On and On . . .: Airplanes

We arrived back home Tuesday afternoon - not only on time, but early! Our return flights were on Delta, and I must say I am pleased that they are merging with Northwest. Delta's aircraft had individual video screens at each seat, so you could watch tv, listen to music, see movies, play games, monitor your flight stats & progress, etc. I absolutely loved that feature. In contrast, the nearly-six-hour flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage on NWA did not offer entertainment of any kind. (Except for the monologue from the charming senior citizen next to me describing in great detail how excited he was about the salmon fishing excursion he had booked in Ketchikan.) Neither airline lost any of our luggage, which is a miracle considering there were five of us traveling on a total of four different airplanes. Both Delta and NWA, however, insisted that we switch items between our suitcases when one weighed 51 pounds on our outbound trip, and one was 57 pounds on the return. The airlines take their 50-pound weight limit rule very seriously, which is somewhat silly since the suitcases are all going on the same aircraft anyway. (In Europe, they weighed all our bags together and took the combined weight.) If we had not removed that pesky one pound pair of sweatpants from that outbound suitcase and placed it into one of our other bags, NWA would have charged us $80.00, yet checking an additional 50-pound bag would have only cost $25.00. Go figure. I was also able to meet the Delta weight limit on the return leg by simply removing my collection of brochures, maps, Princess daily activity sheets, etc. from the 57-pound suitcase. I cannot believe I had packed seven pounds of papers. I just stuffed them into my already-heavy carry-on bag, which, in turn, made it feel like I was toting around a bowling ball or something. Long gone are the days where you could simply check two pieces of luggage for free!

Anyway, here are the pictures that I snapped while we were on the Boeing Tour on Monday. Being an airplane enthusiast, I found the whole experience phenomenal. I think Richie did, too. Jacob was fairly apathetic during the assembly line visit, but he perked up in the “gallery,” where you could see & touch actual planes up close. In the plant, we saw the very first 787 Dreamliner that is due to roll off the line for its test flight in October. We also caught glimpses of the second, third, and fourth 787s in various stages of development. We were prohibited from photographing anything inside the assembly building, and could not even bring cameras or cell phones with us on that part of the tour, but it was exhilarating to see the new jets being built just the same.