Flying on Empty...

No, I have not been lazing in the sun around Laguna Beach. I have actually been very busy at work the last week or so! Unfortunately, the memory card on my camera has failed me, but thanks to the trusty camera phone, not a moment of my travels have gone undocument. I can't say much for the quality of some of the photos from Zurich, but they will have to do...

The last few weeks I've been in Alaska, Malaga, Zurich and New York City. I've had quite a time and have really learned to function well under little or no sleep. I believe my record for this rotation was close to 48 hours... I lost track when I left Alaska on Wednesday and didn't sleep until Friday (You'll notice me in the photo below relaxing on the way to Zurich after a 20 hour day with a much needed mimosa!). Also below in one of the images is a photo of Mont Blanc in the Alps! Who knew they named a mountain after a pen?!?!

Flying into Juneau was incredible. The visibility wasn't very good, but it just added to the ominious feeling as the sun was setting behind the mountains. As we flew in, we could see little log cabins sitting on the side of cliffs, beautiful green grass, evergreen trees and white glaciers. It was everything I thought Alaska would look like. One thing that struck me was just how much space people are afforded there compared to San Francisco, NY or LA! My hotel room must have been 1000 square feet, and included a full kitchen, living room, bedroom and full bathroom. Oh and it was Salmon season, so all of the tourists who were at our hotel were there to catch all of the Salmon that are jumping by the thousands out of the streams practically into your hands!

We had a fairly short stay in Zurich, but it was such a beautiful city! This was about the time that my camera broke, but I still managed to get a few photos of downtown before it got dark. We had dinner at on the sidewalk of a little Italian restaurant. The pizza was amazing - I still can't figure out why they can't make it like that in California.

We also traveled back to NYC for the day. I took my crew to the Dinosaur BBQ restaurant in Harlem. The food (as usual) is amazing, the live band was fun and I even met someone I knew there from back home. We spent the rest of the day exploring Central Park and the Upper East Side. Below is a photo of the cute little French restaurant where we had some lunch. (Pssst thanks Andy for showing us around!)





Anyway, enjoy some of the photos below of Juneau, Malaga, Zurich and New York City. You'll have to figure out which photo is of which particular city, until I can figure out how to add captions! Until then, I'm heading off to Italy with a new memory card!

Back to Maui!

I have been off of work for a couple of weeks, which was nice because I had the chance to enjoy the Laguna summer and actually get in the water to surf. It's great surfing down here compared to Northern Cali; there aren't as many sharks and the water is warm! Occasionally you see a little seal pop his head out of the water right next to you, but Eric says they are harmless. We also found a gormet food shop down the street with a cheesemonger so passionate about cheese that we've been sucked into visiting her about once a week to get our fix. It's been a dangerous habit so luckily we are going to work for a few weeks to get away from it!

On Saturday, the company rented out Wolfgang Puck's renowned restaurant Spago in Beverly Hills. The food was delicious! We had a five course meal with halibut and Kobe beef. The dessert was divine as well (per the photos)! After dinner, there was a little bit of dancing, a few drinks at the open bar and then back to our hotel, The Beverly Hilton. The hotel was beautiful and we even had a flat screen TV in the bathroom.

The next morning I woke up early to fly to Maui to pick up the same passengers I flew from Paris a few weeks prior. The trip left LA at Noon and it was a nice flight over since it was empty. I was able to relax in the back for the 4.5 hour flight. The flight into Maui was gorgeous. Mountains on either side made it look majestic as we came in to land. We ended up staying in Maui that night and were able to check out a little bit of the Island before our flight out the next day. It was a bit rainy so we headed over to an area of the island that was much more sunny. We ate at Mama's Fish House, a restaurant on the beach in a little town callied Pa'ia. We ate the absolute best seared ahi sashimi that I've ever tasted, shrimp wontons with macadamia nut dipping sauce. For an entree I got the grilled wild ahi and nueske's smoked bacon sandwich with Molokai sweet potato fries and for dessert, we shared a creme brulee and coconut cheesecake! Yikes!

We left Maui with our passengers around 4pm and headed back to LA. The trip was interesting and the lead passenger was very talkative the whole flight back. She told interesting stories that sounded like something out of a history book. She comes from a very well-connected family. Her grandfather used to dive with Jacque Cousteau, her brother discovered some words and a drawing under a painting of Leonardo Divinci using infrared technology in Italy and she and her husband own a famous Van Gough painting worth over $90 million! If that isn't enough, they even commissioned Andy Warhol to do personal paitings for them. She gave a lot of advice about how important it is to see the world, learn about different cultures, religions and languages (she speaks at least 5). I guess when you have your own jet and billions of dollars it's a lot easier to do all of that!

