Contrails and Cocktails

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things: Parties, Good Friends, Music, Dino BBQ

Last Saturday we attended the annual company summer party. It was a surprise - we were only told to be at the airport at 2 pm, dress casually and bring a bathing suit. Last year, they rented out Wolfgang Puck's Spago on a Saturday night and treated us to a five course meal, wine pairing and dancing. They like to change it up so we had no idea what to expect. We arrived at the airport and boarded a big bus bound for our surprise destination. The driver headed up through the hills of a residential area in LA lined with enormous houses. Once we got to the top of the hill, the bus let us off in front of a beautiful Tuscan style mansion. The CEO lead the way and as he opened the large doors to the entrance, we walked into servers standing in a beautiful foyer ready to hand us a fresh Mai Tai. A band was playing out on the balcony and as we walked to the front patio area, we saw the most breathtaking view of LA.

The house was sitting on the side of a cliff overlooking the entire city. There was a sparkling pool, jacuzzi tub, catered food being prepared on the outdoor built in barbecue and a full bar. Above is a photo of Eric taking in the views from the balcony beside the pool.

The (multi) Million Dollar View:

Before nightfall, the debauchery began - everyone was being thrown in the pool:

We managed to stay (mostly) dry:

As the evening went on, everyone was swimming, eating, dancing and having a wonderful time. Eric's company definitely knows how to throw a party!

The next day, Eric and I left on a trip together headed for NYC. We flew a well-known singer who's husband was one of the most demanding passengers I've ever dealt with. He practically counts the number of ice cubes in his glass to make sure there are exactly seven pieces, not eight. I had to laugh though because as they drank their beverages from Baccarat crystal glasses they ate Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles (not known for being the most elegant of meals) off of the expensive china.

I was really looking forward to the trip that we had to Rochester, New York on Monday. Not only was I excited that it was close to my home town, or that I was going to be able to see one of my good friends or that I was going to be able to order Dinosaur BBQ for catering, but because I had heard from other crew members that the band we were flying there are the most fun and easy going passengers ever! In a job where you have to get used to daily demands of high maintence divas, I was excited for the nice change in pace. This band in particular is also known for giving their crew members backstage passes and full access to go anywhere during the show. As they walked out to the plane in Teterboro, employees at the FBO were even trying to get their autographs. When they boarded the plane, the Captain introduced me to the group and they all gave me a big round of applause. There were 11 people on my flight and they were all in high spirits, joking around with each other, laughing and even clapping after takeoff and landing. People like this make my job so much easier and more enjoyable. As they exited the plane, they mentioned they'd see us later at the show - so I knew we were going to get to go!

My good friend Amy met up with us at the plane and drove us down to the arena where they were performing. When we picked up our tickets at the venue, the envelope included all four tickets with full access VIP passes! We hung out backstage for a while before the show where the band was, along with the three judges from Top Chef. (They were filming an upcoming Thanksgiving episode). Quite random.

Ames and I:

Eric and I backstage before the show began:

We had the best seat in the house! From the sound stage we were eye level:

Their performance was nothing short of amazing. The lead singer's energy was through the roof and the fact that he could go on the way he did for about 2 1/2 hours was more than impressive. For the catering on the flight back to NYC, we treated them to the best BBQ in the Northeast - Dinosaur. We ordered them ribs, pulled pork, chicken, cornbread and all the fixings. The consensus from the band was that the bbq was, "f***ing great." And that's exactly what I thought about my day at work, too.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

A Table for Three in Baltimore

Sometimes the best trips aren't only about where I go, but who I get to see while I'm there. For the last few weeks I had been really looking forward to seeing my friends Dan and Karen who live in D.C. It can be difficult to plan trips to see close friends and family on the East Coast while living 3,000 miles away, so I feel really lucky when I get a layover like this!

We arrived in Baltimore late Friday afternoon, just as a huge thunder and lightening storm rolled in. Below is a photo that the pilot (Hewitt) took on his phone of our plane and the black sky.

As crazy as it sounds, that's one of the things I miss about home. It brings back memories of when I was little - I used to go out on the front porch of our house and wait for the loud thunder and lightening to come. You could smell the rain in the air and it was thrilling to watch the downpour outside from the safety of the screened in porch. We don't see that kind of weather in Laguna Beach! While we waited on the runway for the storm to pass, Karen called to let me know she was waiting at the terminal for me to pick her up.

