My Photo Delayed Our Flight

 We always board the plane early. Beth moves slowly, she can be unsteady on her feet, and she always stops at the end of the ramp and hesitates to step off the ramp and onto the plane... we've found it's easier for her if we just get on early. I get the window seat, Beth prefers to be between us and Chuck likes the aisle.

 

On our flight to Anaheim we got settled in our seats here in Seattle and I looked out the window. I usually take a few pictures of the airport, just as a starting point to our trip. Plus it helps me find the pictures faster when I'm scrolling through my phone later on. But this time something caught my eye.

 

You know how you have that debate in your head? That's what I did:

"That's not right, maybe I should take a picture." 

"No, no. I'm sure they know about it."

"I don't know, I think I should show it to someone."

 

I wouldn't say I'm a frequent flyer but I've flown enough to know that's not how the wing is supposed to look. So I took a picture. Now the flight attendants are helping people with their luggage, answering questions, so I waited until one was just walking through and asked her, "Is this normal?" I don't know why I asked it that way. I knew it wasn't normal, but we were getting close to departure and I think I was just starting to get nervous.

 

 

She looked very surprised and headed to the front of the plane. She came back a few minutes later and asked if she could take a picture of my picture. Then headed back to the front.

By now everyone is on board and we're just waiting. Then the pilot comes back to our seats and asks if he could take a look himself. We get up and he looks out the window. He looked right at me and thanked me for telling them about it.

 

We settle back in our seats and I see the pilot outside looking at the wing. Different people are coming to look at it and by now other passengers have started taking pictures of whats going on.

 

 

A few minutes later he comes back to our seats and says everything's okay. "Can you see how clean the cut is? The maintenance team did that. It happened a few weeks ago so it wasn't on the current maintenance record that I reviewed today, so I was a little shocked to see your picture. But they know about it and the plane's been flying with it that way. They're planning to replace the flap soon when the plane goes into the hanger for a complete overhaul. But thank you for bringing it to my attention!"

 

He headed back to the cockpit, and made a short announcement about it over the intercom. Even though we took off a little late, we had a very nice flight to LAX. 
 

Just Beginning

I decided I was going to sit down and write about our trip so I got my phone and uploaded a few photos. Hahahaha!! More than 250 pictures later... I figured I should probably just start writing! 😂

There were so many surprises.

So many beautiful moments.

The flight down... the views were spectacular. 

 Exploring the resort was so fun and sometimes took my breath away!

 We celebrated Chuck's birthday while we were there. Restaurants were open and we found one that served steak, his favorite! Plus Diana had some cheesecake delivered to our room.

 Sunset Cliffs! We hadn't been there in forever and while I was walking around I came across this arch. It was beautiful!

There's so much more but I'm going to stop for tonight. 

As I type this the snow is falling. We're expecting anywhere from 3-8 inches tonight, it all depends on if the storm stalls over us or if the winds pick up... so I'll be awake most of the night, getting out of bed every so often to look out the window. I absolutely love the snow! As long as I don't have to drive in it. Which unfortunately is exactly what Chuck is doing right now. Driving a large city bus. Until 12:30am. 😬 Every time I look outside I pray for him. And you can bet I'm looking outside a lot!

Have you flown anywhere lately?

Do you like to fly?

Are you getting snow this weekend?

Snowmagedden

You may have seen the meme about all the snow Seattle got last week. Too funny!

I know for some parts of the country what we got was nuthin' but for Seattle, this was more snow than we'd seen in 23 years.

My flight home from San Diego was canceled on Monday due to the snow and they automatically rescheduled me for a flight early Tuesday morning. I thought it was awesome because I didn't have to do a thing. On Sunday afternoon I got a text that said, "Flight 111 is canceled and now you're on Flight 222." It was great!

As soon as we broke through the clouds descending into Seattle, everything was covered with snow!

I absolutely love the snow, this was so beautiful!

 The roads were clear but even today, there is snow piled up in parking lots, in everyone's yards... Like I said, we don't normally get snow like this. Usually it'll snow for a day or two and we'll get a couple inches, but then it melts right away and there's no issues with traffic or blocking roads or anything. 

But not this time!

It snowed a few inches a couple weeks ago and I took these pictures of Allie in our backyard before I went to San Diego. Chuck said while I was gone we got another 6-7 inches.

Three days after I got home Beth and I went to the grocery store. She helped me brush the snow off my car and bring in the groceries.

(You can't even see her feet! Remember those snow boots we bought a few months ago? I'm so glad we got them!)

Unfortunately it looks like we're done with snow for this year. We might see some snow fall but no accumulation. Last night I sat out in the backyard with some hot tea and watched the sun go down behind the trees that are on the hill behind our house. 

And I smiled because our backyard is still filled with snow!

Do you like the snow? 

When is the last time you got more snow than usual?

Pickleweed

My dad is 91. I was talking to my sisters on the phone a couple months ago and they suggested I come to visit... sooner than later. Not that my dad is in bad health, but he is getting older. So I talked to Chuck and we looked at the budget and found we had some extra money so I bought a round trip ticket! I got it on-line and printed it at work and found I had a Precheck ticket which means I didn't have to take off my shoes or open my suitcase, just cruised right on through security!

I'm usually so nervous when I fly alone (I've only flown two other times by myself) but this time I was so excited! I usually want someone to come in with me and make sure I get through security okay (I'm a wimp, I know) but this time I told Chuck he could just drop me off. I walked slowly through the airport and just took in all the sights and sounds. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face! Got a window seat - my favorite! - and there was no one in the middle seat. I love aerial photography and the only down side was the window was incredibly dirty. But I could live with that. I was humbled at God's provision.

Mount Rainier

Mount St. Helens. 

You can tell it's Mount St Helens because it doesn't have any peaks.

It's more of a rounded top.

I don't know where we were at this point but this lake shows signs of drought.

Crossing from the mountains to the desert.

 Torrey Pines Golf Course

Coming in to San Diego!

The Coronado Bay Bridge

My plan on this trip was to spend one-on-one time with my dad and each of my two sisters. We usually tell all our friends that we're coming into town but this time I didn't. I wished I could have seen them (I was born and raised in San Diego) but I really needed to focus on my family this time and it turned out to be one of the best vacations I've ever had.

You know when you go somewhere with your family, you try to make sure they're doing what they want while trying to meet the needs of extended family and friends. It can be exhausting! But this time it was only me. It was so different. I was free to just go and do.

The first day was with Deb. She works at a ranch with miniature horses, goats, sheep, tortoises, peacocks... it was amazing! We made sure everyone had fresh water and she gave her own horse some oats. I got to ride in a golf cart! :)

This miniature horses' eyes were so beautiful!

And miniature donkeys...

This mama had just given birth that week. The baby was about the size of a small dog!

There were two tortoises and they were huge!

 

My sisters horse

White peacocks. I don't think I've ever seen a white one before!

We were being watched the whole time!

My sister has a menagerie of her own at home. Her German Shepherd Nala would randomly walk into the kitchen and stare at the floor. My sister would then grab the pointer and Nala would go crazy! Leaping in the air and trying to jump on the little red dot! Such a funny dog!

 

 She also has a chihuahua that sleeps in a side table.

 

And a tiny tortoise, a baby from the two at the ranch.

 

(I have so much more to tell you but this post is taking a lot longer than I expected, so I'll have to finish this another time. 

If you don't know what pickleweed is, stayed tuned!)