The family departed for pdx at 4pm to beat rush hour traffic. We said our goodbyes then Will and I set about finding some dinner. Rogue Brewing seemed like a perfect way to kick off the trip however after waiting 15 minutes for our table to be cleared by a Ukranian badly in need of a personality transplant, and 20 more minutes of waiting for Robin, our waitress, to take our order, we gave up and decided to head to the gate. As we left Rogue I tweeted to their account, "holy shit - your pdx wait staff are out of control - really poor service".
We boarded the typical Alaska Airline vomit comet to Seattle and as I was turning off my phone I noticed flight alerts that we had a two hour delay on our SEA->MIA flight. Apparently a problem with the aux power system on the plane. No big as we figured that'd give us more time for dinner in sea.
Uneventful flight to sea. Dinner at Anthony's Fish House was very nice. We had a view of Alaska's Pac-10 jets - Beaver's plane right out in front.
Boarded a completely full flight to mia. Good seats. A dancer to my left. Two completely whacked out 20-somethings behind us:
"Aaaaahhh Chooooo Eeeeeeeee" <giggle>
"Aaaaaaaaahhh Choo Eeeeee"
"There's muh baggie." "Bluuuue" <tee hee>
"When are we getting some food on this plane? A girl's gotta eat" <ha ha>
"We're cruzin'" "Fort Lauderdale, Puerto Rico, the Grand Turks"
"Ah gotta stretch muh leggies"
"I've been crying like, for like 5 days out of every 7 for the last three weeks and my husband, like, thinks that I'm crying because there's like something wrong." "He just doesn't understand because he, like, never crys" "Seriously like maybe once in like 10 years."
We all eventually fell asleep. Then at around 2:30am we awoke to a nervous announcement from the pilot.
"Ladies and gentlemen, there's been reports of the smell of smoke by a number of passengers. We're making a precautionary landing in Denver. We've turned off power to all passenger electronics and we'll be on the ground shortly."
The flight attendants warned that there would be emergency vehicles on the runway and not to be alarmed.
"We have been around the world, like sooo many times, and this has, like, never happened to us. All I have to say is there, like, better be some snackies after we land."
"Yeah, like a platter better be on our seats when we get back on the plane."
There were flares lining the runway guiding us to a remote part of the landing field where 6-7 different emergency vehicles waited. All with lights flashing, some with sirens blaring. We all contemplated being trapped in the plane as a wing burst into flames, and wondered why we weren't being evacuated. After a long time the captain announced that the plane was being scanned for hot spots.
Some time later, firemen and first responders with oxygen tanks boarded the plane to walk the aisles and scan for smoke and for heat.
Six and a half hours later than scheduled, we arrived in MIA.
The Airport Hotel restaurant stayed open for us and we had fried grouper, mac & cheese and peas & rice for dinner.
After landing in Provo American Airlines recommended talking to the AA Service Desk to request a comp overnight. Uh huh. First, Provo Customs could not let us past unless we could tell them where we were staying. Second, the Provo airport was closing as we landed. Third, AA doesn't have a Service Desk in Provo. ...should've pressed harder in Miami :-)
Oh, well. With an 8:30am flight out to GDT we decided the Airport Hotel (joy, oh familiar joy) was our only option. They sent a taxi (done that walk before!) and it turned out that the hotel had been remodeled. A bit. At least a nice lobby and restaurant/bar. And an additional wall to keep out the sound from the highway.
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