After we settled into the hotel, we headed to Regi's - a restaurant/bar in Federal Hill in south Baltimore. The city was quaint with old brick buildings that reminded me of home. We settled in at the cozy bar and munched on some serious comfort food while we waited for Dan to arrive. The appetizer menu included tater tots stuffed with melted brie cheese and apple wood bacon and the three cheese crab dip! A nice change from the healthy edamame and seaweed salads that are so bountiful here in Cali! It was fun to catch up with one another and when Dan arrived, we ordered dinner. I've always wanted to try the renowned Maryland Crab, so Karen and I split a steak with the most delicious melt in your mouth crab on top. It was awesome being able to spend time with them - I just wish we could do it more often. I miss you guys!

On another note, summer is here in Laguna (you can tell not by the weather, but by the crowds of people who vacation here) and we've been enjoying it everyday. The sunsets, the surfing, the evening strolls to get gelato. I was able to bring my niece Shaye out from Las Vegas for a few days to enjoy the beach and take her to Six Flags. Here she is going to the beach to watch her Uncle Eric catch some waves.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

A Dinner Date in London

I know that I've been slacking a bit on updating my travelings. I've been flying around the U.S. most recently, to New York, D.C., Las Vegas, Dallas - but mostly short trips with not very much time to get out to see and do things. Imagine working an 8

hour day at the office and then when you walk out the door at night, your office has been magically transported to another city or a foreign country - many timezones away. I have to reset my watch, find the closest grocery store for some shopping and cross my fingers my hotel room is comfortable. I suppose I'm always getting somewhere at the end of the day - literally!

On my most recent trip, we boarded the plane bound for England. The flight was smooth, but seemed to go by extremely slow. I served dinner to my two passengers as well as the pilots, made beds for my passengers in the back of the cabin and put them to bed. I sat up front in the crew rest area reading Jim Cramer's Mad Money (thanks to my Dad) and drinking coffee to try and stay awake. We arrived in Luton around 1:30am after almost a 9 hour flight from Dallas. We settled into our hotel and I set my alarm clock to wake me up around 11:30am to do some grocery shopping at Marks and Spencer for the flight home. (One thing I have to mention about the hotels in Europe are the beds. Why do they always have two tiny beds pushed together to make a double bed? There is a huge crack down the middle anyway - it just doesn't make sense to me).

Even though our trip was going to be very brief, I was excited to be heading into the city to meet Molly for dinner! Thursday turned out to be the most perfect day to be in London (our cab driver said it was the nicest day all year). People were laying out in the parks, sitting around the fountain in Picadilly Circus and eating gelato. It was gorgeous outside and as 5pm rolled around, the pubs were spilling with patrons enjoying the warm evening outdoors. I was supposed to meet Molly at the "Ain't Nothin' But Blues Bar" but instead met at the Blues Post next door. It was fun catching up and hearing about her exciting life in London town since the move from San Francisco. Later in the evening we started to get hungry and I really wanted to find some Fish n' Chips for dinner. As time got away from us (and the hungrier I got), we ended up settling for the nearest KFC!!

We ended our night and said goodbye and I caught the train back to Luton. I boarded the plane the next afternoon and headed back to LA - just in time for dinner on Friday night.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Over 161,922 Miles! Where would you like to visit?

This is pretty crazy - as I was trying to figure out where I spent most of my time this year (for tax purposes) and I mapped my routes and found out that I have traveled over 161,000 miles in the last year! It's pretty unbelievable to me to see all of the airports I've landed at in the last ten months and that isn't including personal vacation and short trips for work (Vegas and back, San Francisco and back, etc). The route map above gives a good visual.

I think my favorite trips included Venice, Dublin, Palma de Mallorca, Stockholm and Rabat.

If you could choose one place in the world to visit, where would it be?

AIRPORTS:

