CLKI tour & flying

This afternoon I took Jonathan to my dad's cabinet company, Century Lane Kitchens Inc.  After giving him a tour of the showroom, my dad and I took him back to the factory.  My dad did most of the talking out there because things have totally changed, machine-wise, since I worked out there several summers ago.  I don't think I could work a single machine out there anymore since they've all been upgraded and are all computerized and the like.  I did jump in with a few stories, though, and showed him my old edgebander, the machine I was a pro on when I worked in the factory.  But, alas, my favourite machine is only used as a backup now.

After the shop tour, Jonathan and I made a quick trip back home to get his camera, which he had forgot to bring before.  Then we drove back to the shop and jumped into my dad's truck for the ride to the airport.  We parked near the north end of the runway where my dad's jointly-owned plane is kept, but when we tried to get through the gate, the lock combination number my dad had wouldn't work.  He said it must have been changed recently and he hadn't been given the new number.  After several failed attempts to use some small metal items as mirrors to reflect the new number, taped to the inside of the gate, back at us, I finally realized my hand was small enough to get through the chain link and managed to grasp the handle and open the door.  We walked inside the grounds and my dad unlocked the plane and started to do the walk-around.  Jonathan started taking pictures.  I stood around looking at all the wonderful planes, until I finally decided to help with the walk-around by checking the gas, which was a good clear colour.  Feeling like I had been a big help, I used the rest of the time to watch some jets take off and land, while Jonathan documented the same planes on memory card.  Then Gene, a guy who rents air time from my dad and the other owner of the plane, came to help my dad fly and we got set to take off.

Jonathan and I crawled in the back, but waited to put on our headsets until the engine was started.  We kept ourselves busy by watching more planes while Gene and my dad did the pre-flight checks.  Finally they radioed the tower and got clearance to taxi to the runway and soon we had taken off and were flying over town.  We headed north over Duck Lake and Woods Lake and then went east toward my uncle's cabin up in the mountains, which I tried to point out to Jonathan.  After that we flew a little to the south so we could get near Big White, a ski resort about 40 minutes from town.  We had to make sure that we stayed away from several weather areas, but for the most part it was easy to skirt around them.  We also managed to fly over McCullough Lake where we had been the afternoon and evening before.

Decked out with headsets

Then we set our course back to Kelowna and soon the tower was guiding us into a circuit to come in for landing.  My dad tried out the landing and got pretty close until the strong side wind discouraged him from staying in control.  He gave control to Gene, who, since he was in the copilot's seat, had to attempt the landing with his wrong hands on the throttle and yoke.  We bumped down pretty hard and Gene decided, in an instant, to take the plane back up and go around again to try another landing.  He pushed the throttle all the way in and we were back in the air.  The tower gave us new landing instructions and we went around in another circuit.  This time Gene was in control the whole time and he guided us in pretty good.  After we taxied back to the plane's parking spot and got out, Gene apologized for the hard landing the first time, but I thought it was fun so I hadn't minded a bit.  My dad and Gene pushed the plane back into place and Jonathan and I watched/took pictures of a few more planes before we left the airport.  I loved every second of the flight!  For some pics, see the album on Jonathan's Facebook profile.

After leaving the airport, we went home quickly and then went over to my grandparents house for a Friday night supper and a sundown worship where we all had to participate.  It was a good end to the day.

Back at school

This morning our alarms (all three of us set our cell phone alarms and then we got a wake-up call from the hotel as well) went off within five minutes of each other around 4 a.m. We finally got ourselves up and ready to head to the airport. While Bryn and Ty took showers I went downstairs to the hotel lobby to check-in all three of us online and print out boarding passes. It was nice there was a computer all set up to do that. Then we did a last minute sweep of our room before carting all of our bags/backpacks down to the lobby to catch our shuttle. Then we were on our way. The shuttle dropped us off close to our airline and then we had to take the elevator up to the skywalk and then take another one up to the ticketing level. Then we got in the line to just drop our bags off. I was really glad I had checked-in online earlier because it was a lot faster that way. We got through security without too much trouble. Then we left Bryn guarding all of our carry-ons while Ty and I walked to the food court area and ordered some more of that delicious pesto penne that we always get when we come through SEA-TAC. We brought the food back to where Bryn was sitting and ate as much as we could right there. Then we packed up the extras for the next time we would be hungry and took the train to the S terminal, found our gate and hung out until our flight boarded. We got more comments about all our instruments as we boarded the plane. Bryn and I sat together in the middle and aisle seats and Ty sat in the middle seat of the row behind us. I slept almost the entire flight. I did try to read more of my book, but I only got about 10 pages before I had to put it back down and continue sleeping. I'm SOO glad we had a nonstop flight straight from Seattle to Atlanta. I've never had that flight before, but it's sure nice. Connections just make air travel take a whole lot longer than it should. We got to Atlanta at 2:30 p.m., half an hour earlier than scheduled so that was nice. It didn't take too long to get our bags, but then we had a little difficulty finding where to get our shuttle to the car parking place. Finally Ty went back in the baggage claim area and found a sign so we followed him and made it back to our car fine. Then we had to load up the car, put our destination in our GPS and start the last part of the journey back to school. We got here just after 6 p.m.

