I'll Be Home For Christmas

What a crazy month of flying. To get a bunch of days off over Christmas I have had to fly my buns off for the first half of December. But we did it and I am home for Christmas! I am very excited to be off. So many of my partners are working and a way from their families. It can be a very hard month when you are away. You get through it but there is nothing like waking up on Christmas morning to the family.

I spent most of the month looking at this. We have had so much snow and flying and LANDING in it is always a challenge. Imagine landing a 170,000 pound object at 170 mph on an icy piece of cement! All in a days work.

Just another great view.

The Holiday traffic is not just on the ground. Fun to see.

Change in Latitude

Wow. I woke up this morning and walked outside to find our hotel right on the beach.

I walked out of the hotel this morning in search of a Starbucks and wow, we are on the beach. It was dark last night when I got in and I was tired. Just seemed like another hotel until I woke up.

It is beautiful here. I found a quick place to sweep my honey off too for the weekend!

Sorry Kidos but Starbucks and the beach, well that is a romantic get away.

I captured a few moments to help keep you going until we can both put our feet in the sand!

Up in the Air

Hey, I am up in the air again. This trip I was in some pretty neat places. I spent one night in Cincinnati and stayed right across the street from where Casey was born. That brought back some great memories of spending New Years Eve in the hospital. I ate at the Cracker Barrel we use to go to all the time and had some hot rolls at one of our favorite places, O' Charlies!

We were in Chicago, Atlanta, Ft Lauderdale and New York. This first picture is flying out of Atlanta. The leaves are just changing. It is hard to believe when we have already had snow and the leaves have left long ago.

I Love New York! This is on Broadway close to where we stayed and as you can see they are getting ready for Christmas.

This is the New York City Public Library. We were so close and did not realize it. It was very beautiful. Is that where books come from?

This view is walking up the last flight of stairs to one of the many libraries. I love the contrast of the very white marble and the deep dark wood carvings. I asked if they had the Cat in the Hat and I got a weird look from the librarian. I guess not.

The paintings were beautiful.

Behind the library is Bryant Park. It has many small shops and is bustling with activity including street performers. There is also an ice rink you can skate at like at the Rockefeller Center.

This video was very cool. We are streaking across the sky right above a layer of clouds. It is one of the rare times you can actually feel how fast you are going. Check it out!

Rocky Mountain High

This trip was pretty cool. I started in Philly and then Salt Lake, but a new interesting place I flew into was Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It is a little town that is all about skiing in the winter. We stay at the ski resort which is at the bottom of the hill. The cool thing about flying in here is the descent into the hole. There are mountains topping 13,000 feet all around. They are the Grand Teton Mountains. The picture below is flying into Jackson Hole. If you look closely and see the boulder sticking out of the clouds, well that is were we are going. Jackson Hole sits in a basin with mountains all around and today the fog has rolled in and does not want to leave. We will fly a tricky approach right down between the mountains and descend beneath the clouds to land on the little mountain runway.

These are some great pictures as we circle down the ridge to position ourselves on the approach for landing. We are about 16,000 feet. The mountains are between 10,000 and 13,000 feet.

This picture is on the ground. Notice the ice on the trees from the fog. A little freaky descending into the clouds knowing all the mountains are around.

This is down main street in Jackson Hole. You can see the ski hill in the background. It is a very quaint little town that seems like you stepped back in time. The fog finally burned off and it was a great day in town.

These are Elk antlers that are shed on the National Elk Refuge and the local Boy Scouts collected them and made this archway. Pretty cool. We are about a stones throw from Yellowstone.

This is a secluded little town with lots of history from the wild west including paintings by Ansel Adams ( a famous artist). We will come visit one day and maybe ski the hill!

Tomorrow on to Salt Lake, Orange County, California and then home. Can't wait to see ya!

Up Up and Away!

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, faster than a speeding bullet, it's a bird, its a plane it's, it's, oh a plane.

(You will have to pause my awesome music to hear the action).

The skies are very crowded and I love seeing the other aircraft fly by. They are about 1000 feet away as they sail by. Hard to get a good picture. The actual view is much better.

This picture was in Memphis. It was a row of Regional Jets all lined up.