Los Angeles [Intl], CA, US
London [Stansted], Essex, England, GB
Minneapolis [Minneapolis-St. Paul Intl/Wold-Chamberlain Airport]
Las Vegas [Mc Carran Intl], NV, US
Boston [General Edward Lawrence Logan Intl], MA, US
Firenze (Florence) [Peretola], Italy
Bedfordshire, England, GB
Teterboro, NJ, US
New York [John F Kennedy Intl], NY, US
Van Nuys, CA, US
Kahului, Maui, HI, US
Flint [Bishop Intl], MI, US
Chicago [Chicago Midway Intl], IL, US
Paris [Le Bourget], France
Reykjavík [Keflavík], Iceland
Vancouver [Intl], BC, CA
Seattle [Seattle-Tacoma Intl], WA, US
Tokyo (Narita) [New Tokyo Intl], Honshu, Japan
Honolulu [Intl], Oahu, HI, US
Juneau [Intl], AK, US
Málaga [Pablo Ruiz Picasso], Spain
Zürich [Zürich-Kloten], CH
Iqaluit [Frobisher Bay], NW, CA
Venezia (Venice) [Marco Polo / Tessera], Italy
Eivissa (Ibiza), Eivissa, Balearic Islands, Spain
San Juan [Luis Muñoz Marin Intl], PR, US
West Palm Beach [Palm Beach Intl], FL, US
Nantucket [Nantucket Memorial Airport], MA, US
Washington [Washington Dulles Intl], DC, US
Amsterdam [Schiphol], NL
Leeds/Bradford (Yeadon) [Leeds Bradford Intl], Yorkshire, England
Fort Myers [Southwest Florida Intl], FL, US
Lisboa (Lisbon) [Aeroporto da Portela de Sacavem], PT
Atlanta [Hartsfield - Jackson Atlanta Intl], GA, US
Dublin, IE
Palma de Mallorca [Son Sant Joan Airport], Mallorca, Balearic Islands
Rabat [Sale], MA
Los Cabos (San José del Cabo) [Intl], BCS, MX
Bordeaux [Mérignac], FR
Shannon (Limerick), IE
Gander [Intl], NL, CA
Houston [William P Hobby Airport], TX, US
Quito [Mariscal Sucre], Ecuador
Liberia [Daniel Oduber Quiros Intl], Costa Rica
Farnborough, Hampshire, England
London [Heathrow], Middlesex, England
Stockholm [Arlanda], Sweden
Santa Maria, Azores, PT
Oakland [Metropolitan Oakland Intl], CA, US
Burbank [Bob Hope Airport], CA, US

Below is Eric's travel map for the last year - CRAZY!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

New York to Puerto Rico via Stockholm

We left Teterboro around midnight for an overnight flight to Farnborough, England (without passengers). The plane had to be at the airport at a certain time because another crew was taking it straight back to Van Nuys with one passenger. The su

n began coming up again within just a few hours of our departure (due to the time zones), and just in time for us to coast in over Ireland. As I looked out the window, I could see the Cliffs of Mohr and the Ring of Dingle, making me wish the pilots could just drop me off in
Dublin instead of England. Eric was in the cockpit as well, and we were looking forward to seeing some different countries together.

We landed in England and passed the plane of to the other crew, jumped in the car where the driver took us to this random hotel out in the middle of nowhere it seemed. We pulled up to the Potter's International Hotel in a little town called Aldershot and checked in with the front desk. We tried to locate our rooms, but the hotel was a complete labryinth. We jumped into the elevator, walked down a hallway, took a left, walked for a while, took a right, walked up more spiral stairs to another hallway. It was the strangest thing.

All of the rooms in the hotel had their doors wide open and it almost had the feeling of being in someone's house (although the hotel was quite big). Although we hadn't slept the night before, it was too early to go to bed now. It was about 3pm so we decided to sit outside by the Cricket Field before dinner. We watched as an older man meticulously mowed the field - back and forth, back and forth. Sometimes I take a moment to think about where I am in the world and how completely random it is at times to be in these specific situations and places. It truly is like closing your eyes, pointing to a place on a map and arriving there, half sleeping, wondering if it's actually a dream or if you're really there.

The next morning, a car picked us up to take us to Heathrow Airport, about 35 miles north of Aldershot. We had instructions to board a British Airways flight bound for Stockholm! Eric and I were both really excited because neither of us had been to Sweden before. We arrived at the Stockholm airport in the early afternoon and a cab took us to our hotel. It was a cute little hotel - and the interior design was right out of an Ikea catalog. We had our own little kitchen, living room and bedroom. The hotel was also right across from the train station, so we decided to go into town for dinner. Stockholm was FREEZING, weather I'm not used to anymore living in California. It was Valentines Day and we wanted to eat somewhere nice - but Stockholm is actually really expensive. Our first stop was to the Absolut Ice Bar in the Nordic Sea Hotel. They made us put on these heavy space-age coats and walk into a room that is kept at about -5 degrees celsius.

Our drinks came in hollowed out square ice cubes and the tables were carved out of ice as well! We didn't stay too long as it was so cold inside and we wanted to head to a warm place to get some dinner. After our Valentine's Day dinner (at a very fancy Pizza Hut no less!) we headed out to the Old Town to check out some of the sights. It was dark, snowy and the city itself is beautiful, but quite eerie at the same time.

We walked past all the little restaurants, bars and went to the Castle where we were told by the guard that we needed to leave the premises immediately! Stockholm is gorgeous at night and we walked around for a while in the dark as we didn't think we'd actually get to go into the city the next day because we had an early afternoon flight out of Sweden.