After dropping Ty off at the dorm, Bryn and I went to the music building to put our violins away. Well, I put my violin away and Bryn met Emily, a current SM who was back for Christmas and wanted to use a violin for the evening before she had to fly back to Ukraine. Bryn let Emily use her violin and then we headed back to our place. Jonathan called just as we were leaving campus and wanted to come over and hang out so soon after we got to our apartment he came over. It was great to see him again. Then I had a shower and just when I finished Jonathan's grandma called and said they wanted us to come over for supper so we went over there and I met his aunt, uncle and little cousins. We stayed there visiting for a bit and then I came back here to write this before having to head out to pick up Stephen at Groome Transportation. He gets there around 1 a.m. so I'm really happy we don't have school tomorrow!

International flight

This morning I awoke to my mother shouting through my doorway, "Ali, come watch! Quick! Come now!" (I know that seems like a lot of exclamation marks, but that's how she said it.) I turned over and tried to ignore her, but then, when I couldn't get back to sleep, I thought I might as well go see what the fuss was about. Turns out she had found out how to stream GYC online and wanted me to watch it with her. So I found a blanket and sat there watching Mark Finley speak for church service at GYC in my pajamas. It was a rather nice way to start the Sabbath, actually. After the service was over my dad and Ty had already left for church and so my mum and I showered, got ready for the day, and then drove down to the hospital to have a little church service out our own with Auntie Beth. She hates being in the hospital so much and especially can't stand it on Sabbath when she knows everyone else is in church but she is still stuck in the hospital. We had a nice time with her and she really enjoyed it I think. Then we went home and I finished my packing and then helped my mum get raclette toppings ready for lunch while listening to the GYC music concert streaming online. The rest of our family and my grandparents came over when church was done and we had an awesome meal. It was even better than the first Q. raclette-making with the addition of several new toppings. My grandparents were a little astounded at the whole process at first, I think, but they both said they really liked the meal. Then we ate my grandma's apple crisp and some ice cream for dessert. I was stuffed. We said good-bye to my grandparents until graduation in April/May and then finalized our packing. I snuck in several more minutes of GYC-watching with my mum throughout the last few hours at home.

We said good-bye to my mum at home and then my dad took us to the airport. We got there pretty much exactly two hours before our flight was scheduled to leave. When we walked in the doors I saw a huge long line up stretching from the Horizon Airlines ticketing counter down the hallway almost all the way to baggage claim. (I will admit that our airport is pretty small so it wasn't the same distance as if that line had been in say SEA-TAC airport or something.) We got in line and a few minutes later a guy from Horizon came by to talk to us about what we were and weren't allowed onto the international flight down to Seattle now that there are new emergency security measures enacted for international flights into the U.S. He confirmed that we were allowed to bring musical instruments with us as carry-ons, but told us that the only way we could bring our laptops with us on the plane would be to hold them without any case or covering or anything at all other than just the laptop, not even our power cords. Finally we made it up to the ticket counter and got all our bags checked. We could check our backpacks for free since we weren't allowed to take them onto the plane, so that was nice, but I was still kind of worried about the stuff in my backpack getting wrecked and ruined by the baggage handlers. By the time we got to ticketing our flight had been delayed 15 minutes because the incoming flight from Seattle was late. Once we had our boarding passes, we walked down to security and then said bye to my dad. He told us to make sure to text him if our flight got delayed at all. If it got delayed too much he said he was going to just call off the flight and drive us down to Seattle himself. Getting through security was a breeze, but then we just had to sit in the departure lounge with nothing to do. Actually, correction. I had to sit in the departure lounge with nothing to do. Bryn and Ty had their iPods to play games on. I only had a stupid phone that doesn't do anything cool. Eventually I got a seat near the White Spot restaurant which had two TV's showing hockey games in their bar section. I mostly watched the Team U.S.A. vs. Team Finland quarter-final game, but when that game was in intermission I watched the first game of a double-header on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, which was Calgary vs. Toronto. I hate both those teams so the only reason I was hoping Toronto would win was so that Calgary, who is in Vancouver's division, wouldn't get any more points. By the time we actually got in line to board Team U.S.A. was up 2-0 on Finland in the second period and Calgary was about 2 minutes away from beating Toronto 2-1.

