Air travel notes
Dec. 5th, 2006 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidTraveling Turkey Day afternoon meant fewer lines, which was good. I went to check my bag, giving a photo ID as requested... and heard that they don't accept expired photo ID. Er, what? So my driver's license expired. In 2005. Don't they send notices as with car registrations? *sigh* Another paperwork hassle for me to deal with. Luckily, I tend to travel with my passport as well, and that was accepted. Whew.
I'd overestimated the time I needed, so I explored the offerings of Logan's Terminal C outside the security check. Book stores, food stores, chatchke stores, the usual. Also a lovely kinetic sculpture with many paths for balls to travel, with interesting percussive noises. I watched that for a while, then meandered more, finding the child play area, which had another of the same kind of kinetic sculptures, and some nice wooden rockers by the windows.
Flights 1 and 2 were on United. I got the aisle seats I'd requested, headphones were free, the snack on the second leg was pretzels, and I had no problem getting multiple (small) glasses of water. Bonus on the second flight: a row to myself. I tried sleeping, and it was more successful than usual, but not by much. Still, I was tired by then, and it helped.
The layover between them was in Chicago's O'Hare. The first flight was early, so I had almost an hour added onto the over two hour wait. So I went exploring again. I walked around Terminal 1C, enjoying the moving pavement, then ducked underground to see the rainbow neon along the way to concourse B. It lights up in succession, and curvy walls emphasize the geometric neon progression (the walls looking like huge pages taken from some pastel pages of a paint book).
When I came up in concourse 2, I was greeted by a huge dinosaur skeleton, courtesy of the Field Museum (I think). I kept walking around the hub of the terminals, passing the enticing smell of Wolfgang Puck's brick-oven baked pizza. I looked in, and could see the flames in the oven. Nice. Into Terminal 2, and there were art benches about, each painted differently (mostly animal designs), with appropriate cut-outs of the back. The next find was a display about Butch O'Hare, the WWII fighter pilot the airport is named after. Totally a larger-than-life guy, so it was interesting reading, plus there was a photo of him getting his Medal of Honor from FDR that shows the president in his chair (which is rare).
The walkway to Terminal 3 had some of the pictures made for The Abstract Mind Mural. My favorite was a collage of lipstick lip prints, with little arrows going in and out of the lips.
Overall, O'Hare's a pretty nice place to have to have a layover in.
On the way back, it was again two flights, this time on America West, which didn't impress me so much. The first plane had no video, which didn't bother me, but what did was that there were no overhead nozzles for fresh air, either, and it got very warm before we took off. Another annoyance: I was stuck in a window seat on the full flight. It wasn't a long flight, but I was concerned about making my connection: in the best of all possible worlds, it was a 36-minute layover, which could be tricky. On the other hand, it meant I had a great view as we came into Las Vegas, the arid mountains around the city looking shocking after a week in the green hills of Portland. I hadn't realized how close the Strip is to the airport, with the pyramid one so close I could easily see the sphinx in front. Coming in over the outskirts it was clear where new developments were being planned/built. Geometrically interesting patterns from the sky, but I don't think I'd like to live there...
I got lucky: my connecting flight was two gates down. They'd already finished boarding, but I made it in time. Whew. And though the airline was still annoying ($5 headphones, $5 snacks, $5 booze, but lots and lots of ads broadcast to everyone before the headphone-only movie started), this was the most fun leg of the trip, because of the bird. A couple of rows ahead of me, a woman was traveling with a large white parrot-like bird... which was walking on her when I came in, nary a carrying case in sight. The bird squawked a lot when it wasn't sleeping, and treated us to a variety of wolf whistles as well. All of this got the flight attendants in an entertaining frame of mind, and that made a huge difference. I'd said something or other that made them laugh, and every time they came by there was time for a question or comment. OK, and being offered a whole bottle of water rather than individual cups didn't hurt either. I saw them later as I waited curbside for my ride (I got a ride from both airports! Such luxury!), which gave me a chance to thank them.
I expected the scanning of hand luggage and taking my shoes off. I didn't expect that I'd find a notice of baggage inspection showing that my checked bag had been opened and searched (lucky I don't have a lock on it, or they'd've broken it). I've never had this happen before, and I didn't assume that it's much more common now (is it?), so I started thinking about what I'd packed. On the way out, it must've been the cheese that triggered closer inspection. I don't know what ten pounds of mozzarella look like under their scanners, but it's unusual, anyway. On the way back, I think it was the big expandable tube, part of a floor-standing air conditioner, that triggered it. The Boston people were much better at repacking my bag the way I'd done it originally, by the way.
