A Long Day Comes to a Good End

I'm here to tell you that 3:40 comes early. Black dark early. Why so early for a 9 am flight? Traffic in LA gets bad starting at 5. So by leaving at 4:15, we made it the 40 miles to the airport in 45 minutes instead of 2 hours. But why not wait and leave at 5? Surely even getting to the airport at 7 still leaves you 2 hours to get checked in and through security? Based on our experience this morning, that would potentially not have been enough. We clearly made the right decision leaving at 4:15.

First the one kudo for the LA airport system. Mick is parked at the LAX satellite lot. For $8 a day. I dare you to find a single lot at SeaTac for $8 a day. Instead, in Seattle we pay $10 and up, plus the city taxes. Governmental control is occasionally a good thing.

1st LAX rant of the day -- Security. There were 4 stations for the entire American concourse, probably 20 gates. In Seattle, they have 8-12 stations per concourse. We were lucky to be in early, and it still took us most of an hour to get through. The line continued to grow and grow behind us. So yes, apparently you do have to leave 5 hours ahead to make a flight in LAX.

2nd LAX rant -- No recycling bins. Anywhere.

3rd LAX rant of the day -- No wireless. Well there was a network, but it seemed not to have a signal.

So this can all be summed up in the fact that while it touts itself as the busiest airport on in the country, LAX is ugly, old, and technologically inferior.

The flight was fairly uneventful. It was only about half full and I was able to switch to a better seat. The highlight was one of the audio channels. NASA has long transmitted a song up to the space shuttle to 'wake up the Astronauts'. They continued this habit with the Spirit and Opportunity rover teams, although the songs were just played for the control crew here on earth, not transmitted to the Rover. Anyway, one of the audio channels on the flight was a collection of the songs they used for these crews, with introductions by one of the project managers. It was quite fun to listen to.

We made our way through the airport and downstairs to get the bags. Only the conveyor eventually stopped and we had no bags. We checked with the agent who looked up our numbers and said 'There is no record of your bags'. He referred us to another baggage agent. Who repeated that there was no record of our bags. So we started paper work for lost bags, and eventually caught a cab to our hotel in Miami Beach. Mick called American at that point and the bags had already been found, and would be sent on to the hotel. We never did find out where they got lost, but they're here safe and sound.

We have view of the beach and ocean from our room, which you can see below. Quite nice, really. I'm planning to go down and walk on the beach in the morning.

We consulted the concierge about a restaurant, and he suggested several down in South beach. One even sent a limo to pick us up. No, I'm not kidding. We rode in a stretch limo down to Lincoln Center at no cost. I had a quite good Seafood risotto for dinner, including Clams, Shrimp, Mussels, and Calamari. We sat outdoors and watched the locals wander by. There was certainly a significant amount of ....mobile female anatomy on display. A street musician played for us at our table.

Afterward we wandered down the row of shops toward the ocean, and then down through the Art Deco district. I think we'll go back tomorrow for lunch and some more shopping and pictures of the very neat buildings. We stopped to have drinks and dessert and listen to some jazz. Charles and Jenna had been here before, and were quite surprised at how empty the streets were. Some buildings are still covered with Plywood, but all are marked 'Open'. A street artist gave me a rose made of palm fronds, also below. Eventually I'll figure out how to include these in the post. But that's for later.

Now I'm for sleep.