Like Sands Through the Hourglass, This Was the Longest Day of Our Lives

We recently had the wonderful opportunity to return to Utah for my little sister's wedding.  This was made immensely more affordable (read: possible) by a good friend who had access to buddy passes with a particular airline.  Most emphatically, I do not want this post to come across as ungrateful.  We're so glad that we could use the passes and make it back for such a special occasion.  And the trip back home to Ohio was uneventful and worked out great, so no worries there.  However, the flight out to Utah was something that we'll probably never forget.  Here's why...

Highlights / summary:
- 22 hour day.
- Feet in all four time zones across the contiguous US in one day.
- Annoying televisions in most of the airports (turns out that most daytime tv really sucks--wait, I already knew this).
- Annoying people in some.
- A lot more people flying than expected, and thus:
- Lots of full flights with not enough room for everyone on standby.

We awoke at 4am eastern (that's 2am mountain time) to have time to finish packing before we began our epic journey.  We left the apartment at 5, and were at the airport around 5:30.  We drove ourselves, and some great friends were willing to come pick up our car (and us when we got home) so that we wouldn't have to pay $50 for a week of parking.  We split a tasty Chili's breakfast burrito at the airport (only $8!) right before boarding.  The first flight left Columbus for Chicago at 6:30, and we got on without any trouble.

Chicago was another story.  We spent most of the time running from gate to gate (fortunately, just once to another terminal and back), getting on the standby list of any flight heading west.  For the first couple hours, we were a little more selective because we wanted to fly to Denver, then to Salt Lake.  No dice.  So we kept trying, and would be standing next to a new gate every 20 minutes or so, listening and hoping that our names would be called.  Finally we were able to get on a flight to Omaha, Nebraska.

In Omaha, waiting for a flight.

The airport in Omaha was much smaller than the one in Chicago.  This was good because it wasn't so stinking crowded.  This was bad because there were far fewer flights leaving the city.  We arrived around 1pm central, and hoped to catch one of two flights around 2:30.  We split a Godfather's personal pan pizza for lunch (~$5, probably one of our better food deals at the airport--the other was Popeye's in Vegas) and waited until 5:30 when a flight was leaving for Phoenix, and another for Vegas.  During the wait, the tv droned on and on in the background, playing Days of their Lives, and a handful of other soap opera dreck that all looked the same.  Boo.  After sitting and waiting for a while, my legs needed some stretching.  I stood up and stretched various ways while reading my book, and this initiated a conversation with a nice old couple sitting across from us.  Apparently I was an odd sight.  Anyway, we lucked out and were able to board the one to Vegas.  After thanking the airline employee profusely, we hefted our carryons and got on the plane.

We arrived in Vegas around 6pm, with two more flights leaving for SL before morning.  We were unable to get on the flight at 6:55, so we started looking at our options. 1) We could rent a car and drive to SL, arriving probably around 2 or 3am.  Once we looked at pricing, though (~$200 plus gas for just one night), we changed our minds.  2) We could get a hotel room for the night for about $30 and then catch the 6am flight the next morning.  This was a pretty good option, but I didn't want to deal with shuttles and such.  Lazy, I know.  3) Have a sleepover at the airport!  What with the bouncing floor and noisy slot machines, it would have been a long night.  We hadn't finalized our decision by the time the next flight was boarding.

We sat, listening, but couldn't hear anything the gate agent was saying.  We could see that she was talking into the PA, but for the first time that day, we couldn't pick up what the agent had said.  So we hustled over to her to check and see if, just maybe, we had been called.  Sure enough, she had called our names twice and we hadn't heard a thing.  Lucky for us we checked.  So we got on the plane and Jess was lucky enough to babysit a 7 year old and 9 year old the whole flight home.

We arrived in SL, exhausted but happy, at about midnight.  My folks were kind enough to come pick us up (and we'd had a couple other offers from wonderful friends and family to do the same) and shuttle us back to their place where we crashed (in the sleeping sense, not the automobile sense).

So yeah, a rough day for flying, but we were grateful that we could do it on the cheap, and for all of the support that the buddy pass friend gave us throughout the day, helping us find the flights we needed and such.  And now we're really happy to be back home in Ohio.  Med school orientation begins tomorrow morning.  Here we go!

Super Special Thursday Post!

Here it is!

Item the second:  some weeks ago, I went to a picnic dinner up the canyon with some family and a few friends.  We had some yummy rotisserie chicken, rolls, jello salad, etc.  After we ate, we did a little geocaching (and found the cache, because dad is so good at it) and walked past a small reservoir on our way back to our picnic site.  My brother and I had been looking for and collecting flat rocks for skipping on the water.  After we finished tossing our rocks, my dad proposed a competition (as he is prone to do).  Floating about 40 or 50 feet out on the water was a line of white pipes, which help block detritus from flowing down the spillway and continuing to wherever the water goes.  The challenge was to find five rocks and throw them at the floaters, and whoever hit the pipes would win.

Dad went first, slowly getting closer with each throw, but never quite getting there.  Then Jordan took his turn--his rocks landing just on either side of the floaters.  Jeff, a family friend, went next and hit the pipes with one of his tosses.  Then it was my turn.  I hit it with three of my five rocks, and ended up with the high score.  I was very proud of myself

Since We're Back

I figure that, being back in Utah now, it is an appropriate time to share the following pictures / events from before the move.

Item the first: Hikes!  My sister Mandy and I went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Mill D trailhead back early May (I think).  This trailhead leads to both Dog Lake (~1.5 miles) and Desolation Lake (~3.5 miles).  We had planned to go to Dog Lake because we didn't have a lot of time, and began our trek up towards the lake.  About 100 feet up the trail, we met the first patch of snow, followed by more dirt trail, followed by another snow patch, etc.  Eventually we got to a point where everything was covered by snow that was at least 3 or 4 feet deep.  The temperature up there was perfect--nice and cool, but not too cold.  Unfortunately, hiking through snow is significantly more difficult than just a trail.

Nothing there to provide scale, but trust me, it was deep.

After arriving at the junction where the trails to Dog and Desolation Lakes diverged, we decided to turn around.  And it turned out that hiking downhill in snow is even tougher than hiking uphill.  About every eighth step, we sank five or so inches into the snow.  

After a couple more months, Mandy was back in town and we decided to go hiking again, and make it one of the lakes.  Kelli didn't have work that day, so she came along with us for an extra fun sibling activity.  No snow on the trail this time, which was very nice.  After arriving at the junction, we decided to push on to Desolation Lake.  It was a beautiful day and the trees were gorgeous--perfect conditions for a morning hike.  We all got a little tired towards the top, but were really happy when we arrived at the lake.

We only saw one other person up at the lake, but he was crazy enough that he was worth it.  Dude seemed like a pretty outdoorsy fellow--was toting around a large backpack that looked well provisioned--but had disobey several posted signs that prohibit pets (because it's a watershed area).  He had his dog with him and tried to keep it hidden as he packed up.  He didn't stick around long once we arrived.

We had a great time together and loved being up there.  And for now, this is where we finish because it's almost 11:30 which is like 1:30 for my body clock.  Not to mention that we had a long day yesterday (more about that in Sunday's post).  More mountainy stuff to share, and it may show up tomorrow in a super special Thursday post.