It was quite a trip.

As some of you may know and most of you don't know and probably all of you could not care less, I went on a weeks vacation to visit my daughter Holly in Boston.  The time I spent there was very nice. The weather was a bit on the wet side for the first 4 days or so, but it cleared up nicely for a jaunt through Boston on Thursday with some of that time spent among dead people and some of that time in a park where they used to hang witches.  I did not actually see the hanging tree, but I was assured that it was there.We spent a good amount of time looking at the sights.  Here's a picture of something that we don't see much of here in Phoenix, well I don't see much of it, if you water your lawn you may see some of it.

If my memory serves me correctly, that's clover.  And look here's a huge shade tree. Okay, maybe not, it was coming out sideways and trust me, the tree was not sideways.

Anyway, we had a good time together.  It was good to see Holly and meet all her roommates, who seem to be very nice people.  It was good to meet Angie, who was kind enough to drive us anywhere we wanted to go.  And Jason, who I got to meet. He seems to be a nice young man.  And, of course Chris.  I enjoyed spending time with Holly and Chris, both of whom seem to have a peculiarly strange sense of humor.  I have no idea where Holly gets it, maybe she gets it from Chris?  Could be.  Chris is a nice guy who knows what he wants and is on the track to getting those things.  I just hope I was not a burden to them with all my whining and my demands on their time. 

Now, the visit there was very VERY nice.  It was relaxing and, dare I say fun?  The trip there and back was an adventure unto itself.  When I had decided to buy the tickets to go to Boston, I made the decision that I did not want to have to worry about making connecting flights.  While the trip there and back were not non-stop, I had made it so I did not have to change planes.  Or that's what I thought anyway.  On my way to Boston on the 8th of June, the first leg of the journey was Phoenix to Denver.  The flight was uneventful from the aspect of the passengers, but apparently those who were in charge of flying this death trap, I mean airplane had a different view than we did. It really was NOT a death trap, sometimes I embellish things so you have to understand that "death trap" is merely and embellishment of the plane.  Though under the wrong circumstances, it could be called a death trap after all you're thousands of feet in the air with nothing below you except the cargo hold.  But I digress.  Oh yeah, I wanted to start a magazine for those whose minds tend to stray called "I Digress", but my mind wandered and I haven't done that yet.  Oh yeah my trip to Denver, rather to Boston via Denver.  When we landed we were told that we needed to take our belongings and get off the plane as there were "mechanical difficulties".  Such a broad statement.  Does that mean we were about to lose our cargo hold (the only thing saving us from a firey plunge to the hard ground below us) or was a windshield wiper not functioning correctly?  Personally I vote for the wipers.  Any way, we left the plane and were told it should be 3 pm when we can get back on board and continue the flight of fancy to Boston.  This was at 11 am so we had a nice 4 hour delay in Denver where you could walk around an see the sights inside the Denver airport.  I was truly astounded at the lack of eateries in the area where our gate was.  I believe there were 2 places you could get something to eat and one coffee shop and a store to buy Denver stuff.  We were expected to land in Boston at something like 530 local time, but it turned out to be 930.  It was a long flight and I believe I spent 12 hours in the airports or airplane that day.  Surely the trip back would be different.  And it was.
Leaving Boston was an adventure.  The plane was due to take off at 530 pm and I would arrive in Phoenix at 930 pm with a brief stop in Chicago to boot passengers off and allow new ones on.  We got on the plane and got pushed back from the gate about 10 minutes late.  Eh, that's fine, what's 10 minutes, that can be easily made up in the air.  We started taxing (taxiing?) to the runway and it started to rain.  Now I had seen lightning flash while still in the terminal, but planes can fly in the rain (otherwise how would anybody ever get to Seattle?)  While we were out there waiting for our turn to turn on the jets and take flight like a long metal tube just flung into the air, it started to hail.  I could hear it, but I didn't see how big it was.  We were ordered BACK to the gate to have the plane checked for damage.  I called Holly and informed her that I was indeed, in Boston.  We were informed that 3 other planes needed to be checked, but our plane was first in line and that it would be about an hour.  Over all, we departed Boston about 3 hours late.  Too bad for those making connecting flights in Chicago, but I was already on mine.  At least I didn't have to worry about missing my plane.  We got to Chicago without incident and kicked off many people and brought on many more.  We took off in a timely fashion and sailed our way to Phoenix.  When we got here, we spent a good 30 minutes waiting for the plane that had rudely taken our gate to move it shiny metal ass out of the way so we could move in.  So after spending another 12 hours in airports or airplanes yesterday (June 17) I finally made it home around 130 this morning. 

While the visit with Holly and her gang was a pleasant experience, out of the 10 days I was away from home, one of those days (24 hours roughly) was spent in the confines of an airplane or the airport.  Makes me wonder if perhaps driving would be better.