This picture is flying over the San Mateo Mts which are just to the Northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Look at the snow!

The Grand Canyon just never gets old. The view is always a little different depending on the light and time of year. We are flying at 38,000 feet. Very cool.

Well on to Vegas Baby!

I've Been Everywhere Man.......

Wow, have not posted in a while. As Johnny Cash sings, I've been everywhere man..... It has been so busy and my flight schedule has been crazy. I get into the hotel and I am pooped. Then it is early up and on the road again (Hey thats another song... On the road again). I am tired of my 3 am wake up calls. I should put up a picture of the inside of my eyelids. That is what I want to see the most lately. I have been taking pictures and thought I would post them in one huge chunk. Hang on, it has been one heck of a ride. I've been every where man!

San Francisco

San Diego

San Diego ( My ship has come in)

The Moon was so beautiful in the morning. We were flying at 39,000 feet.

A big mama thunderstorm in Florida passing Jacksonville.

I can't remember where...

Philly

Central Park NYC

Hurricane up the East Coast. Bumpy. We flew up the coast from Florida to NYC.

Hurricane approaching NYC. We got in and out just in time.

Jacksonville

Grand Canyon

Chicago (Yummy Pizza)

Boston

Miami

Washington DC ( The fall colors are coming)

White House

Visitors. I see traffic all the time but we are moving so fast it is hard to get a good picture. We are flying at over 550 mph and they are coming at us at the same speed, so that is umm.....1100 mph closure rate. I caught a few videos for another post.

Good Night!

A unexpected treat

Baltimore

Since the merger with Delta things have been less than smooth sailing. The operation is great as long as everything runs perfectly, but it is very rare that it ever runs perfectly. There have been so many cuts to combine the operation that if there is any weather or a mechanical you fall through the cracks into "never land". That was this trip. One thing after another and we found ourselves stuck in New York with a small mechanical. Hours later we were fixed and under way, but too late to fly our scheduled trip to Albuquerque. The unexpected treat was getting reassigned to fly into Baltimore. That is where Karen's sister lives. It was so much fun! It was Richard's birthday and I was able to spend the night there and celebrate his birthday with some of their friends. They have this fun dance video game that we played and it was a blast. It was almost like being home. I really enjoyed the time there and it was truly an unexpected treat.

Philadelphia

Philly

After a busy day yesterday fighting thunderstorms and mechanicals we are in Philadelphia today. A very cool place to be on a Saturday, although I would rather be home any day. It was a perfect day here about 78 degrees and sunny. People were out eating at little cafes and touring the city. Our hotel is right in the middle of the historic district. It is next to Betsy Ross's home where she made the historic American flag.

Her house was built in 1740 by this guy and as you can see a home is never really finished. He is still hard at work today.

Next I walked down to the pier and saw some very historic ships. The first two are from two different periods in Naval history. The black submarine is from WWII and is the USS Becuna. It was stationed in Pearl Harbor in 1944-45. The second light colored ship is the USS Olympia and was launched in 1892 during the Spanish American War. It was one of the first ships to have electricity and sailed throughout WWI.

The large masted ship is the largest four masted ship a float in the world. It was built in 1904 as a cargo ship and has sailed the world over 54 times. It had been captured by the American and Germany Armies over the years and was purchased and turned into a 4 star restaurant in 1974.

This picture is just a picture of the inlet with a sailboat out on a leisurely sail. Looks relaxing.

As I was heading back to the hotel I walked through this historic district that was very quaint. These are homes in the city still on some of the original cobble stone roads.

There are several horse and buggy tours (Karen don't look), that walk through the historic district pointing out sites.

These next two pictures are of Carpenters Hall. Early meetings were held here for the Colonists in 1771. The First Continental Congress met here in 1774 and put into affect new resolutions to ban the slave trade. It was captured in 1777 when the British took over Philadelphia.

Right around the corner is Independence Hall. This is the place where the Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were debated and adopted. The bell tower steeple in Independence Hall is also the original home of the Liberty Bell. Today the bell tower holds the Centennial Bell which was created in 1876 and the Liberty Bell is on display across the street.

Lots of history here and a good summer place to visit. Be home soon!