Vacation. How's the Weather?
After my wife and I returned from our visit to Seattle, with an unexpected side trip to O'Hare in Chicago, I'm back in my writing chair.
First the Seattle trip. We always seem to be in Seattle when the weather is nice. Don't ask me why. I haven't a clue. I think it might be just a comparative thing. Anytime people from that area complain about their cold and damp climate, I tell them what cold means in Wisconsin and that when they have to shovel the rain they are complaining about I feel bad for them. While we were there, the sun shined brightly even if it occasionally had to fight some big puffy clouds. Truth be told like Wisconsin, Washington needs some rain.
The true test of weather in Seattle is your ability to "see the mountain". In the gloomiest of circumstances seeing Mount Rainer is impossible. On a clear day, you can't miss it. We were leaving the downtown stadium where the Seattle Sounder's, the Major League Football club played the Vancouver Whitecaps. I looked to the west and mistook the view of the upper peak of Mount Rainer for, what appeared to me to be a large inflated dome. If you fly to Seattle you will almost always get a view of Rainer, Baker, and St Helens, depending on which side of the plane you're sitting and what flight path the plane uses to land.
Football or Soccer?
Talk about football, or as we in the US refer to it soccer, I got a wide and varied exposure to it in the weeks before and during this trip. First, as I wrote last time, I got hooked on the World Cup. I either blew away my afternoons watching or recorded many of the playoff games. This my opportunity to see "The Beautiful Game" at it's finest.
During my visit to Seattle, I attended a young girls tournament with my son, Brad. Coach Brad was going to this match to observe a couple of young ladies he had coached when they were on his team. It was apparent to me that the youth soccer program in this area was a fairly tight-knit group as everyone seems to know everyone else. The quality of play, of course, was below The World Cup level. However, it was instructive none the less. For a rank beginner like I am, the slower they play the easier it is to understand.
Next was a standard of play a bunch of steps up. but not at The World Cup benchmark. We sat in my son's season ticket seats at The Seattle Sounder's game against The Vancouver Whitecaps. Throughout this game, the Sounder's, though lower in the standings, clearly looked like the better team. This was the case even though for some unexplained reason their star player, Clint Dempsey was benched. The Sounders scored early on a penalty kick and sealed the game with another goal in the second half for a 2-0 score.
To round off the Soccer week in Seattle, I attended my son's practice for his girl's team. A number of these young ladies (around 13-14years old) have been with him from when they were younger. He took them through drills and simulations for an hour and a half. It was warm and a bit humid in the early evening. The girls were attentive and worked hard. The emphasis was on practicing on a field (pitch) that was natural grass. Most of the time they play on Turf (artificial grass) on which the ball behaves differently. They have a tournament on grass this weekend. (Scores when they become available.)
Passing It On
There is nothing like watching your offspring when they are teaching. I've had that pleasure many times. My son, Sean taught in LA for Teach for America. I sat in his classes one day and the memories are still fresh and inspiring. I've watched my daughter Stacy instructing her kids on how to use a camera and allowing them to experiment with her expensive professional equipment.
All of the tribe work hard at being good parents. Probably my biggest pleasant surprise is full-time, stay-at-home Patrick and the magic he has worked with his daughter Violet. Kim and Ryan herd the inscrutable Brogan and the unstoppable Tate and somehow make it look easy.
Brad and Anne have raised two wonderful young ladies. Brad got his start by coaching with the girls when they first began to play. He continues even though both of them have decided not to play. Abbot will be finishing high school next spring. She will be looking for a college to attend. Her sister, Devon has just finished her first year at UCLA. She has also scored a job with Amazon. (The Whole Foods Division) As such, we missed her because she stayed in LA for summer classes and her job.
Joy Interruption
Our trip was going so well. Maria had scored reasonably priced roundtrip tickets on Alaskan Airlines direct to Seattle out of Milwaukee. Fantastic! We wouldn't have to transfer planes at Chicago, Denver, Phoenix or Salt Lake. Going to the left coast, it worked great. The normal headwinds were light and we arrived early.
Coming home, we were on a similar track until we were on approach to Mitchell International in Milwaukee. Somewhere early in our descent, the Captain announced that because both of the long runways were closed, we couldn't land in Milwaukee and we would have to divert, probably to Chicago.
Here are some of the hard facts about landing an unscheduled flight into Chicago. If you have enough fuel, you will wait until they can slip you into their tight scheduled landing order. When you're on the ground there may not be a gate for you. This was the case for us. I swear we landed somewhere on the Illinois-Wisconsin border and taxied to a deserted area far from normal activity at O'Hare.
We no more than stopped at this forgotten outpost when we informed that one runway was open in Milwaukee. Great get back out there and let's go! No, we needed to take on fuel. So, we waited. And then we waited some more. The fuel truck arrived. We are on our way. No, the flight crew has to be changed so they don't exceed their prescribed time in the air. No problem. There was a crew available at O'Hare.
How long did it take for them to get there Jeff? Well, I'm not sure. It seemed like a long time, but you know about watching a pot boil don't you. I will tell you this, it took so long for them to get there we had to refuel again.
Finally ready to go. We pushed back and began the long trip to Milwaukee. It's long if you taxi the plane via the interstate highway. As it is, if you think it's hard to break into the landing schedule at O'Hare, you have to sit on the taxiway waiting for a slot to allow takeoff.
The short story is we were three and one-half hours late arriving in Milwaukee. Exiting the plane at 10:30, we faced the people that had been waiting since 6:00 to take the turnaround to Seattle.
