Purple Mountain Majesties
Berck had four days off in a row, which rarely happens. My employers were going to be gone to his mother's funeral, so I wouldn't be missed. I arranged for the animals to be fed and took time off.
Next was to figure out where to go. I was looking at a map of the US thinking that I'd seen pretty much everything I wanted to see...except for one place (excepting Alaska...I'd rather visit in the summer). The big island of Hawaii!
Our current flight benefits are pretty sweet. We can fly on any Delta, United, or US Airways flight within the US for free. On Delta we can even fly in first class for free. Berck can also fly on ANY airline flight for free, while I can fly on other carriers for about $32, which really comes in handy when we get stuck somewhere. Of course, there has to be room on the flight, and we're usually at the bottom of list of standbys, only above buddy passers.
So Berck checked, and there was plenty of room on a United flight from Denver to San Francisco and then on to Kona, Hawaii. When you fly standby, it's risky to make plans ahead of time, but I went ahead and bought a guidebook for the island of Hawaii, often called The Big Island.
The night before we left, the flight to San Francisco was suddenly oversold with dozens of standbys ahead of us. The flight from there to Kona was virtually empty, but everyone in Denver wanted to get to San Fran for some reason that day. Fortunately, Berck was able to find a flight from LAX for us. It left only half an hour before a flight to Kona, so if anything went wrong, we would have to wait four hours until a Delta flight got left.
We got up at 4:25 a.m. and left for Denver. Berck has employee parking privileges now, so we can park in the employee lot for free. We got to our gate right as they were finishing boarding but with just enough time for me to go to the bathroom on the plane before we took off. We were seated in an exit row by ourselves. You know who gets to sit in exit rows? Us. We watched half a movie on one of our laptops and then it was time to land.
Here's a picture of the beautiful mountains we flew over. We also flew over amazing landscapes in Utah. The view is much more interesting flying west than it is east.
Next was to figure out where to go. I was looking at a map of the US thinking that I'd seen pretty much everything I wanted to see...except for one place (excepting Alaska...I'd rather visit in the summer). The big island of Hawaii!
Our current flight benefits are pretty sweet. We can fly on any Delta, United, or US Airways flight within the US for free. On Delta we can even fly in first class for free. Berck can also fly on ANY airline flight for free, while I can fly on other carriers for about $32, which really comes in handy when we get stuck somewhere. Of course, there has to be room on the flight, and we're usually at the bottom of list of standbys, only above buddy passers.
So Berck checked, and there was plenty of room on a United flight from Denver to San Francisco and then on to Kona, Hawaii. When you fly standby, it's risky to make plans ahead of time, but I went ahead and bought a guidebook for the island of Hawaii, often called The Big Island.
The night before we left, the flight to San Francisco was suddenly oversold with dozens of standbys ahead of us. The flight from there to Kona was virtually empty, but everyone in Denver wanted to get to San Fran for some reason that day. Fortunately, Berck was able to find a flight from LAX for us. It left only half an hour before a flight to Kona, so if anything went wrong, we would have to wait four hours until a Delta flight got left.
We got up at 4:25 a.m. and left for Denver. Berck has employee parking privileges now, so we can park in the employee lot for free. We got to our gate right as they were finishing boarding but with just enough time for me to go to the bathroom on the plane before we took off. We were seated in an exit row by ourselves. You know who gets to sit in exit rows? Us. We watched half a movie on one of our laptops and then it was time to land.
Here's a picture of the beautiful mountains we flew over. We also flew over amazing landscapes in Utah. The view is much more interesting flying west than it is east.