Needless to say it was an interesting trip. She told her bodyguard that she wants the same crew to take her back to Maui in a day or two so I have a feeling I'll be going back sooner than later. Not that I mind!

Switzerland, England, France, Iceland, Japan and Hawaii!

This last "trip" really got my feet wet for life on the road! We started off in LA and flew some friends of the company to Las Vegas. Pretty nice way to get to Vegas! We picked up another couple (the president of one of the casinos and his wife) and flew them to to the East Coast. Over the next few days we had a chance to hang out in Chicago and we had a blast! We went to a cool part of the city where we had some dinner and drinks and met up with friends of one of our crewmembers.

After a couple of days in Chicago, we flew another couple to their summer home in Zurich, Switzerland. It is so beautiful there! The lakes, the mountains, the little towns - I wish we could have spent more time there. From Switzerland, we went to London where we stayed a few days.


The place we stay in England is like our home away from home. A lot of corporate jets fly out of the Luton airport so we spend a lot of time there. I'm getting to know the town better and there is a nice mall next to where we stay and I have discovered some good shopping which is a little dangerous! It's weird to go back every few weeks and see the same people. One of the best things about staying at the hotel I have to admit is the coffee bar that they have downstairs. They make a great mochachino - much better than Starbucks! So after a couple of days in England, we repositioned the plane to Paris for a trip out the next evening. It was fun to just be able to pack up our things at the hotel, get into a car to take us to our plane at the Harrod's FBO and get on the private jet bound for Paris. While the pilots flew the one hour trip to Paris, I got to hang out in back listening to Frank Sinatra, taking in the views of the city of London at night and finally seeing the Eiffel Tower all lit up. It was quite a sight to see. We went to check into our hotel at night and the little town that we stayed in looked like something out of an old WWII movie. The streets were narrow, there were old stone walls and boulangarie's on every corner it seemed. I knew exactly where I was going to grab my chocolate croissant and coffee the next morning! I also realized I need to brush up on my French, it was very difficult to communicate with anyone there, although I think half of the time they pretended not to understand us.

The next evening, I received my catering and got the plane all set and comfortable for our passengers. We were flying our passengers (Greek shipping billionaires) to Hawaii, but we were only going as far as Vancouver (to change crews). Our catering out of Le Bouget airport was actually very good. We had Filet Mingnon's, mashed potatoes, French green beans, beautiful fruit trays and the most amazing looking chocolate desserts! We left Paris around 10pm and went to Iceland then got to Vancouver around 2am (with all of the crazy time changes). We woke up the next morning in Vancouver with a flight ready to go to Tokyo. Our hotel rooms in Vancouver were amazing with great views of the snow capped mountains (one side of my hotel room was all windows). Around Noon the next day, we boarded our plane to Tokyo.

We arrived at the airport in Tokyo and actually ended up staying in Narita, which is right near the airport. It was really cool to be in a place like Japan. Everything was very different from home - we had a handler who helped us by giving us a rented cell phone (since ours don't work in Japan) and got a car for us to take us to the hotel. Our hotel was cool, big rooms, flat screen TV's and I was surirpsed that I didn't even need an electrical adapter - I could use my hairdryer!!!! We had a great dinner and it seemed so healthy. Green tea, little fresh dumplings and spring rolls, chili chicken, beef and clear broth soup that I cannot pronounce. I learned how to say, hello, thank you, and yes in Japanese. (The photos below are from Eric's trip to Osaka earlier in the week, just because I didn't take photos like I should have).
Catering for our passengers the next day consisted of a very ornate sushi box with different rolls and fresh fish and edamame and miso soup. We found out we were flying a band who was doing a show for Live Earth in Tokyo to Maui. WHOO HOOO!! HAWAII!!!!!!!!

I was really excited to be going to Hawaii from Japan. I had never been to Hawaii and I could easily imagine sitting on the beach for a day or two, soaking up the sun. What was even better was that I found out Eric and I were meeting up there! Our passengers were tired from their concert so they slept the whole 7.5 hours to Hawaii. I sat up front with the pilots and read a book, listened to my iPod and chatted. We saw the sun come up on Saturday for the second time (passing over the international date line) and felt like we were in Maui in no time. Maui was BEAUTIFUL! After our passengers got off of the plane, we shuttled the plane over to Honolulu flying only a few thousand feet over the islands. It was great because I knew that I was done working for the next few weeks and was thinking of Mai Thai's on the beach.



