Travel Diary

It had been too long…

Several years had passed since we all met up, so when Kalaine emailed suggesting we hang out again, I was all in. Of course it would be a little more difficult as I now lived in a different state, but that was nothing a plane flight could not fix.

Cash or Miles

There were options to get down there. I even pondered driving, though that would mean two days lost in being on the road, so not ideal. I also thought about renting a car, but I hate not knowing the total costs when doing that and the insurance is always a mess. In the end, it was best to fly down and stay for one night. I had over a million miles, so I put some of those to work. Thus, the flight was free for once. Nice. I just wouldn’t receive any miles.

So Early

While it was a 10am flight, I did have to plan carefully. It meant getting up at 7am and leaving at 7:30am. I decided to drive since the parking garage fees would not be too bad for just one day. Uber and Lyft were about $70 each way. Yeah. Insane. I also didn’t want to sit on the train for long periods. It was fun being in my own car once again and driving up to the top of the garage. Plenty of spaces on that level. I wasn’t sure if I’d be charged for two days since I would be there 25 hours, but in the end, they just charge $8 an hour and cap at $37 per day, so $45 today when I left.

Flight

I got upgraded to first class so I knew I’d have a good seat, but I also was in the first row, so that meant needing to board early and get overhead space. That was fine. I had a window seat as well. No meal was served, but I got a scotch on the rocks and nursed that for a while. The flight was fast, and soon, the climate was nice and warm once again. Skies were even blue. We landed in Sacramento.

No Charging

I packed light, though maybe too light. I didn't take a charging cable to plug in my phone into USB-2 or an outlet. I figured I would not need it, but it was losing battery fairly fast. Strange. I at least had one full charge ready from my backup battery though. That was reassuring. I didn’t want to have to buy a new cable. Such a waste of money doing that (again).

No Contacts

Okay, this wasn’t good. My phone didn’t sync with my laptop at home, so I didn’t have my most recent notes. This meant I had no phone numbers of the others, and I didn’t have the address of where to meet. Argh. I guess I should have checked this before leaving. I just had a Lyft driver take me to Old Sacramento. I’d figure out the rest once I got there.

Luckily, I found an email of the online thread we all had been using, so I had the address. Hurrah!

Old Sacramento

The area was nice. I had last been in 2006 or so, and wow. So much time had passed. But it’s a fun area with an old west feeling in many places. Some of it reminded me of a carnival. The warm sun was also so welcome. I walked around and took photos, enjoying how June weather should be.

British Pub

Ah, the meeting place. This was a nice pub on Second Street called the Bear and Crown, and worked perfectly for us. I was the first one there since I was 40 minutes early, but soon Kalaine showed up.

Beers

With the others taking a while to arrive, we ordered some food. Well, Kalaine did. I ordered an IPA. I didn’t know the price beforehand, but figured it was the average tourist price. Yeah, $9 each. Not the worst, but still a little steep.

Gang Arrives

Raquel next arrived and joined us. A while later, Gardner arrived and the whole gang was back together again. It was quite nice. We sat down and just talked for hours.

One Man Down

After a great bout of conversation, we did lose one person. Gardner had to return home to deal with some AC issues. With a newborn baby and 100-degree weather coming, it made sense to handle those needs right away. Sucked to lose him, but nothing could be done. We were now down to three.

Dinner on the Boat

We next headed over to our reserved dinner spot. This was on a riverboat along the Sacramento River. It was a great place as we could sit outside and on the river. Very cool setup. It didn’t move, but the setting sun was in a great position for us.

I wasn’t really hungry so I stuck with just red wine–two glasses. It was a day of not caring about calories or booze limits. Keep pouring!

Candy and Shops

After dinner it was getting dark and we walked around town. One place we had to enter was a candy store. I was thrilled to see a huge assortment of saltwater taffy so I grabbed perhaps one of everything for my bag. Well, worth the trip just for that! There were just so many great flavors. I could see myself returning just for that fun.

Afterwards, we hit a fudge shop and the same tough choices were faced. Everything just looked so good. I did end up buying some too. Not sure when I’ll get around to eating it though. It’s mostly protein and vegetables around home for me most days.

Drinks Again

Then we visited another pub for drinks and food. I got another beer, though it was getting to be a lot for the day. All the liquor would not do me well the next morning. But at the time, it felt like a fine choice.

Farewell

We parted with Raquel near the parking garage. She headed to her car and I got a ride from Kalaine to the hotel. Again, the sync issue came up and I didn’t have the address. The Hotels.com app helped a little but even then, it was impossible to get the address. We just headed to the city where I thought my reservation was at.

Back to Hotel

Turned out to be the right place though. Kalaine ensured I got checked in okay, and then we said farewell. She headed home. I went to find my room.

Nice Room and Price

Wow! Not bad at all. The Quality Inn is a steal in some places. A nice clean room for a very good price. And the price was important as I would only be staying for a few hours. It made no sense to go any fancier. I quickly just hopped into bed, though I spent a little time texting when I should have been sleeping. Ah, well. I’ll just be tired Sunday morning. Or all day Sunday.

4am Is Early

Well, the 4am alarm rang and I was clueless where I was and what was going on. I even had the front desk call so that helped me wake up as I had to walk across the room to answer the phone. I desperately wanted more sleep, but no time for that. I pretty much just had 15 minutes to get out the door.

Long Wait for Uber

I selected Uber for my ride to the airport, as Lyft has fewer drivers and sometimes the wait is quite long. This time, Uber was long too. I really must account for that better in the future. The wait was at least 15 minutes so I would arrive at the airport with less than an hour until takeoff. Risky, but I had no choice.

I also wasn’t feeling tops from the booze the day prior. It wasn’t the worst case for me, but nevertheless, I wasn’t in great shape for travel.

Fast Security

Uber did get me there only about five minutes past my planned time. I quickly headed to security and the TSA line was…well, almost empty. Just one person in front of me. So that didn’t take any time at all, and I was at my gate before boarding even started. Since I was eager to just sit down and put my eye mask on, I boarded in the first class group (yeah, I was upgraded again).

Nice People

There was an old lady in my seat though. She hadn’t done it on purpose, but got confused on the seat numbers. She had also wanted to sit next to her young granddaughter and that was fine with me. I took her seat instead. Then the old man next to me offered to trade the window seat so he could be closer to the others he was traveling with. Sure thing. I swapped and it all worked out just fine.

I chatted with him for about 15 minutes and then the sleep mask went on. I slept most of the flight.

Packed Airport

Ah, gloomy Seattle. That’s the weather I was greeted with once we landed. Back to the cold rain. After getting off the plane, I simply headed back to the parking garage. No need to hire Uber. No need to sit on the train.

Driving Home

Taking the elevator, I hit the “8” button and arrived on the top floor. It was gloomy outside of course. My nice weather was gone now. And I was at the wrong tower. I did remember the tower color (yellow) but even finding that can be tough. I walked around and located the correct tower and reached my car.

Then it was a nice drive home. Traffic was quite light, but I did notice the other direction was…empty. And that can be really bad. Yeah, they had shut down the freeway heading south due to a fatal accident. Once I got past the shutdown point, I saw they were backed up for miles. I was relieved it had not happened on I-5 northbound.

It took just over 20 minutes, but I was finally home.

Sleep

One word says it all. I slept for hours once I got home. Less time than I would have liked, but it was something.