldn't let us check our bags until like two hours before the flight. Grr. So we sat on a bench for an hour and a half until we could finally get things done...and THEN we sat at the terminal. And then we boarded and sat at the gate for 45 minutes more -- the FO came on and said we were 4,000 lbs. over weight, so they had to redo fuel calculations and stuff. Understandable and necessary, but it was a huge inconvenience, especially when we finally got to Phoenix and had to sit on the plane at the gate for 20 minutes while they found someone to guide us in. Very, very frustrating. Luckily, our next flight was at the very next gate, so we went right over and lined up. Funny, though -- as we were leaving the gate to take off for Chicago (via Denver), we saw that the good folks at ATA were JUST starting to take the bags off of our plane. That plane had been sitting there for at least half an hour, probably more, by the time our next plane left from the next gate over. So I wasn't expecting our bags to arrive, and they didn't. But I got a call a little while ago that they made it to Chicago and are out for delivery to us this evening, so the way I see it, it saved us having to lug them to the car.
I'm pooped. But I had a fantastic time, absolutely wonderful. It was too short, but it was just a great vacation, a great honeymoon.
I'm sad the trip is over, but I tell ya what -- when we landed at Midway, I wanted to do a little dance. Matt and I are kind of ready to be done traveling for awhile -- not because we didn't have a great time, just because it's a lot of flying, and having been up for more than 24 hours straight without really eating, having delays, our baggage lost and other inconveniences, we're both ready to stay on the ground for a little while. Of course, I'm sure in a month or so we'll be ready to plan the next trip.
First, I've decided to take the opportunity to turn over a new leaf now that I'm married. Erika E. was afraid to fly. Erika G. is not. Not even a little. I flew from Chicago to Phoenix and Phoenix to Maui with nary a whimper. I was really impressed with myself, too, because we took off late from Chicago, and then we kept being re-routed around thunderstorms (which you can see in the tracking stuff Barb and others posted). Plus, the captain kept having the flight attendants stop drink service and stuff and sit down because of turb -- I kept thinking, woah, big turb is on the way, but it never happened. There were a few shakes here and there, but no big deal whatsoever. But the captain was awesome; he kept us informed every step of the way.
Phoenix to Maui was boring. Matt and I tried to play a connect the dots game but got bored after about five minutes. We watched the movie, which was OK, and I read pretty much the rest of the way. I kept looking out the window (yup, still just ocean), and I was surprised that I wasn't bothered that we were nowhere near land. But when we landed, it was an awesome sight -- at first I wasn't sure whether it was really that beautiful or if I was just happy to see any land, but anyone who's been to Maui can tell you, yes, it really is that beautiful.
The trip back was brutal. Our flight out of Maui was scheduled for 8:35 p.m. yesterday, but we had to be out of our hotel by 11. We couldn't spend the day on the beach or doing any big activities, because we had no shower or anything, so we just kind of drove around. We visited a few little spots we hadn't seen, but basically, we were bored out of our minds. Finally we just took the car back and went to the airport, thinking maybe we could veg at the terminal, but ATA wouldn't let us check our bags until like two hours before the flight. Grr. So we sat on a bench for an hour and a half until we could finally get things done...and THEN we sat at the terminal. And then we boarded and sat at the gate for 45 minutes more -- the FO came on and said we were 4,000 lbs. over weight, so they had to redo fuel calculations and stuff. Understandable and necessary, but it was a huge inconvenience, especially when we finally got to Phoenix and had to sit on the plane at the gate for 20 minutes while they found someone to guide us in. Very, very frustrating. Luckily, our next flight was at the very next gate, so we went right over and lined up. Funny, though -- as we were leaving the gate to take off for Chicago (via Denver), we saw that the good folks at ATA were JUST starting to take the bags off of our plane. That plane had been sitting there for at least half an hour, probably more, by the time our next plane left from the next gate over. So I wasn't expecting our bags to arrive, and they didn't. But I got a call a little while ago that they made it to Chicago and are out for delivery to us this evening, so the way I see it, it saved us having to lug them to the car.
I'm pooped. But I had a fantastic time, absolutely wonderful. It was too short, but it was just a great vacation, a great honeymoon.
I'm sad the trip is over, but I tell ya what -- when we landed at Midway, I wanted to do a little dance. Matt and I are kind of ready to be done traveling for awhile -- not because we didn't have a great time, just because it's a lot of flying, and having been up for more than 24 hours straight without really eating, having delays, our baggage lost and other inconveniences, we're both ready to stay on the ground for a little while. Of course, I'm sure in a month or so we'll be ready to plan the next trip.