Yeah, but I like the smaller airports (El Paso's is even smaller). Easy access, easy parking and easy TSA lines. Smaller planes mean faster load times too.
ORD was awful when I lived in the UP - all the puddle jumpers went through Chicago. I must have gotten to Atlanta from Boise somehow back in the day to visit my mom in Chattanooga, but I've yet to hit the Denver airport. Went through Minneapolis a lot (home of the wide stance bathrooms favored by Boise people).
ORD was awful when I lived in the UP - all the puddle jumpers went through Chicago. I must have gotten to Atlanta from Boise somehow back in the day to visit my mom in Chattanooga, but I've yet to hit the Denver airport. Went through Minneapolis a lot (home of the wide stance bathrooms favored by Boise people).
I hated changing planes at ORD.
DIA is a great airport - lots of space for both planes and people.
DEN (locals call it DIA, but FAA symbol is still KDEN) is a nice airport, but its issue is weather and sometimes very long travels between connecting dates. Same goes for MSP. I'd take DEN over ORD, but might give MDW a shot if you don't mind the Southwest model. Doesn't have near the problems as ORD, probably because it has way less ground issues. btw, last time I was sat DEN it had some very long TSA lines. Hope that has been resolved. Just remember when you land there and it is cloudy, no you are not still in Nebraska
The best route I ever had was a code share on Northwest using my Alaska miles and I would go to SeaTac to Memphis and puddle jump to Chattanooga. Grab a BBQ on the way to the gate in Memphis. That airport probably would be shuttered if not for FedEx.
I never much liked flying into Atlanta but the last couple of times it was okay, and it's on the right side of the city, and I can catch a bus cheap enough to the Chattanooga airport if need be. Chattanooga finally added a bunch of flights so that worked well the last time.
DEN (locals call it DIA, but FAA symbol is still KDEN) is a nice airport, but its issue is weather and sometimes very long travels between connecting dates. Same goes for MSP. I'd take DEN over ORD, but might give MDW a shot if you don't mind the Southwest model. Doesn't have near the problems as ORD, probably because it has way less ground issues. btw, last time I was sat DEN it had some very long TSA lines. Hope that has been resolved. Just remember when you land there and it is cloudy, no you are not still in Nebraska
I'm not thrilled with the TSA arrangement in Denver, either. Hasn't been much of an issue for me in the past, as I've flown about once a year. This year, however, I've used the airport 4 times, with another trip tentatively scheduled for next month.
I haven't been to MEM since the old Northwest days, but I do recall a very good BBQ joint in the airport. Wonder if it is still there?
I have flown into Memphis a couple times. Last was just a change of planes going to Savannah. It was about 15 years ago. The thing that stood out for me is they did not use pushback Tugs. The aircraft used reverse thrusters to back away from the gate. I have flown a lot and never seen that. I think Portland is my favorite Airport outside of Hawaii. When I had a late flight in and early flight out I preferred Portland over Seatac. PDX had more comfortable chairs to fall asleep in. Of course that all changed after 9/11.
Have our first flight booked in over 8 years to Kona. Flying direct out of San Diego. Still had enough miles in the Alaska Airlines archives for first class upgrade. Going to spend about a month on the Big Island. Our favorite location, Kapoho. Our old place is owned by retired Alaskans. They no longer use it for vacation rental. This place is across the cove and looking forward to it. Prices are double what they were 8 years ago.
Since it was MEM and some time ago, probably a good chance it was Northwest. Delta abandoned the hub after buying Northwest. Southwest has a decent presence there nowadays. I remember that Republic (North Central and Southern merger) also did that sometimes on their DC9's, but Ozark did not. I've never noticed that reverse engine procedure on an MD80 - aircraft might have been too long to safely do that.
Funny that Seattle used to be dominated by Northwest and United, with some Alaska. Now it is Alaska and Delta, and Alaska occupies the North terminal that originally was built for United.
Average speed coming back from the eating frenzy last night was 27 mph, and the diesel was lucky to eke out 33 mpg with lots of slow-and-go. Much of the trip was like this (although traffic was better after this irritating interchange):
Luckily we have a fraction of that population. Unfortunately, they keep moving north.
405 is my local freeway too, and it's always a headache. That link looks like many roads here on a rainy Thursday evening commute. 2 hours from Seattle to Everett? Why not?
