Nicole – Page 4 – Flyin' Brian

Day One of the Great Southern Road Trip

Due to the unpredictable nature of flying standby, I successfully made it to Orlando from Houston, but Nicole found herself in an oversold situation on the only United flight from LAX to Orlando for the day. After her unsuccessful first attempt, I routed her through Atlanta and on to Daytona Beach, where I picked her…
Island Escape

Ten years ago, I spent a brief time living on O’ahu while I “studied” at Hawaii Pacific University. After a stressful week of learning that I would be spending at least another month in Houston and away from home, it seemed the perfect time to get away for a few days and try and forget…
Unplanned New Years Visit to Minnetonka

Our flight was the only airplane going from Wichita to Minneapolis on New Years Day, and Nicole was lucky to grab a seat in the back. The same could not be said for flights going out of Minneapolis, but I’ll get into that later…The flight back to the far north was uneventful other than a…
Mad Town

Over a month ago, I had flown a route from O’Hare to Madison and back when the temperature was an unusual 70 degrees. That was the only time in perhaps 15 years that I had been to Wisconsin’s capitol city. However, a friend of mine was getting married and after working six days straight, I…
Completing Week One in MSP

For my final day in Minneapolis, I drove to a place called Minnehaha Park. It claimed to have a waterfall, so I was intrigued. It was a bit blustery and overcast — not really ideal weather to be going for a stroll, but at 49 degrees, it is important to have perspective and remember that…
Manhattan & Hermosa

The stressful ordeal of yesterday’s driving made me appreciate my limited time (a whopping 24 hours) in Los Angeles that much more. Compared to Fresno, LA is like some kind of utopian paradise where people break into synchronized song and dance…almost. Being an outdoor kid, I had an itch to get out and enjoy the…
Fall in Jersey

Two days off. Where should I go? Well, across the country of course. Nicole was keen to return to her motherland in order to shake hands and fist pump with a new arrival to her family, so I tagged along. My disdain for the garden state and the majority of its residents is rarely disguised,…
Playing Cricket in San Antonio

As I met Nicole at the Culver City Which-Wich during her lunch break on Friday, the people around us must have been confused. “Well we can get to San José, but we can’t get back.” “Phoenix is a no go. Overbooked.” “Everyone’s going to Las Vegas this weekend, so that’s out.” “Hotels in Monterey are…
Kauai continued . . .

Most people we encountered seemed to fit into one of two categories: time-share owning retirees and younger couples on their honeymoon. There did not seem to be a strong contingent of 30 hour turnaround visitors. And that’s for good reason. If you are paying for a trip to Hawaii, you probably want to take your…
30 hours in Kauai

Each time an airline pilot is given a new domicile, they are guaranteed four “moving days” to relocate to their new base city. This is really just a ruse. First, who is actually capable of uprooting their lives and getting established in a new city in four days? Second, these moving days are flexible, so…