By the skin of our teeth, we got all the red tape sorted and Chris & I are on our way to Miami… him to attend an AFS orientation – then fly off to Santiago, and me to see him off – and install a new DNS server in an east coast datacenter. At the moment we are at a layover in Las Vegas, before catching an overnight flight to Miami.
We arrived at Sea-Tac with time to spare, and killed 90 minutes sitting in the newly finished big area between concourse B & C, with the impressively engineered compound-curved glass wall constructed of tensile steel cables. It afforded a nice view of the winter sunset to the southwest. It is a shame I can rarely get Christopher to smile when I point a camera at him, because he seemed genuinely happy to be on his way. We watched a movie together on my laptop between Seattle and Las Vegas. Unfortunately we don’t have seats together for the next segment, so we’re waiting for a gate agent to show up so we can (hopefully) change our seats.
Meanwhile, Chris carbo-loaded with a Cin-a-bon:
I’m just happy to have electricity (for my laptop) and free wireless access. To each his own I guess. 😉
The flight is delayed by 30 minutes…. ugh. The upside is that means our baggage transfer from Alaska to American Airlines is more likely to succeed.
One odd note: we taxied for what seemed like 20 minutes after landing here.
Another odd note: I keep hearing this irregularly timed, but barely audible chiming noise. It drives me nuts… I think it is some alarm noise from my cell phone, or maybe my laptop… perhaps the lady sitting over there futzing with her cell phone? Eventually I figure out it is coming from the damn slot machines about 100 meters away from me in the terminal! Grrr.
Last time I was in Las Vegas’s airport was in the fall of 1999… the height of the economic boom days. I was on my way from Seattle to NYC for the start of the Cannonball Classic and also changing planes in the middle of the night, hopping on a red-eye to the east coast. What a stark difference almost a decade makes. Back then the airport was literally jam-packed with people, feeding the slots and bustling about. It was deafening, and the airport and every flight was packed to the rafters. Not so at the moment… this place is like a tomb. I could probably count the people in the terminal with just my fingers and toes.
My next update should be from Miami.
Update: We have a row to ourselves for the next segment. We’ll finish our movie, and try and get some sleep.
I really don’t get this new generation’s seeming inability, or at least complete lack of desire, to *smile* when photos are taken of them! My friend’s son, who’s now in his 30s, was a happy, bright kid who NEVER smiled in photos! I’ll cherish that day last February where whatever it was I did to make Chris giggle, made’m do so!
Please give my best to hris and tell’m “Buena Suerte!” rom his “Chico de Colorado!”
Vaya con dios, muchachos!
hey it’s not just todays kids that don’t smile in photos! 🙂
hope all the travel goes well folks and that Chile lives up to all that paperwork!
Jerome