Woke up now yesterday morning Sydney time (GMT+10hrs) feeling great, sunny day the
beach was just glassy and really blue. What a day I thoughtall perfect. 🙂
Upon checking into Sydney Airport for the flight, the check-in lady mentioned extra
forms and electronic visa waivers that needed to be done (nothing that 5 mins online
didn’t fix – but I still had to fill out all usual visa paperwork as per normal –
so I’m questioning the value of my electronic visa waiver)
Before long I had met up with the usual suspects of Guy Riddel, Adam Cogan and new
kid on the block Alessandro (from Brazil – Hyper-V MVP) at the boarding gate. Adam
– just made it as he was late (I can’t print the *reason* why he
was late – but let’s just say it was a unique situation); Guy pulled out the ’I’m
going Business boys’ see you at the other end after a sleep, massage and personal
chef
We were getting ready to go when the plane needed some battery replaced and the recharger
– few of use had AA batteries and could find a charger from somewherebut 1.5hrs later
the real guys had done the real thing.
We’re off!
14hrs later we touch down into San Franciso (beautiful place) and Adam didn’t clear
customs as ’gracefully’ as the rest of us, but none the less he made it.
We picked up our baggage, dropped it off for the domestic flight and proceeded to
the Alaskian domestic gate – Adam didn’t pass security as he was carrying 3 bottles
of water and a Qantas wine bottle. After drinking the 3 bottles in front of the security
official they let him carry on the wine (Adam liked the bottle)
So far all good
We were about to board the 12.30pm Alaska Air flight straight to Seattle – 90 mins
away from finish, a rest, shower and a bit of time to walk about Seattle.
The flight had a “Maintenance problem” which they were “fixing”2 hrs later still
nothing.
I made an executive decision to try and get to Seattle either a) road trip, hire a
van and we all hop in; b) cycle; c) catch another flightwe took c) – a flight to
Portland (I later found out there’s 2 Portland’s in the States!!! One is about an
18hr round trip flight – we got the other)
Portland we were headed – it was a rush and we just squeezed in the door with something
that resembled a boarding pass (some of us had one, Adam had none and I had a boarding
pass for the 2nd half of the flight Portland -> Seattle at a much later time) –
we sorted all that out at Portland.
Finally landed in Seattle after taking another plane with propellers (like the planes
that go Syd<->Canberra) and Adam was moaning at me as he’s scared of flying
and I was forcing him into another take-off and landing.
Meanwhile our original plane in San Fran was still on the tarmac doing not much at
all.
We finally arrived in Seattle at around 5pm – mission accomplished
or so we thought
Our luggage was sitting there getting dizzy – so now the big question is – Where is
it?
It’s now 11pm and no sign, don’t think she’s coming tonight and you may see me in
shirts that say “I love Seattle” or “Save the Super Sonics” you’ll know why 🙂
I just caught up with some of the BizTalk MVP Crew and it was great to see familiar
faces after a while.
My brain is fried and I’ve decided to hit the hay.
It’s good night from Me.