Stevens Pass from 20,000 Feet

The flight from Detroit to Seattle's Seatac Airport was pleasant and uneventful. I checked in on-line the night before and discovered Northwest had me seated in a middle seat. I changed the seat selection to Seat 40A on the Northwest 757. That is the next to the last row and the window seat on the left side of the plane. Back in my days with DOJ, this area of the plane, which is separated from the main cabin by a bulkhead, was the smoking section. I recall Dave Monson used to like sitting back there to puff on cigarettes on the short flights back from Detroit to D.C. Those days are long gone, as are the days when I could leave home at 7:30 am for an 8:10 flight out of National Airport to Detroit and be seated well in time for my flight.

Back to the journey back to wine country. The women next to me, in 40B and 40C were excellent seatmates. I rarely enjoy talking a lot with strangers on airplanes and today was no different. Luckily, neither of my seatmates wanted to engage in any extensive conversation and we all slept off and on most of the way across the country.

The day was sunny and the Cascades were magnificent. I could see Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams to the south. It was not clear enough to pick up a view of Mt. Hood. No doubt Glacier Peak and Mt. Baker were in view from the right side of the plane.

This truly is a wonderful, beautiful state with a lot of variety in the landscape. The approach to Seattle took us past Wenatchee, and I could pick out Rt. 2 below and to the south. I watched for the Stevens Pass summit and sure enough was able to pick it out. It's easily identifiable from the air with the parking areas on either side of Rt. 2. We followed Rte. 2 and I was able to pick out Gold Bar (I think. Might have been Sultan). We tracked in to the North of Redmond, likely right over your house and then turned south once we were over Bothell or Lake Forest Park and flew over Seattle.

I was on the left side of the plane, so did not get a view of downtown Seattle, but the view of Lake Washington was wonderful. I even got a little nostalgic that I don't live in the area anymore.

Had a burrito at Qdoba at Seatac and caught my flight to Pasco. Shortly before I left, I watched an exchange between a woman, probably in her mid-70's, who reminded me of my mother, and the Horizon staff. Apparently the woman had been sitting there at the gate for 2 hrs waiting for a flight (to Missoula, I believe). She want up to check on the flight status and the woman at the desk told her they'd paged her 30 mins. before and she didn't respond. Apparently, her gate was changed (a frequent occurrence with Horizon - they did it to me) and the flight had left 10 minutes before. My heart went out to this woman, and I hope the airline made it right and got her on a flight to her destination.

Unfortunately, I found my battery was stone dead when I got there, so had to call AAA for a jump. Got home around 6:45 pm.

The weather in Walla Walla is snowy, cold and damp, about the same as in Michigan. I'm ready for a Mexican vacation.

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Placeholder 1/17/2008

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Off to Michigan

Up at 3:30 am to finish packing and the cold drive along a deserted US-12 to Pasco for the flight to Detroit, by way of Salt Lake City. My mother, who lives in SE Michigan, near Ann Arbor, has been feeling fatigued since at least spring. Her doctor was convinced her history as a long-time smoker (since the age of 14) required a diagnosis that involved pulmonary problems. He was wrong. She had an angiogram in mid-December, and significant occlusion of the coronary arteries was identified as the culprit. So, January 15 found me headed to Michigan to be there to help out and possibly for one last good-bye in case she did not make it through the surgery. After an uneventful flight from Salt Lake City on Delta, I arrived at Detroit Metro Airport at 2:30 EDT and was picked up by sister Martha and her husband Ike.