Friday, September 20, 2019: Houston, TX
We are up in good time, I even have time for a shower, and as we leave we snag our “to-go” breakfast bags that the hotel has prepared. Let’s see, there is a bottle of water, a carton of juice, an apple and two different types of granoly bar things. It is dark:thirty in the morning and having had no coffee, I am concentrating on not being snarly.
We get checked in for our flight (since it is an international flight, we can’t do that online ahead of time) and we go to the airport’s second level to eat some of our breakfast. Water and juice have to be consumed, of course, to clear security; the apple will need to be eaten before landing in Houston – so we are fortified with the liquids and 2 of the 4 hardboiled eggs we brought from home.
SJO is a very small airport and we are through security in no time. We buy coffee and sit to enjoy it at our gate. Possibility of snarling is steadily decreasing. As is our norm, instead of sitting at the gate, we walk. Small airport=many laps! As we walk by one area, Jeff says, “Isn’t that Andrea and Peggy? Sure enough there is Andrea and her mother who are friends from San Ramon. We chat for a bit (They are on their way to Cancun for a week.) then continue walking.
We were right about not changing our flight because of the weather – there is no delay at all in leaving, and, even better, the plane is less than half full! Jeff and I each have a row to ourselves, as did pretty much everyone else; I lay down across the three seats and snooze. It seemed like a fast flight, but we did have time to eat our apples and the other two hard boiled eggs.
Oh my goodness! Houston Hobby airport is a mob scene. Turns out that many of the people whose flights were delayed or cancelled the past 2 days are on stand-by. Loads of people everywhere. We have a four hour layover here, so we walk some more. And since we have a long layover we decide to have a real sit-down meal. But first, we walk. As we do so we check out the various eating venues, looking at menu choices and prices. Whoa! Expensive! Finally we settle on 6” sandwiches from Subway and Jeff buys waffle-shaped french fries from Chik-A-Fil. At least the sandwiches are healthy.
Back at the gate we learned our flight has been delayed. It is coming from Kansas or Oklahoma and there is bad weather between here and there. So that’s where the remnants of Imelda went… Delayed again, and again…our 4 hour layover stretches to a little over 7 hours. We aren’t worried or annoyed because we built in 2 days in Los Angeles before the cruise. Three of the sixteen people on stand-by for this flight get on, so there are no empty seats on this plane. Before we take off, well after our LAX arrival time, I send a message to the LAX shuttle company with our updated arrival time.
We fly Southwest a lot and I have 4 free drink coupons: two for going to LA and two for our trip back to Costa Rica. I order a mimosa and Jeff orders a beer. Since the flight was delayed, and the airplane’s WiFi is not working, the drinks are free. See there is always that silver lining. LOL
Whew, it has been a long day, but we are here. The shuttle is also full and Jeff and I are the last stop, the Crowne Plaza hotel near the port. It is 1 a.m. and way past time for bed…
See you tomorrow.