Thursday evening, July 24, 2008 – Fernandina Beach

We are back in Florida after a wonderful visit to the northwest and the trip from purgatory on our way home. Many would refer to it as a trip from hell, but since we got home safely (with our luggage), the trip was merely unpleasant, not terrifying (or worse).

Our flight from Seattle departed at 07:00 a.m. meaning we were at the airport at 5:00 a.m. (rising at 4:15 a.m.). The two-hour wait wasn’t so bad. The view on Mt. Rainier on the way out was spectacular – disappointed that I didn’t have a window seat for the photo op. The jet-stream was with us; the 5 hour flight to Seattle from Atlanta took only 4 hours and 20 minutes. Bumpy at times. We arrived in Atlanta at around 2:30 p.m. The connecting flight to JAX was scheduled to depart at 5:50 p.m. A 3 hour layover isn’t too bad in this day and age. But a thunderstorm moved in and the airport closed down for almost 4 hours. We finally took off at 10:30 p.m. This included a aircraft malfunction light that required taxiing out, taxiing back, and taxiing out again. We arrived home at 11:55 p.m. Safe but tired.

Carol (our daughter) had a wonderful experience at the Writer’s Conference. Plus we had two days of exploring Seattle and environs. The weather was cloudy / overcast in the a.m. but cleared shortly after noon. We had a great time. Carol had contacted the folks at the Pike’s Public Market in Seattle for a ghost tour Sunday evening. Monday, we did a quick visit to Gig Harbor and a ride on the Bremerton – Seattle ferry. Carol and Margaret visited the Mysterious Places in Seattle Museum in the University district. Carol has lots of new material to write about back in Los Angeles.

It’s hard to believe that we’ll be leaving in 17 days for our RV outing to Vermont. We just learned that our friends, Kathy and Gary, will be in Fernandina Beach the 8th of August for a short visit. Kathy and Gary were the Maid of Honor and Best Man at our wedding – 45 years ago (the 27th). They married a year after our wedding. We’re looking forward to seeing them both.

Both photos today are from down-town Seattle. I bought a new camera – the Canon G9 - during the trip and had fun trying it out in a city environment. Although I like my DSLR (Canon 5D), it’s nice to carry a point-&-shoot for wandering around.