While we were waiting there our flight got delayed another 25 minutes. Bryn decided this delay gave her enough time to order some food to-go from White Spot so she got a menu and found food she wanted and ordered it. When the food came I went over to help her and Ty eat it. Ty ate the yam fries while Bryn and I shared a Caesar salad and then we all helped finish off our random meal with a brownie and ice cream dessert. It was delicious. A few minutes after we were done eating our flight was finally called for boarding. While we were in line, a family right in front of us asked Ty if he really knew how to play the ukelele (He was just carrying it without a case or anything and lots of people commented on it all evening.) He said he could, but when older daughter asked him to play something for her, he said he couldn't cause he was carrying his computer, too. She seemed a little disappointed. I think she thought he was cute. Then she said they were from Hawaii and so the ukelele got their attention right away. (Later on the dad asked Ty if we were in a band.) We went through the gate in groups of 20 and then walked to our plane. When we got right near the plane we had to line up with males on the right side of the hallway and females on the left side. Then one by one, each person had to go to a security person and get patted down and thoroughly searched. They even searched through our carry-ons/personal possessions we were taking onto the flight. Then men got searched right there at the end of the hallway we were all lined up in and the women were around the corner right before getting onto the plane. Finally all of us passengers were completely searched and deemed safe for flight. We all sat around on the plane for at least half an hour with absolutely nothing being done. It was simply fabulous (and that was a highly sarcastic comment). The flight attendants kept saying that we'd get going in a few minutes, which was a gigantic lie. Finally the captain told us we were going to leave and then turned the propellers on just before 8 p.m. (our flight was originally supposed to leave at 6:35) and soon after that we were actually in the air. Bryn slept leaning against my back pretty much the entire flight while I stared out the window for any sign that we were coming into Seattle. After what seemed like hours, but was really only about 30 minutes, the clouds thinned out and I saw sprinklings of lights. Once we got near the town I searched for I5 and then followed that right through the city and picking out the Seattle Space Needle from the air. A couple minutes after flying over downtown, we were on the ground at SEA-TAC. Then we had to go through immigration, which took a little bit longer for me because I had to fill out a form for a new F1 visa. (I got a new passport this summer and when I drove across the border going to school in August the border official said I didn't need a new form or a stamp in my new passport, but this immigration officer didn't agree with that. It didn't take long to complete though and by the time I rejoined Bryn and Ty they hadn't even found any of our luggage yet, so it was fine. I thought it was interesting that the immigration officer asked me what instrument I played after seeing my violin case. When I told him violin he said, "And piano too right?" I looked at him in astonishment and said yes. Then he said his two daughters play violin and piano.) Then we got our luggage and went through customs, then put our luggage on another conveyor belt that sent our bags to the normal baggage claim out in the main part of the airport. We took the train and beat our luggage to the baggage claim so I left my carry-on stuff with Bryn and Ty and ran up to ticketing to make sure we would be allowed to each bring two carry-ons on our flight tomorrow. The lady there said everything was normal with carry-ons on domestic flights so I ran back down to baggage. By the time I got back Bryn and Ty had our bags and then we just had to get out to Parking and find the courtesy phones to call for a shuttle to our hotel. Now we're here. We rearranged items so that we had just the things we wanted to take on the flight tomorrow in our carry-ons and now we're just checking our e-mail and stuff before going to sleep. Tomorrow's going to come super early so I'm signing off for now. Write to you all again back at school!

