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.