Hawaii was definitely everything I had imagined, except the water was even nicer than I thought it would be. The weather was perfect, the waves were perfect and I even had an ocean view from my room. I will let the photos below do all of the talking!







Even though I have been traveling to some pretty amazing places, I think that one of the best aspects about this job is meeting the interesting people that board the plane for each new trip. The stories I've heard from them and what I've learned so far reminds me to take advantage of my experiences. Whether its trying a new food in a different country, learning a few words in a different lanugage or the understanding the customs in the various places, I can't imagine a better way to see and experience the world.

Coming Home

The more I travel the more I realize just how lucky we are to live in a place that is so inviting to come home to. We live three blocks from the most beautiful beaches in the world. Our town is filled with colorful flowers all year round, hummingbirds buzzing around our patio and views of the Pacific ocean and Catalina Island from our driveway. Coming home is like a vacation itself. I don't think there could be a better place to come home to!

7 Cities in 7 Days

One of the most exciting aspects about this line of work is the unexpected. Not knowing where you will be sleeping tomorrow, or what interesting food you might try or who you will meet!

Last Friday I was prepared to take a trip out of LAX into Teterboro. We were supposed to be flying a famous singer to Milwaukie from NYC, but a few hours before I was supposed to leave the trip changed. I was going to Boston instead! Luckily we got seated in first class which allowed me plenty of room to stretch out and sleep on the red eye. It was fun to be in Boston again - I do miss the East Coast at times. The brownstones, brick buildings, cloudy weather and of course dunkin donuts.



We stayed in a nice hotel downtown where I spent most of the day catching up on sleep. We found out we were flying our passengers to Florence, Italy! The passengers we had were really nice and spent most of the night sleeping. They even brought a yellow lab on the plane with them.

After a very short stay in Florence, we flew the plane to Luton, England where we stayed for four days. Flying over the French/Italian Alps were AMAZING! The lakes were crystal clear and the mountain tops were covered with snow. You could see the little windy roads going up the mountains and through the valley.


Luton was a cute town and we were able to explore the downtown a bit. Luckily they had a nice mall next to the hotel and lots of restaurants and pubs in the area to check out. The hotel rooms were tiny but cozy. The first night we went out to an Indian dinner which was really good. I was also able to check out the famous NANDOS (think bbq chicken). I think that Luton had the most fried chicken shops I had ever seen in one city - it was comparable to the pizza shops in Little Italy.




On Wednesday night, we flew a famous football (soccer) player and his wife to Cleveland and then repositioned the plane back in NYC. This is a picture of the inside of the plane - it was nice to have the whole cabin to myself on the way back to New York!

This morning I took a flight back to LA and I'm finally home! I can't wait to sleep in my own bed tonight.

My First Trip!

Last week, I enrolled in a 6 day training course to become certified in corporate aircraft evacuation, CPR and First Aid. The training was very hands on, using the simulator to stage different scenarios in the event of an emergency. I met some really great people and learned a lot about corporate aviation. I realized that I was entering into an industry that I barely knew exhisted. The flight attendants I met told stories about the amazing far away places they've been able to travel to and the interesting people that they've taken there. Some fly for large corporations and others take care of families who are fortunate enough to charter these beautiful private jets to any exotic destination. A weekend in Aspen, a week in Tahiti or a month flying around Europe and South America...doesn't sound so bad! On Thursday, I took my final test and passed. As we sat at the hotel bar after class celebrating, another student in the class asked what I would be doing for the next 4 or 5 days. She was asking if I would like to join her and her crew on a private 707! Of course, I couldn't refuse and by Friday afternoon I was on a plane to London!

We found out we were flying a Middle Eastern Government Official to the United States. The trip left Stansted Airport on Sunday afternoon. The plane was like nothing I had ever seen before. It had 5 full bedrooms, three bathrooms, showers encrusted in gold and just about anything you wanted to eat, we could serve. The view from the cabin was breathtaking. We flew over Greenland and could see the icebergs - I had no idea that Greenland was so mountainous! Some of the ice-covered peaks were almost 13,000 feet!


When we arrived back in the U.S. the Captain took the crew out for a yummy Italian dinner. Early the next morning I was on a flight back to LAX. It was quite the weekend! Needless to say my first trip was a success and now I'm totally hooked. I'm glad to be home with my husband though, and spent the day relaxing at the beach!

Until next time...