Happy Holidays!

Hello everyone!

We are getting very close to Christmas and the New Year and that means we all soon get a break from the stressful life of work and school. I have been marking down the days until the end of the semester and I can just relax. After this last week of school I finally get to have a small vacation. I will be going to Cadillac, MI, for my cousin's wedding and then going to Traverse City with some friends for a few days. It isn't much of a vacation compared to going to the nice Sunshine state of Florida. However after writing papers and stressing over exams, I'll take it! I usually go on a cruise every year but I haven't had the time in a while so it has been two years since my last cruise. This is the longest I have ever gone without being at sea in over a decade! I almost had a ten day cruise booked on Holland America for next week a few months ago. Then I realized my cousin's wedding fell on the weekend it departed! It was the only cruise that was a ten day, all of the others were seven and were far more expensive.

So starting December 21st, we have about two and a half weeks until the next semester starts. The time is going to fly by and unfortunately it will be over in a flash. If you plan on going on a vacation of any kind for those couple of weeks, the time will go by even faster! Regardless of how you plan to spend your break, just make sure you enjoy every minute of it! This will be my last blog for the semester, I hope you have enjoyed reading them. Keep on traveling and I hope you all have a fun and safe winter break!

Winter Wonderland!

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all staying warm as the snow starts to fall and the temperatures continue to get colder. It looks like the Midwest has been getting hit hard with the snow. The snow is just now starting to fall in my area. The Dallas area really seems to be getting hit hard with the snow and the flight cancellations keep growing in numbers. In Philadelphia the snow fell hard at the Lions/Eagles game. For those of you who saw the game, you know what I'm talking about. The field was virtually blinded by snow during parts of the game and the players had to run through about 8" of snow. If you missed this game, you will want to see the pictures below!

I am traveling to Cadillac, MI next week for my cousin's wedding and I am really hoping the snow stays away for the weekend. I really don't want to travel on the road in a blizzard or ice. After driving through it a week ago on the way to Chicago, I think I have had enough. I love snow as much as the next person however, when it comes to driving in it I can say I hate the snow! The town I live in usually gets more than its fair share of snow every season anyway. So going up north will probably be even worse. I'll be hoping for the best though and hopefully the heavy snow will stay away for a little bit longer. For those of who are traveling right now in the snow, please be safe!

In other travel related news, a 16 year old boy was pronounced dead on Saturday while traveling on a Delta flight from Seattle to Atlanta. The flight carrying 268 passengers was diverted to Spokane shortly after takeoff. It is believed the boy died of natural causes and there will be an autopsy conducted on Monday.

Thanksgiving in Chicago

 

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving! This is my favorite week of the year, I love being able to eat all I want and share laughs with the family. I also enjoy going out on Black Friday but it wasn’t as much fun having to go out on Thanksgiving night this year. I wanted to go during the early morning hours on Friday but unfortunately the stores decided to end a majority of their sales by 6 a.m. I went to the Gurnee Mills Mall in Gurnee, IL and I could not believe how packed the place was! I have never seen so many people in my life and people literally had to create their own parking spots. I am not one of those people who will fight someone for a T.V. or an Xbox like those seen on the news. I enjoyed just walking around and getting a few good deals and watching all of the activity. I felt very bad for everyone who had to work through the whole night. While I was talking to one of the employees, they told me the mall was going to stay open for 36 consecutive hours!

 

The day after Black Friday was a day I will never forget. I had tickets to see Elton John and his band perform at the Allstate Arena in Chicago! He performed all of his hits as well as a couple songs from his new album Diving Board. The sold out concert was phenomenal, he played for three consecutive hours without an intermission. Everyone was on their feet and singing along and just having a great time. I haven’t seen him in fourteen years, but his concert was

just as great as I remember. I have no idea how much longer he will be performing on tours and he rarely comes to the Chicago/Detroit area so seeing him is rare. His performance was so much better than listening to his albums on an iPod. I would highly recommend going to his concert if he is ever in a town near you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It's finally that time of year again when we get to stuff our faces with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and of course, the pumpkin pie! This is my favorite time of year because it means getting to hang out with my entire family while eating all I want. Of course the infamous Black Friday is also one of my favorite parts of the holiday. Going out to the stores at four a.m. to get those insanely great deals always gets me excited. Thanksgiving is one of the most traveled times of the year. There are approximately 43.4 million people that will be traveling this Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving. About 38.9 million people will be traveling by car.

In other travel related news, a Boeing 747 cargo Dreamlifter was scheduled to land at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas. However, the aircraft mistakenly landed nine miles north at Col James Jabara Airport which is much smaller and has a much shorter runway. The aircraft was able to land safely however the next problem would be getting the aircraft back into the air. The runway length was the close to the minimum requirement a 747 needs to take off. To get the plane airborne, the weight had to be lightened. The amount of fuel the aircraft still had on board had to be reduced. Luckily, the aircraft was able to take off the next day and land at the appropriate airport. A different crew was assigned to flying the massive jet to the Air Force Base.

