Return to Brooklyn

I posted this as a comment on David & Allison's blog in response to David's glamorous life of an airline pilot post, but thought it worthy of repeating here:

I had a glamorous day as a passenger yesterday. We left Steve's parents' house a little after 4:30 for Portland Jetport. It's about a 30 minute drive. When we left the house, we knew our flight was delayed by 30 minutes. No biggie. we expected a delay due to the winter weather in NYC moving towards Maine.

We board about when we were supposed to per the delayed departure time.

We pushed back, go the safety schpeal, and then stopped. JFK was closed until they got the taxiways and runways plowed and cleaned up. ATC told our hard working pilots that our new departure time would be 2 1/2 hours later.

A tug came and pulled us back into the gate. Then we sat. But I have to say, the Jet Blue crew and ground agents did an excellent job keeping us informed of all the changes and up to date on conditions and connecting flights at JFK. They deplaned some people who wouldn't make their connection, and one new passenger got on. Both the FO and CO talked to us using the flight attendant PA at the front of the cabin rather than from the flight deck.

After a good wait on the ground, they told us that working with dispatch and ATC, they got a departure time only 20 minutes from that point. So we quickly went through everything again - push back, safety schpeal because a new passenger got on - and rolled over to be deiced, because the storm had reached Portland in the time we had been sitting there. Then we took off and landed without any further holding or delays at JFK around 10PM. Our original arrival time was 7:30.

We took our time getting down to bag check, so they were there going around the carousel just waiting for us. Walked the half a mile in the airport to the Air Train, which then connected us to the A train to Brooklyn. After a transfer to the F train, we finally walked through our door just after midnight. Unpacked, ate some toast because we were starving, cooed over the cats, got situated, etc, and turned the lights off at 1:45, just about when you were getting home.

Long day for both of us.


New content starts here!
Maine was pretty and cold the whole time we were there. We got very lucky with the weather as it never snowed or did anything else precip-wise. Surprisingly, we did quite a bit of shopping. I know, right? We live in NYC but went shopping in Maine. Maine has outlet malls and we had access to them. I'm also not one of those people who like to shop when on vacation. But it's hard to resist outlet prices at J.Crew, Gap, Banana Republic, and Crate & Barrel. We also visited the mothership of the L.L. Bean company in Freeport. Gorgeous flagship store. Steve took his much loved Bean backpack in to see if they would replace the zipper but apparently it isn't worth their time so they gave him a store credit and he was able to buy a brand new one. We also found a smaller version of his pack in a bin at the Bean outlet for only $12. Granted, it was embroidered with the name, "Jacey," but a seam ripper made that history. So he got two new backpacks which came in handy for transporting our purchases back to NY. I bought some new duds that are appropriate for work and Steve got some work-able clothes, too.

On Tuesday, we headed out to look for a Wii Fit (the balance board box) thinking that demand would be lower in Portland. After all, his father found us a Wii there and shipped it to us. No dice; everyone was sold out. Toys R'Us had a ton of Wiis but no Fits. On our way to Portland, I spotted a bald eagle soaring on a thermal right in Steve's neighborhood. There is no mistaking that bright white tail of a bald eagle. No other wildlife sightings except for a squirrel in the front yard.