Gogo Inflight Internet

At this moment I am blogging from the skies. Yes, that's right. I'm trying out Gogo Inflight Internet. So far I'm quite impressed with it. Seeing how I didn't actually get to bed last night, I was planning to sleep through this entire flight from Atlanta to Minneapolis, but the idea of writing a blog post from the air was too enticing an opportunity to pass up. So here I am. Blogging in a plane. (Try singing that to the chorus of "Woke up in a Car." It works quite nicely.)

Anyway, like I said, I didn't go to sleep last night. Instead I spent some pre-break quality time with Jonathan and then spent the last few hours before leaving for the airport packing, doing last-minute cleaning, checking in to our flights online and, subsequently, wrestling with Bryn's printer to print out boarding passes, flight itineraries and directions to the car-park place. It was exciting to get all that done in two hours, but somehow we did it, all while managing to keep our checked luggage to one bag apiece, each less than 50 lbs. Then Bryn and I drove to the dorm to pick up Tyler and Stephen. We let them try to rearrange the bags so that they'd all fit into the trunk, but eventually we had to agree that Ty's bag just wouldn't be able to stay in the trunk. So Bryn and I set it between us on the middle of the back seat. About halfway through the drive south we realized that was a mistake, since we couldn't sleep on each other's shoulders, so I managed to scoot around the suitcase and then shove it to the right side so I could sit in the middle next to Bryn. We were a lot more comfortable and a lot warmer after that.

We got to the car-park place around 5:45 a.m. and took a shuttle to the airport. Since we were already checked in, it was easy for us to check our baggage right where the shuttle dropped us off. Then we just made our way through the very short lines at security and took the train to our terminal. It was definitely the easiest traveling experience I've had at Atlanta airport in my life. Usually Atlanta airport hates me and everything goes wrong when I travel to/from there, but today things were great. The only annoying thing was that it was cold enough that our plane had to be de-iced before we took off, but it didn't take all that long. So that's our travel history from 3:30 a.m. up to now. Hope you enjoyed. I might add more to this post throughout the day. Next stop, Minneapolis!

Update: Now I'm sitting at the far end of the C terminal in Seattle. The rest of the trip to Minneapolis was fine. When we de-boarded there our next gate was right across the hall so we didn't have far to walk at all. Then I tried to find an outlet to plug in my computer and recharge it, but sadly didn't see even one. Meanwhile, Ty had found something odd printed on his boarding pass so went to ask the lady at the gate podium. She said for him to bring all of our boarding passes up there so Ty did and she called some people and did some stuff and got us all new boarding passes. Then just a few minutes later the lady came on the loudspeaker and said that our flight was changing gates. So we packed up and went over to G terminal and settled in there. I found an outlet in a McDonald's and charged up my phone until we boarded about half an hour late. Our new plane was an Airbus 330, which was amazing to travel on. The captain got on the speaker and said that we were lucky because that plane isn't used for domestic flights, only for trans-oceanic flights. It was really nice and comfy and roomy so I was happy about that. And plus, because we were in a bigger plane than we were going to be in, there were extra seats and the seat beside me was empty. So the three of us had all four middle seats to spread out on. Each seat also had a TV screen, like on overseas flights so I spent the last part of the flight watching "The Time Traveler's Wife." It's kind of a weird movie, but it got stopped just before I was done cause we were getting close to Seattle, so I guess I'll have to find it somewhere and finish it.

We got in to Seattle about 12 minutes earlier than we were supposed to originally, which was surprising considering we left Minneapolis half an hour late. We got off at the S terminal, which is the one we always fly in to. Then we had to take the train back to the main terminal and to get our luggage. Once we finally found all three bags we walked all the way to ticketing and then to the very end where Alaska/Horizon is. We tried checking in with the booth things, but they kept saying there were errors so we just went to the desk and it was way faster since there wasn't anyone else in front of us. Then we went through security. It was pretty quick, at least for Seattle, which has some of the most strict security rules of any airport I've been to in North America. After that we were pretty much right around the corner from our gate so we took the time to eat at our favourite pasta place in the world. We all got pesto penne and it was delicious. I finally got my computer working with the new wireless they now have at SEA-TAC and then we headed over to our gate. There were absolutely no plug-ins though so I wandered around the terminal with my almost-dead laptop in hand until I finally found a place at the very end of the terminal that had an outlet that wasn't being used. Yay, my computer is almost all charged up now so I should head back to our gate for boarding. Then just a 50-minute flight and I'll be home. Oh and going through customs, but that doesn't take long at our airport. Talk to you next from BC!