6/13/2011 Welcome to Greenville SC

What a great little airport! This is my first time to fly to Greenville . . . it may even be the first time I've been to Greenville. I know I came to SC in 1964 when our family took a 6-week trip to the New York World's Fair (and a lot of other places along the way) and I went to a conference in Charleston for SITE for work in 2010, but I don't think I've been to Greenville. You know you're in a small airport when there are only two baggage carousels. :-) But it's a beautiful airport and you know instantly you are in the south. Look how gorgeous, lush, and green everything is out the big window. What a great first sight of the city.

When you get outside, you discover it's not a facade, it really is that beautiful here. On the left, you can see that big "picture window" from the outside.

6/13/2011 Bonus!

I love the new version of Houston's airport! It has 3 Pappa's restaurants: Pappa's Burgers, Pappadeaux (Cajun / seafood), and Pappasito's--best Tex-Mex ever! I ate at Pappasito's when I was in Dallas (I try to always get in at least one meal there) but didn't know I'd get another chance to eat Tex-Mex on this trip. Mother made a bologna sandwich for me to have for lunch on my flight but it just became dinner. I had a delicious quesadilla with 3 cheeses and steak fajita meat (with sour cream and salsa). Oh yum!!!

6/13/2011 Who knew?

Well, obviously lots of people knew, but not me. (I probably got an email from SWA about it, but it didn't mean anything to me at the time.) So, in a sense, I just found out when I got this napkin with my glass of water that SWA just started flying to Greenville Spartanburg on March 13. Just in time!!

6/13/2011 Happy Birthday Southwest

Even though the official 40th birthday of Southwest Airlines isn't until the 18th, gates at the Houston airport were already decorated for the occasion.

At Gate 45, they had party store 40th birthday decorations.


Gates 41 and 42 had posters from 1971 and the early years including stewardesses (that's what they were called then) in orange hot pants and white boots.

Gate 40 (how appropriate) had these big cut outs showing the change in colors of SWA's planes over time. There was an artist at work at this gate!

This balloon sculpture was in the middle of the concourse. There are L O V E balloons on the top with 4 0 balloons under that along with all the hearts.

6/13/2011 KMOve

My sister, KMO, is moving . . . moving on to a third career after retiring first from the Navy and then from EDS (now HP) . . . and moving from Richmond, VA after 15 years to Austin, TX. And I helped! She asked me to help her drive the 22-foot U-Haul with the car in tow.

So here I am in Greenville, SC at the Holiday Inn--our rendezvous point. She's on the road, driving the first 7 hours on her own. (Greenville is a Southwest Airlines city and on the route from Richmond to Austin . . . cheaper and easier than rendezvousing in Richmond.) Mindy, the Wonder Pup, is with her. The three of us will share the bench seat in the front of the diesel truck for 16 hours of driving.I don't know yet how many days we will take. In fact, I'm not even sure what route we will take!

Our cousin texted KMO last week, "You and Thelma be careful on the road!" That makes her Louise.

So here's to the adventure!

4/4/2010 Portland OR -- last day already!

Easter sunrise out my window at Dain and Sara's. And yes, that's Mount Hood in the far distance. You know it's going to be a great day when you can see Mount Hood in the morning.

Early Easter service at The Village church where Dain and Sara attend. There's a small live orchestra on the left and a big choir on the right. We opened with The Hallelujah Chorus and Jesus Christ is Risen Today. It was the Easter Hit Parade as far as I was concerned.

Sadly, 43 hours can whip by awfully quickly. It was an awesome Easter but waaaaaaaay too short. Suddenly, I'm already in Midway Airport in Chicago changing planes on the way back to Boston. Gotta teach 3 classes on Monday.

This is my favorite food to get at Midway for breakfast at a cute little Greek food stand.

But this time I went for a Potbelly sandwich.

I got into Logan Airport a little after midnight and sat in the terminal until 5:30am when I went outside to wait for the 5:50 Concord bus to Portland. It was a 2-hour bus ride in a very nice bus with free wifi. I liked that part. :-) I found my car in the Portland bus station parking lot (thank you, Grace!!), drove to Farmington, took a shower, and had a very long day teaching three classes from noon to 7:30pm. A long day but some awesome memories of Easter 2010.

4/3/2010 Portland OR

In a spontaneous decision that even surprised me, I decided that since I was already on the west coast (I was in San Diego for a conference), I should just scoot up to Oregon and spend Easter there. I was only there for 43 hours, but it was a blast! I arrived on Friday late afternoon. We went to the grocery store and cooked dinner at Dain and Sara's house. Karen gave us her grilled asparagus recipe over the phone. It was delicious.

Saturday, we went into the city on the MAX rail (after a U-turn trip back to the house). We went to the mall and waited in line to see the iPad . . . 'cuz you gotta go the first day, right?!

Look! They even have a cart of free treats for those of us waiting in line for our turn.

At last we got our hands on the iPad. Of course, the photo of me is perfectly framed 'cuz you-know-who took it. I get all the good breaks. ;-)

We had a blast and we were glad we got to see it and touch it and feel it, but neither of us bought one that day nor did we really have the desire. Between our MacBook laptops and our iPhones, we're set. . . . for now.

Here you go Dr. Mari! Moonstruck is a chocolate shop in town (they have outlets at the airport, too). Those are little chocolate cows in the photo so of course the theme is "moooooonstruck".