Off to Find the Soft Stuff!

I was up near 530am. For the first time in a really, really long time, I’d be working at the main office on a Friday. My boss requested as much Thursday evening so we could collaborate on a project. Of all the days. As such, I knocked out my run before 715am just like the old days. What’s more, I was in the shower before seeing Bella on the bus and left for work shortly thereafter. Arrived at work around 820am, which is the earliest I’ve been in the office in a long while.

With my boss’s blessing, I worked from the main office through about 1245pm, but then headed home to finish out my work day there. Our flight was set to depart CMH at 550pm but we wanted to be at the airport by 4pm if at all possible. All things considered, it was a lovely afternoon, bright, sunny and about 64 degrees.

At home I joined an important call at 2pm. It lasted about an hour. While on the call, Mindy and Jacob arrived home. My dad showed up to shuttle us to the airport too. He was early. After my call, I lugged all the suitcases to the foyer area and took care of a few last minute details, including reviewing my pack list to make sure that everything I needed was accounted for. Mindy and my dad sat on the deck soaking up the sunshine while waiting for Bella to get home.

It must’ve been around 330pm when we loaded our luggage into dad’s minivan. All we needed was for Bella to get home. I powered down my home PC about the time that Bella got off the bus. While she readied for our trip, I set my out-of-office away message, which felt terrific. Always does.

On the road for the airport by 355pm. Traffic getting to the freeway entrance was slow, plus I think we got stopped at every light. Happily, though, once we got onto to the freeway is was smooth sailing all the way across town to the airport. To make it easier on all of us, we checked our luggage with curbside check-in. While keeping a watchful eye on our eight bags, my dad pulled away. Didn’t even get to say goodbye. Mindy said she did.

We already had our boarding passes printed from home. We headed straight to security and our gate. Fairly early – 430pm. Everybody was hungry. Agreed to head into Chili’s for some dinner. Very warm! I ordered a turkey club with bacon. Yum! I could eat only half. Mindy had a burger. She ate only half of hers too. We weren’t at the gate long before the boarding process began.

We had good boarding numbers which all but insured we could sit together, but the only problem was, we couldn’t agree on seating arrangements. Ended up with Bella in a window seat, me in the middle, and Jacob on the aisle. Mindy took a seat just in front of us. Bella was nervous. It helped me pointing out all sorts of landmarks on the rather short flight into Chicago. Most notably, I pointed out MRM, which was fairly easy to spot – the only land mass still covered in snow. Very tinny from 20,000 ft. though.

Landed in Chicago an hour later, or 6pm CDT. Quite a bit more snow on the ground there, plus it was clouding up in a hurry. We had to change concourses for the Portland leg of our flight. And wouldn’t you know, we were at the far end of the A concourse and had to walk to the far end of the B concourse. Good workout.

We stood around for maybe 10 minutes before they started the boarding process. Mindy continued her dialogue with a couple teachers her were on our flight. The boarding process was slowed dramatically due to a handful of handicapped passengers needing assistance. No problem.

This time it was Bella, Mindy, and then Jacob. I took the aisle seat just across from them. Sat next to two nice looking women, but none of us were chatty. The Chicago to Portland flight is 4+ hours. Ugh! I spent the majority of the time reading and napping, though initially I couldn’t locate my Kindle. Took af ew minutes before I remembered sticking in the seat back pocket just before take-off. Checked the SWA flight tracker a few times too. The first 2.5 hours of the flight seemed to take forever, but the last 90 minutes went pretty quick. Landed at 940pm PDT.

Exchanged a few texts with Glenn and David. They were beering at the Joe’s Crab Shack next door to our hotel. Mindy rented a cart for our luggage. Took some doing but we found our way to the Thrifty shuttle area. Before we got to Thrifty and picked up our rental minivan, Glenn sent a text sharing a venue change. They were now at the Quay bar, which is located in the Red Lion we were overnighting at.
Relatively short drive from the airport to Vancouver – about 10 miles. Arrived at our hotel near 11pm PDT (2am EDT). Mindy and the kids were really tired. They all leaped into bed while I rushed off to meet up with Glenn and David at the Quay bar hoping to enjoy at least one PNW IPA before bed.

There they were, sitting at the bar grinning ear to ear. Hugs to both. David quickly insisted on buying me a beer. Opted for an Elysian IPA from Seattle. It was good. Sitting right next to the two of them was a nice looking, shapely blonde. She made it abundantly clear that she wanted to dance. None of us bit. I simply explained that if Mindy happened in she would not be happy. David and I both tried getting Glenn to do it, but I knew he wouldn’t, despite a seemingly easy score.

Seeing my beer empty, David insisted I have one more. What the heck. I had another Elysian IPA. David soon hooked the nice looking blonde up with another young man who had just recently come into the bar. They headed out to the dance floor in a hurry. They might’ve danced to one song before disappearing into the night.

Called it a night after an hour or so. Both David & Glenn shared how tired they were. Little wonder, they skied all day and then partied all night. I was sleepy, too. To my head it was 315am, and I’m never up that late. I’ll bet I was asleep not 5 minutes after my head hit the pillow.