I enjoyed the "It's called the 405 for a reason: It takes you '4 o' 5' hours to get anywhere" quip. You've got to keep some humor about those highway messes. A couple of my favorites are Philadelphia's "Surekill" and Chicago's "Death Ryan". Sadly the latter now goes beyond car accidents to also include gangbangers shooting at you.
Camping fees are not included with the Discovery Pass
Kind of looks like they are encouraging Hillary supporters to move up to Canada.
"Beginning in 2018, ensure that admission for children under 18 is free, and provide any adult who has become a Canadian citizen in the previous 12 months one year's free admission."
From the comments the whole program is not setting well with the Canadians.
Our recent visitors from the UP brought me a loaf of homemade cinnamon bread from a one-café town up there. Great stuff, much better than pasties. Maybe I'd like the ones they make down in Hidalgo better.
Going to ELP tonight to pick up my BIL. Then we're doing a quickie road trip to Santa Fe and Taos before coming back home to cook for Christmas. Remains to be seen what car we'll be driving, van may be ready today, may not be. We're in a rental Santa Fe this week so I suppose that would be appropriate for traveling north.
Who could resist taking a Santa Fe to Santa Fe? I bet they've never heard that joke before!
Anyone going on a road trip for the holidays? I'll be headed out to the coast as usual, looking forward to the drive especially once I am off the interstate.
Who could resist taking a Santa Fe to Santa Fe? I bet they've never heard that joke before!
Anyone going on a road trip for the holidays? I'll be headed out to the coast as usual, looking forward to the drive especially once I am off the interstate.
Nothing planned here, though I'll be in the Bay Area on business in a few weeks.
The Santa Fe is parked in Santa Fe. Kind of wish we'd rented a Yukon/Denali, but the weather today was bad enough, rain, with ice and a little bit of snow as we went from ~4,500 feet to ~7,000 feet. Doing the Alcan on rental rubber would be a tad ambitious perhaps. Maybe getting a Tucson would have been the ticket.
Doing the plaza tomorrow and then on to Taos in late afternoon. Our Taos friends will probably be tele-skiing tomorrow unless the "holiday" lift rates have kicked in (they get local passes with holiday black-out dates).
After doing the midnight airport run, my wife did a lot of the driving today while I napped in the back seat. In recent years I've enjoyed the driving part less and less, and I used to do 95% of it.
Our Taos friends will probably be tele-skiing tomorrow unless the "holiday" lift rates have kicked in (they get local passes with holiday black-out dates)
There is this new invention called "Alpine Touring" bindings. And by new I mean twenty plus years ago. Their knees will thank them.
They are off to the hill tomorrow and always have the latest and greatest. She's probably a bit tentative still having suffered a tibial plateau fracture canyoneering last Spring, but she healed fast. I quit tele when I broke my fibula just standing around, kind of like Arnold S. did at Sun Valley. Embarrassing. Miss boarding and it's safer. Great Indian meal tonight a few blocks from the Plaza. Nice getting out of town.
Kids are all here. Flight starting from Madison/Detroit/Hartford was a bit early. Other one made it from west to Cleveland to here is less than my average of 9 hours.
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Out in coastal SW WA, very icy on the state highways this morning, a few dumdum drivers, but not too terrible. Sure is nice in heated leather seats on a cold winter morning
Out in coastal SW WA, very icy on the state highways this morning, a few dumdum drivers, but not too terrible. Sure is nice in heated leather seats on a cold winter morning
Back to Puget Sound chaos. A lot more traffic late this morning, lots of slow and distracted drivers (I still love seeing the 1130-and-1230 death grip by an overcautious driver as they loaf along in the middle lane far under the flow of traffic, staring intensely ahead), averaged one cop about every 50 miles. At least the roads were clear as it was above freezing everywhere, and the snow of a few days ago has faded.
Man, people talk about confusing Seattle traffic and roads, but looking at that board after a couple of gin and tonics could make you dizzy Really, pretty neat and it took a lot of research and work to do it. He must like you!
Not exactly the easiest street grid and road management in the world. Lakes, bridges, rain, transplants, timid drivers, a fun combination.
Not to mention ferries and half completed tunnels.
A lot like San Francisco, NYC and Boston. Geography dictates a lot, with regards to traffic. The rest, IMO, is population density in urban areas. I've watched the population grow tremendously here in metro Denver. When I look at maps of Phoenix, where I went to college in the 80's, what used to be the edge of town is nowhere near that now. And, there are 8-10 freeways in that town as opposed to the 3 that were there 30+ years ago.