Travel by plane is convenient (at least for long distances), but the air quality on the planes does a number on me; I can't focus as well and I get sleepy. I also admit to some nostalgia about the idea of long-distance travel taking time (trains or ships), time to enjoy the places in between, time to consider the transition. But planes are too necessary for someone with limited vacation time to really consider the options.
I'd overestimated the time I needed, so I explored the offerings of Logan's Terminal C outside the security check. Book stores, food stores, chatchke stores, the usual. Also a lovely kinetic sculpture with many paths for balls to travel, with interesting percussive noises. I watched that for a while, then meandered more, finding the child play area, which had another of the same kind of kinetic sculptures, and some nice wooden rockers by the windows.
Flights 1 and 2 were on United. I got the aisle seats I'd requested, headphones were free, the snack on the second leg was pretzels, and I had no problem getting multiple (small) glasses of water. Bonus on the second flight: a row to myself. I tried sleeping, and it was more successful than usual, but not by much. Still, I was tired by then, and it helped.
The layover between them was in Chicago's O'Hare. The first flight was early, so I had almost an hour added onto the over two hour wait. So I went exploring again. I walked around Terminal 1C, enjoying the moving pavement, then ducked underground to see the rainbow neon along the way to concourse B. It lights up in succession, and curvy walls emphasize the geometric neon progression (the walls looking like huge pages taken from some pastel pages of a paint book).
When I came up in concourse 2, I was greeted by a huge dinosaur skeleton, courtesy of the Field Museum (I think). I kept walking around the hub of the terminals, passing the enticing smell of Wolfgang Puck's brick-oven baked pizza. I looked in, and could see the flames in the oven. Nice. Into Terminal 2, and there were art benches about, each painted differently (mostly animal designs), with appropriate cut-outs of the back. The next find was a display about Butch O'Hare, the WWII fighter pilot the airport is named after. Totally a larger-than-life guy, so it was interesting reading, plus there was a photo of him getting his Medal of Honor from FDR that shows the president in his chair (which is rare).
The walkway to Terminal 3 had some of the pictures made for The Abstract Mind Mural. My favorite was a collage of lipstick lip prints, with little arrows going in and out of the lips.
Overall, O'Hare's a pretty nice place to have to have a layover in.
On the way back, it was again two flights, this time on America West, which didn't impress me so much. The first plane had no video, which didn't bother me, but what did was that there were no overhead nozzles for fresh air, either, and it got very warm before we took off. Another annoyance: I was stuck in a window seat on the full flight. It wasn't a long flight, but I was concerned about making my connection: in the best of all possible worlds, it was a 36-minute layover, which could be tricky. On the other hand, it meant I had a great view as we came into Las Vegas, the arid mountains around the city looking shocking after a week in the green hills of Portland. I hadn't realized how close the Strip is to the airport, with the pyramid one so close I could easily see the sphinx in front. Coming in over the outskirts it was clear where new developments were being planned/built. Geometrically interesting patterns from the sky, but I don't think I'd like to live there...
I got lucky: my connecting flight was two gates down. They'd already finished boarding, but I made it in time. Whew. And though the airline was still annoying ($5 headphones, $5 snacks, $5 booze, but lots and lots of ads broadcast to everyone before the headphone-only movie started), this was the most fun leg of the trip, because of the bird. A couple of rows ahead of me, a woman was traveling with a large white parrot-like bird... which was walking on her when I came in, nary a carrying case in sight. The bird squawked a lot when it wasn't sleeping, and treated us to a variety of wolf whistles as well. All of this got the flight attendants in an entertaining frame of mind, and that made a huge difference. I'd said something or other that made them laugh, and every time they came by there was time for a question or comment. OK, and being offered a whole bottle of water rather than individual cups didn't hurt either. I saw them later as I waited curbside for my ride (I got a ride from both airports! Such luxury!), which gave me a chance to thank them.
