Saturday February 17
On Friday, February 16th, we flew from Minneapolis to San Francisco. Our flight was supposed to leave at 6:15 pm. It’s always a little riskier flying later in the day; this United flight was a cheaper option so we decided to take the chance. Was what happened worth $200? Probably but it’s a close call!
Right as we get to the airport we find out our flight is delayed. Sigh. Now it’s supposed to leave at 7:20 PM. Oh well. The delay is due to runway construction in San Francisco. Oh yeah, I remember hearing something about that.
We go hang out at a restaurant, have a drink and a burger. Lee forgot to bring a ball cap so we meander through some stores but he doesn’t want one with a blatant Minnesota theme so pretty soon we’re on our way to the gate.
We are delayed further. Our estimated departure time is now 7:48 PM. Ugh. We text Dan and tell him we’ll take an Uber from the airport. No need for them to stay up so late.
United got hit hard by the 737 Max fiasco, so they’ve had to pull those planes and are using small regional jets instead until Boeing can guarantee the safety of the larger jets. Smaller planes get less priority for landing at SFO’s congested runways, so we keep getting bumped. Soon our estimated departure time is 8:15 PM. (The reason I remember all these delayed departure times is that United helpfully sent us a text every time our flight was delayed again. Very nice, in a depressing sort of way!)
We finally board. But wait! We’re not finished with this delay stuff yet. The captain tells us that our route has changed so we need more fuel. The fuel guys are asleep or something and it takes forever for them to finally come and service us. THEN we have to be de-iced. But why, it’s not snowing or raining, but it is pretty cold. No other planes are being de-iced. Lee was so irritated by this that he looked it up. The big planes have heaters on their wings and don’t need to be de-iced as frequently. No such luck for little planes. I guess better safe than sorry.
Finally we’re on our way. A darling family with 3 little girls and a mom and dad occupy the seats behind us and across the aisle. The little girls (8,6 and 4 years old is my guess) have never been on a plane before and are VERY excited. They make the experience of taking off fun, since I found myself seeing it through their eyes and reminiscing about my first flight, way back in the early 60’s.
The flight itself wasn’t too bad, at least at first. I slept a lot in the first 2 hours. Then things got bumpy, I mean REALLY bumpy. Not so bad that we couldn’t stay in our seats, but kind of amusement ride-like. As we descended into San Francisco, it was pretty bad. The dad, and two of the little girls got airsick. We were surrounded by vomiting and crying as we landed. A perfect ending! But I felt sorry for that family. The mom kept telling the little girls that flying wasn’t normally like this! I hope they don’t have trouble getting those kids back on an airplane to fly back to Minneapolis. And I hope they all take some dramamine before they do!
The rest of the night was uneventful, thank goodness. We got our checked bag in record time and had no trouble getting an Uber to Palo Alto (a Tesla, that was cool). We were at their house by midnight. Of course Rossi barked when we arrived but only Kelsey woke up. I think she’s a pretty light sleeper, kind of like me.
Before too long we were in bed. Both Lee and I managed to sleep a decent amount, 6:30 am for me, 7:00 am for Lee. It’s nice to be here and see how much Emi has changed in a month. She’s got smiling down, that’s for sure!
Note: Dan and Kelsey don't want pictures that show Emi's face on social media so I will only use pictures that don't show her image. Sorry!
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