More and more people are moving to urban areas, which stresses the infrastructure. Not enough money to build or maintain roads and bridges, and public transit is a hit or miss affair.
And skyrocketing budgets combined with NIMBYism. I think a lot of these projects cost a lot more than they did 50 or even 30 years ago relative to inflation. Combine that with corrupt crony capitalism that in a just society would land people in jail (like the Seattle failed bikeshare purchase) and it is guaranteed to cost a fortune and go nowhere fast. I'd love to see a heavy tax on offshore money laundering real estate deals and use it to fund transportation.
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And you can return your rental car right to the counter inside the airport.
DIA is a great airport - lots of space for both planes and people.
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I never much liked flying into Atlanta but the last couple of times it was okay, and it's on the right side of the city, and I can catch a bus cheap enough to the Chattanooga airport if need be. Chattanooga finally added a bunch of flights so that worked well the last time.
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Then there was this post I had to suffer through today. This job is a killer.
Have our first flight booked in over 8 years to Kona. Flying direct out of San Diego. Still had enough miles in the Alaska Airlines archives for first class upgrade. Going to spend about a month on the Big Island. Our favorite location, Kapoho. Our old place is owned by retired Alaskans. They no longer use it for vacation rental. This place is across the cove and looking forward to it. Prices are double what they were 8 years ago.
http://www.hawaiiwego.com/rentals/allrentals/house-pahoa-large-wraparound-deck-lockable-doors-at-each-end-809/
Funny that Seattle used to be dominated by Northwest and United, with some Alaska. Now it is Alaska and Delta, and Alaska occupies the North terminal that originally was built for United.
Just don't tell that to my sister, the UAL retiree..
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38083341
405 is my local freeway too, and it's always a headache. That link looks like many roads here on a rainy Thursday evening commute. 2 hours from Seattle to Everett? Why not?
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You've got to keep some humor about those highway messes. A couple of my favorites are Philadelphia's "Surekill" and Chicago's "Death Ryan". Sadly the latter now goes beyond car accidents to also include gangbangers shooting at you.
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Here's the link to get your free pass. The site may be hammered as word gets out.
Kind of looks like they are encouraging Hillary supporters to move up to Canada.
"Beginning in 2018, ensure that admission for children under 18 is free, and provide any adult who has become a Canadian citizen in the previous 12 months one year's free admission."
From the comments the whole program is not setting well with the Canadians.
Going to ELP tonight to pick up my BIL. Then we're doing a quickie road trip to Santa Fe and Taos before coming back home to cook for Christmas. Remains to be seen what car we'll be driving, van may be ready today, may not be. We're in a rental Santa Fe this week so I suppose that would be appropriate for traveling north.
Anyone going on a road trip for the holidays? I'll be headed out to the coast as usual, looking forward to the drive especially once I am off the interstate.
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25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0
Doing the plaza tomorrow and then on to Taos in late afternoon. Our Taos friends will probably be tele-skiing tomorrow unless the "holiday" lift rates have kicked in (they get local passes with holiday black-out dates).
After doing the midnight airport run, my wife did a lot of the driving today while I napped in the back seat. In recent years I've enjoyed the driving part less and less, and I used to do 95% of it.
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0
At the Standard Diner on Route 66 in ABQ.
Other one made it from west to Cleveland to here is less than my average of 9 hours.
And a MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and your family.
Tripping to El Paso tomorrow, if you can call an easy hour cruise "tripping".
He used to have this great "Seattle in Motion" screensaver that was a lot of fun too (except that it discouraged you from leaving the house).
Not exactly the easiest street grid and road management in the world. Lakes, bridges, rain, transplants, timid drivers, a fun combination.
A lot like San Francisco, NYC and Boston. Geography dictates a lot, with regards to traffic. The rest, IMO, is population density in urban areas. I've watched the population grow tremendously here in metro Denver. When I look at maps of Phoenix, where I went to college in the 80's, what used to be the edge of town is nowhere near that now. And, there are 8-10 freeways in that town as opposed to the 3 that were there 30+ years ago.
More and more people are moving to urban areas, which stresses the infrastructure. Not enough money to build or maintain roads and bridges, and public transit is a hit or miss affair.
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