I expected the scanning of hand luggage and taking my shoes off. I didn't expect that I'd find a notice of baggage inspection showing that my checked bag had been opened and searched (lucky I don't have a lock on it, or they'd've broken it). I've never had this happen before, and I didn't assume that it's much more common now (is it?), so I started thinking about what I'd packed. On the way out, it must've been the cheese that triggered closer inspection. I don't know what ten pounds of mozzarella look like under their scanners, but it's unusual, anyway. On the way back, I think it was the big expandable tube, part of a floor-standing air conditioner, that triggered it. The Boston people were much better at repacking my bag the way I'd done it originally, by the way.
Travel by plane is convenient (at least for long distances), but the air quality on the planes does a number on me; I can't focus as well and I get sleepy. I also admit to some nostalgia about the idea of long-distance travel taking time (trains or ships), time to enjoy the places in between, time to consider the transition. But planes are too necessary for someone with limited vacation time to really consider the options.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 05:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 08:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 06:50 pm (UTC)I have no idea what makes them check. I do know that they unwrapped all of my christmas presents last year. (Books and everthing...can't they X-Ray that sort of stuff? *sigh*)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 07:05 pm (UTC)They unwrapped the prezzies? Wow. I bet they didn't spend a lot of time rewrapping them, either.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 07:08 pm (UTC)The hardest time I ever had was on the way home from Israel, too, at customs at this end. I'd bought a bunch of bags of herbs in Machaneh Yehudah, and put them down the middle of a poster tube so they wouldn't get crushed. There were some tense moments before they realized the powders weren't illicit.
I didn't know that bismuth's opaque to the scanner. Interesting.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 07:10 pm (UTC)I have to figure out when to go to an RMV with all the paperwork and such. (Ugh. I hate waiting in their lines, and there are always lines.)
Did you get a renewal notice for your license? (I only remember getting them for the car registration.)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 03:04 pm (UTC)Your trip seems to have been lovely.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 03:33 pm (UTC)The one at the Cambridgeside Galleria is definitely convenient, though I dread a little going into a mall this month...
It was an excellent break. I don't remember the last time I had one as long, without a simcha of some sort along with it.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 03:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 03:55 pm (UTC)Oh yeah, the mall-this-month issue did not occur to me. How right you are.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 07:12 pm (UTC)Coming home from your wedding I remember at least two searches before getting on the plane, which seemed redundant.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 03:49 am (UTC)(Am I going to feel foolish when I find out?)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 02:58 pm (UTC)PS
Date: 2006-12-06 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 02:50 am (UTC)I'll be flying with checked bags for the first time since, um, well before 9/11. (I don't get out much and checking luggage is a PITA, so when I do fly I work hard to do it as all carry-on. A two-week trip to Israel will involve checked bags, though.) So I just learned about the special TSA-accessible locks, so you can lock your luggage from everyone else and they can open it with a master key. My curiosity hasn't led me yet to see how easy it is to buy a master key on eBay... I think the days of assuming your checked baggage was even a little bit secure are gone. So, nothing I can't afford to lose goes into the checked bags.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 03:54 am (UTC)I thought about carry-on only for this last trip, but between the cheese, the season (winter clothes being bulkier, but still possibly needing nonwinter stuff), the duration of the trip, and the regulations about liquids, I couldn't manage it.
I guess it just hadn't really been brought home that they'd physically open my bag when I knew there wasn't any contraband in it. I'm always concerned about checked baggage going astray, though, so I don't put anything that couldn't be easily replaced in it.
(When is your Israel trip?)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 04:40 am (UTC)I leave for Israel on December 21. My rabbi said the secret to the weather that time of year is "layers". That's helpful, because you can re-use outer layers without being icky. So a bunch of t-shirts (which don't take up much room) and a smaller quantity of stuff to go over, and I should be fine -- it'll be easier to pack than, say, a bunch of long-sleeved shirts and sweatshirts.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 02:52 pm (UTC)Your trip is soon! Your rabbi is right, though I admit that layers are my standard strategy for winter anywhere (I overheat easily). Typically, winter weather in much of Israel doesn't quite hit freezing, but it's very cold and raining a lot, which makes everything feel colder. Plus apartments aren't heated during the day, and are made out of stone (though this likely won't affect you much as a tourist). A really good waterproof outer layer with enough other layers that you don't end up wet from sweat is a good idea.
I'm looking forward to reading about your travels.