Planes to boats

It's weird to have to spend so much time in the air just so you can spend time on a boat. Especially since we have nice boats just a few miles from our house. But the boats near our house don't go to the Caribbean, so we spent the day in the air.

Our flight from San Jose to Denver was about 25 minutes late, which could have been inconvenient since we had to make a connection in Denver, but they made up a lot of time along the way and all went fine.

San Jose airport is in the 27th year of it's 3 year renovation project. Southwest Airlines are using temporary checkin gates that are WAY too few and a LONG ways from the actual gates where their planes are. We had plenty of time so the long line was not too much of a bother, and I like long walks, so that wasn't so bad either.

When we got to the gate, another plane was getting ready to leave, and they were desperate to find The Johnsons (or something like that) so they could get boarded and take off. I overheard them say that they had just checked in their luggage 12 minutes ago, and based on our experience, they would need at least 20 to get to the gate. So the plane left without them, and 2 minutes later, here come the Johnsons, jogging up to the gate. They were an older couple that were not used to jogging.

I expected a bad scene (I would have made one. "Two minutes? You couldn't wait two stinking minutes? You knew our bags were on the plane; two lousy minutes???" To be fair, I would bet a fair amount of money that their bags were not on that plane if they had just been checked 14 minutes earlier.)

But there was no scene. They were actually a bit jovial about it. I'm not going to say I was disappointed, but I will say they are much better people than me.

In any case, we made it to Denver where we met up with part of the group that are all heading to Florida for this high school reunion cruise.

I loved this departures board - I can tell I'm back in the home country. See Garden City on that list - that's the town in Kansas I was born in. See Dodge City - that's the town that people from Garden City have a deep hatred of. See Durango - that's the town about an hour from where my parents live. See Fresno - never mind.

The other one to see is Ft Lauderdale. That's our flight. We are staying the night at a motel just outside the Miami airport, but if you want to fly Southwest, you will fly to Ft Lauderdale and get someone to drive you to Miami (which is about 30 minutes away, plus or minus 30 minutes).

Why do you fly Southwest? Ask Mrs Notthat. Good fares and you know what you are getting. Plus some - being Fathers Day, all dads got a free adult beverage of their choice. Two flights, two adult beverages!

Which came in handy since we ended up surrounded by screaming kids on the plane. An iPod, a book, and red wine.

Now if somebody could do something about this Florida humidity.

That's it - move along...