On Thursday I started my journey to Seattle from Van Nuys. Victor dropped me off at the Van Nuys flyaway. Curiously they only accepted credit cards for payment. To my surprise the buses were actually charter buses and not city buses. 45 minutes later I was at LAX. A few hours later I was sitting in the waiting area for my flight when the pilot came out and asked us if we “had any questions.” This was my first time flying Virgin America and they do some things to set themselves apart. The interior is a little different (you can see that above) and having entertainment systems is nice. The safety video is very “modern” and even sarcastic and their “gogo wifi” intro has an animated Richard Branson making a “mile high club” joke.
The wifi through the entertainment system didn’t work of course, giving you a “this feature is not available, please try on your next flight” message. I have no idea if actual laptops had any better luck.
When I first sat down in my seat (by the window) there was a little girl at the end of my row. She was looking around, sneezing and sniffling. Apparently her parents were nowhere around and other passengers kept giving me weird looks trying to figure out if this was my daughter. “Great” I thought, “she’s just hanging out next to me long enough for me to catch her cold, then her parents will come get her.”
If only I was so lucky.
Her mother eventually showed up with an even younger girl (in a diaper) and they all sat down next to me. For the duration of the entire flight the mother and daughter struggled to keep their Tasmanian devil under control. This little (toddler?) girl was punching and kicking everything around her. The unfortunate fellow in the seat in front of them kept turning around and voicing his displeasure, but when the little girl was held tight she’d just resort to screaming at the top of her lungs, which annoyed everyone on the entire plane instead of just me and the guy in front of us. At one point the mother just gave up and let the little girl run up and down the aisle, until not one, but two stewardesses had to restrain her. When it was time for the free drinks there was quite a comical moment as the stewardess reached my drink out and we had to arc over the little girls hand trying with all her might to grab it, and I sure as hell wasn’t putting my drink on the little tray. Mom’s coffee was spilled by her daughter not once, not twice, but three times.
I tried to drown out all this “courtney… courtney!…COURTNEY!… COURTNEY, NO! COURTNEY STOP! COU-” by listening to the music on the entertainment system. They had a strange mix of tunes ranging from Britney Spears to Sigur Ros. I also watched some tv on a channel called boingboing that featured art and music. One interview was with Les Claypool.
Eventually I was off the plane and Byron met me at the airport. We took a city bus to Tukwilla where we boarded the light rail into downtown (Seattle will have direct rail to the airport in December).
After walking up to his Capital Hill apartment to dump my stuff we proceeded to Honey Hole for some great sandwiches before walking back downtown to the pier.