After my wife and I returned from our visit to Seattle, with an unexpected side trip to O'Hare in Chicago, I'm back in my writing chair.
First the Seattle trip. We always seem to be in Seattle when the weather is nice. Don't ask me why. I haven't a clue. I think it might be just a comparative thing. Anytime people from that area complain about their cold and damp climate, I tell them what cold means in Wisconsin and that when they have to shovel the rain they are complaining about I feel bad for them. While we were there, the sun shined brightly even if it occasionally had to fight some big puffy clouds. Truth be told like Wisconsin, Washington needs some rain.
The true test of weather in Seattle is your ability to "see the mountain". In the gloomiest of circumstances seeing Mount Rainer is impossible. On a clear day, you can't miss it. We were leaving the downtown stadium where the Seattle Sounder's, the Major League Football club played the Vancouver Whitecaps. I looked to the west and mistook the view of the upper peak of Mount Rainer for, what appeared to me to be a large inflated dome. If you fly to Seattle you will almost always get a view of Rainer, Baker, and St Helens, depending on which side of the plane you're sitting and what flight path the plane uses to land.
Football or Soccer?
Talk about football, or as we in the US refer to it soccer, I got a wide and varied exposure to it in the weeks before and during this trip. First, as I wrote last time, I got hooked on the World Cup. I either blew away my afternoons watching or recorded many of the playoff games. This my opportunity to see "The Beautiful Game" at it's finest.
During my visit to Seattle, I attended a young girls tournament with my son, Brad. Coach Brad was going to this match to observe a couple of young ladies he had coached when they were on his team. It was apparent to me that the youth soccer program in this area was a fairly tight-knit group as everyone seems to know everyone else. The quality of play, of course, was below The World Cup level. However, it was instructive none the less. For a rank beginner like I am, the slower they play the easier it is to understand.
Next was a standard of play a bunch of steps up. but not at The World Cup benchmark. We sat in my son's season ticket seats at The Seattle Sounder's game against The Vancouver Whitecaps. Throughout this game, the Sounder's, though lower in the standings, clearly looked like the better team. This was the case even though for some unexplained reason their star player, Clint Dempsey was benched. The Sounders scored early on a penalty kick and sealed the game with another goal in the second half for a 2-0 score.
To round off the Soccer week in Seattle, I attended my son's practice for his girl's team. A number of these young ladies (around 13-14years old) have been with him from when they were younger. He took them through drills and simulations for an hour and a half. It was warm and a bit humid in the early evening. The girls were attentive and worked hard. The emphasis was on practicing on a field (pitch) that was natural grass. Most of the time they play on Turf (artificial grass) on which the ball behaves differently. They have a tournament on grass this weekend. (Scores when they become available.)
Passing It On
There is nothing like watching your offspring when they are teaching. I've had that pleasure many times. My son, Sean taught in LA for Teach for America. I sat in his classes one day and the memories are still fresh and inspiring. I've watched my daughter Stacy instructing her kids on how to use a camera and allowing them to experiment with her expensive professional equipment.
All of the tribe work hard at being good parents. Probably my biggest pleasant surprise is full-time, stay-at-home Patrick and the magic he has worked with his daughter Violet. Kim and Ryan herd the inscrutable Brogan and the unstoppable Tate and somehow make it look easy.
Brad and Anne have raised two wonderful young ladies. Brad got his start by coaching with the girls when they first began to play. He continues even though both of them have decided not to play. Abbot will be finishing high school next spring. She will be looking for a college to attend. Her sister, Devon has just finished her first year at UCLA. She has also scored a job with Amazon. (The Whole Foods Division) As such, we missed her because she stayed in LA for summer classes and her job.
Joy Interruption
Our trip was going so well. Maria had scored reasonably priced roundtrip tickets on Alaskan Airlines direct to Seattle out of Milwaukee. Fantastic! We wouldn't have to transfer planes at Chicago, Denver, Phoenix or Salt Lake. Going to the left coast, it worked great. The normal headwinds were light and we arrived early.
Coming home, we were on a similar track until we were on approach to Mitchell International in Milwaukee. Somewhere early in our descent, the Captain announced that because both of the long runways were closed, we couldn't land in Milwaukee and we would have to divert, probably to Chicago.
Here are some of the hard facts about landing an unscheduled flight into Chicago. If you have enough fuel, you will wait until they can slip you into their tight scheduled landing order. When you're on the ground there may not be a gate for you. This was the case for us. I swear we landed somewhere on the Illinois-Wisconsin border and taxied to a deserted area far from normal activity at O'Hare.
We no more than stopped at this forgotten outpost when we informed that one runway was open in Milwaukee. Great get back out there and let's go! No, we needed to take on fuel. So, we waited. And then we waited some more. The fuel truck arrived. We are on our way. No, the flight crew has to be changed so they don't exceed their prescribed time in the air. No problem. There was a crew available at O'Hare.
How long did it take for them to get there Jeff? Well, I'm not sure. It seemed like a long time, but you know about watching a pot boil don't you. I will tell you this, it took so long for them to get there we had to refuel again.
Finally ready to go. We pushed back and began the long trip to Milwaukee. It's long if you taxi the plane via the interstate highway. As it is, if you think it's hard to break into the landing schedule at O'Hare, you have to sit on the taxiway waiting for a slot to allow takeoff.
The short story is we were three and one-half hours late arriving in Milwaukee. Exiting the plane at 10:30, we faced the people that had been waiting since 6:00 to take the turnaround to Seattle.
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