It turns out this aircraft does a routine flight from Italy to Kansas. I don't understand how an experienced crew could make a mistake like that. Weather conditions were ideal so the aircraft should've had no problem flying to the correct airport. As it turns out, while the controller and the pilot tried to figure out what airport they were at, the pilot couldn't read his own handwriting and mixed up East and West.

That's it for this week, have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

Reach for the Sky!

Hello everyone,

This week in travel news, the One World Trade Center in New York City has claimed the title as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. The new tower stands at 1,776 feet counting the 408 foot antenna that stands on top of the building. The Willis Tower (previously Sears Tower) in Chicago has now been moved down to the second Tallest Building in the Western Hemisphere standing at 1,729 feet. There as always been a great debate over which of the two cities is better. Who has the better food, tallest buildings, best sports teams, etc.,  I personally am all about Chicago. I love the deep dish and thin crust pizza. In my opinion it is the best pizza in the world. As for the best buildings, I love the Willis Tower. There's nothing like getting out of an elevator and being able to see the city for miles. For those who are brave enough and looking for a thrill, the Wills Tower has four glass boxes called The Ledge that hang out four feet over the street. The only thing keeping people from falling 103 stories, is one and a half inches of glass! People often have pictures taken of them lying down on the glass with people who look like ants below them.

I often take trips to Chicago and it's very eerie sometimes driving through the city on a cloudy day and seeing half of the tower missing in the clouds. Though it wouldn't provide a very nice view from the top floors, I think it would be a little freaky to be working in an office that is so high up that it's in the clouds. When the city experiences high winds the tower will actually sway back and forth. It isn't enough to be visibly seen however the walls inside actually make a creaking sound like an old house or a boat in rough seas. Even though the massive tower is built out of steel and can survive the extreme weather conditions, it sounds as if it's ready to topple over! So if you're ever in the Chicago area, I would definitely recommend taking a ride up to the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower!






Willis Tower (Left) One World Trade Center (Right)

Staycation

Whenever I go on vacation, I record the whole trip. I enjoy making videos of the flights and exciting highlights from the trip and then uploading them to websites like Facebook and YouTube. A few days ago I was browsing through YouTube and exploring all of the different kinds of videos on there. I knew YouTube had just about every video known to man but what I didn't know was you can watch the equivalent of a week long vacation from your own home. I was browsing videos that people had uploaded from their flights, cruises, and just hilarious moments from vacations gone wrong. It's amazing how many videos people have uploaded from their trips and what kinds of things they have done.

I enjoy watching the videos of people sky diving on their trips and what kinds of crazy flights people have been on. For those of you who are afraid of rollercoasters, you can experience the same thrill from the comfort of your couch! Here is a passenger's point of view on board the Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point.

Thanksgiving is coming up quickly and is the busiest travel time of the year. For those of you who are traveling this Thanksgiving and are afraid of flying, you can watch videos of planes taking off and landing from a passengers view to help build your courage. Here is one of my videos taking off from MBS intl. airport in Saginaw, Michigan.

There are thousands of different travel related videos out there. They are great for getting ideas on where to plan your next vacation or what to do while on vacation. Or if you can't afford to take off work or school at the moment, you can always just watch travel videos and pretend you're on vacation.

Gumballs on a Plane

I love sharing funny travel stories with people and I don't think anyone has better stories than my uncle. I have already shared a few stories from my uncle's experience with traveling but he recently shared with me a story that I think takes the cake! He was flying home on a Delta flight from Detroit to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. He was sitting in his seat waiting for the plane to push back from the gate when a family traveling with a small boy sat in the row behind them. The boy had an unopened bag of gumballs and repeatedly asked his mother if he could have one. The mother consistently denied him and told him to put them away. As the aircraft turned onto the runway to takeoff the mother told the boy he could open the package and take a gumball. Upon trying to open the bag, the package exploded and gumballs went flying against the overhead compartments and throughout the cabin. My uncle had gumballs running down his shirt and the rest were rolling to the back of the cabin as the aircraft barreled down the runway. The flight attendant notified the captain that they needed to abort the takeoff. As the aircraft quickly slowed down all of the gumballs rolled under the seats to the front of the plane.

The aircraft taxied to a holding tarmac where it parked for about twenty five minutes. The flight attendants asked all of the passengers to help pick up all of the gumballs on the ground. The flight attendants were finding gumballs in the rails that hold the seats to the floor. As my uncle was crawling on the floor picking up gumballs he said to the flight attendant "I bet the captain was pretty pissed about this." Unbeknownst to him, the captain was standing right behind him also picking up gum balls and replied, "You bet he was!"