Fortunately our flight to Barbados was delayed so Eric and I were able to go into the city again during the daylight hours, have lunch and take more photos.

One of the strangest things I noticed about Sweden is that while everything is written in Swedish (menus, street signs, information, etc), their English was amazing. We didn't meet one person there the whole time that couldn't speak English when we asked for help.

Later that evening, we boarded the plane and took two passengers to Barbados. The flight was about 13 hours (yikes) but amazingly went by pretty fast. We were able to stop in the Azores for fuel - which was cool because I never thought I'd step foot on those islands in the middle of the Atlantic.

We finally landed in Barbados thinking that we would be able to walk off the plane, get a hotel and go straight to bed, but unfortunately the office wanted us to reposition to Puerto Rico. After another 1.5 hour flight, customs and searching for the Marriott we finally got to bed around 5:30am. Luckily though, we were able to relax in Puerto Rico for about three days - enjoying the hammocks, the warm water and a good book!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Guess The Country...

Before I post another real update about my adventures on the road, I thought I'd share a few photos from my trips to various countries around the world. Each stop was VERY different from the next. Can anyone take a guess where these three photos were taken?

#1 Enjoying a view and a glass of wine on the Cricket field

#2 The table and glasses we used for our beverages were carved out of ice...

#3 A great place to end a long trip...

Saturday, January 5, 2008

¡Hola! from Quito.

Last Friday we departed LAX around 9am bound for Quito, Ecuador. It was an exciting approach as the pilots navigated through the Andes mountains, finally landing at the airport 9,500 feet above sea level (almost twice as high as Denver)! We flew commercially down to South America to pick up the jet (which was still parked at the airport in Quito) and our passengers who had a week long trip to the Galapagos Islands.

After we got off the long flight, our handler, Ramiro, picked us up at the gate which allowed us to skip the long lines and get through customs. We were exhausted and couldn't wait to go straight to bed. Ramiro drove us to the Marriott and told us some interesting facts about his city. It was fun practicing my Espanol and the people there definitely appreciated the effort.

The next day we woke up early for breakfast and headed back to the airport to check on our airplane. I also ordered our passenger's catering through the restaurant hotel, hoping they could understand through the language barrier. After our trip back to the airport, Ramiro took us to the SuperMaxi (grocery store) where I could get some of the items for my flight back to LA. I needed to get the basic stuff; milk, eggs, paper towels, fruit, etc. We have a little skillet on the plane and I wanted to make eggs and bacon for breakfast. I was surprised at the super market how similar it was to U.S. grocery stores compared to European super markets. I also had no idea that the national currency in Ecuador is the U.S. Dollar. You get a lot more for your money though, because the average monthly wage is about $250.

I really wanted the chance to tour Quito even though we were going to be there for such a short time. Ramiro offered to take us around to see the old city and teach us a bit about the culture. He said that Quito is separated into three areas; the old city, the southern (working class) and the northern part where most of the shopping and businesses are. Ramiro drove us to the Old Town (historical center).

We saw the monasteries of San Francisco and Santo Domingo. In the photo below, you can see the El Panecillo, which is a hill within the city at almost 10,000 feet above sea level! You can also see the monument of the Virgin Mary at the top, looking over the city.

We drove to the top and from there, we could view about two of the 20 or so volcanos in Ecuador. As you can see, Quito is nestled in a narrow valley and the view from the top of El Panecillo was breathtaking.

A couple of facts that we learned about Quito is that it is the second highest capital city in the world. It is also only about 15 miles away from the Equator. The climate stays about the same all year around (about 75 degrees) and Quito only experiences variations in daylight hours of a few minutes throughout the year. The photo below shows thousands of boxes being loaded onto a 747 full of roses! Roses are one of Ecuadors top exports and sent to countries around the world including Russia, United States, and the Netherlands.

One of the coolest things I saw was the preparations for the New Years Eve traditions (Ano Viejo) just two days away. Ecuadorians celebrate by constructing effigies out of paper mache. I saw them leaned up against storefronts and in piles around light posts. The dummies were at least life size, if not much bigger. There were ones that looked like Bart Simpson, Osama Bin Laden, presidents, bosses, wives, etc. A handwritten note is pinned to the dummy with an explanation why it is being burned and what changes need to happen in the New Year. On New Years Eve, they take the dummies out in a pile to be burned, signifying an end to an old year and a start to a new and better year. I tried to get a photo of the dummies I saw on the side of the street but unfortunately my photo didn't turn out very clear.

I was glad to be able to tour a little bit of Quito during the short trip, but I would love to go back for some hiking and a trip to the Galapagos someday.