Journey to Honolulu

I woke up at 4:00am and caught a taxi to the airport 30 minutes later. At 7:00am I was on my way down to Los Angeles. It was a small Canadair plane and was barely 1/3 full.

This is the famous "Theme Building" at LAX. I seem to recall that Cindy Crawford's husband operates the restaurant in it.

For those that can't wait to get the latest electronic gadget, Best Buy comes through with this vending machine:

The airplane to Honolulu was a large 767-400 and was absolutely packed! It was a perfect day with blue skies and puffy white clouds.
As we were landing I captured this photo. From Right to Left is: Diamond Head, Waikiki, and Honolulu.
The weather was windy but otherwise sunny & warm. It was great to be back in Paradise!
This is the famous Ilikai Hotel, which appeared numerous times in Hawaii Five-O.
After checking in, I immediately headed over to the Pagoda Restaurant, where I met up with Ayuri and her mom, Takako, from Osaka, Japan. Ayuri and her husband, Hiro, are fellow Virtual Tourist (VT) members.
Also joining us was a gentleman named Eli, who was a local VT member.

Breaking News: U.S. Airways Jet Crashes in Hudson River

U.S. Airways Flight 1549 crashed earlier today in the Hudson River next to New York City after birds struck both of its engines. But miraculously, all 155 people onboard survived! This included 150 passengers and 5 crew members. The plane was headed to Charlotte, North Carolina.





It reportedly hit the water in between 42nd Street in NYC and Weehawken, NJ. Then it began floating south down the Hudson River.

Here's the flight tracking info:

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Update: More Video & Photos:




Pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger is the key man who saved the day:

But also deserving much credit is the co-pilot, Jeffrey Skiles. I can't find a photo of him as of yet.

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Update #2

New video of the entire event can be found here.

Trip Photos: Seattle & Ft. Worth

I'm long behind in posting photos from my trip. I'm going to catch up now!

SeaTac Airport



Fort Worth, Texas
We went to a restaurant called Joe T. Garcia's. From the outside it looks like a simple little place but it has got to be the LARGEST restaurant I've ever been to!

It's like a collection of indoor and outdoor eating venues, each very different in appearance. The food was quite basic but was decent Mexican food. I got the sense that most people go here for the atmosphere, which was grand.
The cutest baby we met on our trip!
After dinner we drove a few blocks over to the Ft. Worth Rodeo. It's held every Friday & Saturday evening and is billed as the largest indoor rodeo in the U.S.



Here's a father & daughter enjoying the show.
The woman on the left was quite the character. She was clearly "under the influence" but was a happy drunk, providing an additional show to the audience nearby!

Blue Angels Redux

My friend just uploaded the remainder of the Blue Angels photos. These were taken on August 2, 2008 by my friend, Danny. You can view the full set here.

Skydiving

Danny went skydiving today and I can't deny that I was more than a little worried. But all turned out okay. I put together this video as a little present to his mother, Laura.

Seattle Visit: Day 6

What a fantastic final day we had in Seattle! We picked up Hannah and headed to Chinatown. She selected Shanghai Gardens, a restaurant she was familiar with. The food was very good.
Then we drove to the south end of Seattle to visit The Museum of Flight. This is another one of those places that I should have visited years, if not decades, ago but never did.

The museum is mostly about aviation but a portion of it is devoted to aeronautics. This was apparently a real satellite that came back to earth and was recovered.

The Great Gallery was by far my favourite part of the entire museum. It's incredibly amazing to see so many beautiful planes so close up.






There were two simulators. Danny & Hannah tried the one which allowed them to actually control it.



The "Red Barn" contains artifacts documenting the origins of airplane building, especially in regard to Boeing.
It's pretty amazing to learn that in the early part of the 20th Century the planes were mostly made out of wood!

This is a fascinating map which you may choose to enlarge.

Here's a shot of early air travel. Note how formally dressed each passenger is. The look on the face of the 2nd passenger on the right is priceless!
The Blue Angels, performing in Seattle in the previous days, were parked just south of the museum.
I'd long been curious about the Concorde and was gratified to find out that the museum had one! Inside though, it pretty much looks like a normal plane.
This is the Air Force One plane that flew through the 1960's.
Mr. Danny, near the President's desk.



These wee ones seemed to be having a fabulous day there!
Returning to Hannah's grandparents home, we found Winston, their greyhound. A gentler dog I have never met.
Ready, willing, and able for a water fun fight!
I took a series of photos to capture the amazing panorama that is downtown Seattle. Unfortunately I didn't have my tripod so the pictures didn't line up very well.
Danny and I finally left Seattle around 8:45pm that night. With little traffic, we made it back to my place in 2.5 hours, which included a 10 minute stop at a gas station and at the border. Being away for more than 48 hours I could legally bring back 24 bottles of beer duty-free, which you can see I clearly did. If you look carefully, you'll notice that I much prefer the darker beers!