Hi from the sky!

Hello from a zillion feet (36245 really) over Nebraska! Can I just tell you that I spent the morning eating cheese and grapes with iced coffee and blogging from the air and loving it? Its only been a little while, but so far Virgin America totally rocks. And the ticket was super cheap. This morning was kind of a blur. I never sleep well when I have a morning flight for fear that I’ll miss it, so I was up and out of bed playing with the kitties just around sunrise. Wanting to use up a lot of food around the house, I made big ol Green Monsters with spinach, tons of strawberries, 2 bananas, flaxseed, and vanilla soy milk. They were yummy and kept us full until now, where we easily used the touch screen at our seats to order food and bevvies and paid right there with a credit card.

Easy touch screen ordering

Travel Eat Love’s first flight!

Gotta tell ya, I love these modern conveniences 😉 We planned perfectly so that we had just enough time to get through security with a few minutes to spare. On the way to the gate I stopped to snap a photo of the Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts shops which are side by side. I am DEFINITELY a Starbucks fan over Dunkin. I know in Massachusetts thats pretty much sacrilege but the hubs and I call Dunkin “Dirty Dunkin”. I swear I think that sometimes their coffee is like water and dirt mixed together. But to each her/his own! 

The whole airport thing usually makes me a little bit cranky and definitely brings about a few of my pet peeves. Since Sophia wrote a post on pet peeves yesterday, I think I was even more focused on these things that annoy me while traveling. I have gotten MUCH better about letting go of annoyances, but still, i wonder if people just thought a bit more, things could run a lot more smoothly. . .

1) Some people like to stand on escalators. I don’t. If stairs are an option, then I take them, but there is nothing that annoys me more than the people who get on the escalator, hold on to both handrails, and chill for the several minutes it can take to go up. Europeans stand on the right, walk on the left, and it works like a charm. Everyone gets to travel up to the next level the way they would like, and everybody is happy. This especially irks me when I am heading down an escalator to the subway and the TRAIN IS THERE.

2) In the security line, there are people telling you to remove your shoes, laptop, belt, change etc. There are also a variety of lovely signs and/or screens that serve as a reminder. Alas you don’t need to wait until you are actually up AT the x-ray machine to start doing these things. Standing in a long line? Take your coat off and start preparing. Traveling with a flock of small children? Help them get ready to go through!

3) Once you go through security, don’t set up shop an inch from where your bag comes out. People and bags are coming behind you. I like to grab my little plastic tray and step over to a bench on the side to repack, put my shoes on, and allow the dozens of people behind me to make their flights on time.

4) If you are traveling with children, watch them. Now, this view of mine might be a little harsh seeming, but I am a firm believer in your child being your responsibility and sometimes, problem. Some children maybe aren’t meant to travel. Some parents too. I have 8 nieces and nephews who have been across the ocean more times than most adults. Our families are spread out from Boston to Bologna which means kids travel from infancy. Sometimes they misbehave, yes, but their parents are uber stocked with toys, snacks, games, puzzles, coloring books, pacifiers, pillows, jammies, DVD’s, you name it. If you are a parent and are traveling with your children, don’t let them spend 4 hours kicking the seat in front of them. If they are screaming at the top of their lungs, at least try to stop them. I kid you not, I once flew on a night flight from Dublin to Tunisia, and the mother put a sleep mask on and earplugs in while her 4 year old shrieked and the father stared sheepishly at the child. . . for 4 hours.

Also, please do not let them turn around and spit in someone’s face. Yes. This happened to me. Last year on an Aer Lingus flight from Boston to Shannon, before takeoff, a child actually turned around in the seat in front of me and spat on my face. And his mother called him a “bold boy” and did not apologize. The lovely air hostess moved us to the front of the plane where we each had our own empty row, and we never had to see the little beast again. I am pretty sure my name pulls up a code or something with the airlines that says “seat her in front of a screaming family of 6” because it happens pretty much every single time I fly.

 Do you have certain things that really annoy you when you travel?

I am grateful for the opportunity to be traveling at all, but sometimes things could easily be a bit more organized and everyone pitched in!

Moving on from my traveling rant. . . 🙂

Writing out my peeves actually made me feel a little less stressed! As this post has been written over the course of a few hours, we have had lunch. Sure we could have packed our own food, and I did bring bananas, Adora disks, and Amazing Grass, but I just love the full airplane experience. Lunch was more seltzer and a turkey Florentine wrap that we shared. Delicious! It was chock full of good roasted turkey, loads of fresh spinach, red and yellow peppers, and artichoke hearts. Score again for Virgin America!

Tasted better than it looked!

  Seltzer fiend

The hubs working two laptops, doing Masters’ homework. Randomly enough the guy in the plaid in the next row is my neighbor’s brother. Small world!

I am going to sign off now to maybe watch the film Corked on Netflix. I always wondered about super long flights like to Australia, but I must say, if I could purchase internet access, I think I would be all set! I am totally enjoying having nothing to do but read blogs, news, and fun San Francisco facts (and checking a bit of work email :()

See ya’ll soon!