Merry Christmas from the TSA & United Airlines
Trip Start
Dec 20, 2011
1
8
Trip End
Dec 27, 2011
Maidens, Virginia
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The end of our trip was pretty interesting. We took Dad & Liz to dinner on Monday (to say thank you for the hospitality), and we tried an Italian restaurant that they had not been to. I uploaded some photos; pretty quirky. They have done up the interior like a back alley in Rome (or some place), complete with balconies and hanging laundry. On the back wall, they were broadcasting old movies set in Italy. The end of Roman Holiday was playing when we got there, and then they started playing something called A Roman Adventure, with Troy Donohue and Suzanne Pleshette. Both were about 20. Goofy. The restaurant is called Venezia, and we would all recommend it. It was a bit slow, perhaps, but overwhelmed, as it was both a Monday and the day after Christmas, so no one wanted to cook at home and many other restaurants were closed. They got three dishes out at once, but didn't have Liz's ready. They scurried to get it out, and when the waiter brought it, he apologized very graciously and informed Liz that her meal was on the house. So we forgave them. I can understand a mistake; I appreciate it when they admit it and do something to make up for it. The food was very good, too. We would definitely go back.
We got to SFO in plenty of time to get some breakfast before the flight--time enough, even, to take a gander at the exhibit on old-time (hah!) television in terminal 3. See photos I uploaded. (If you need to get gas for a rental car, btw, when you get off at San Bruno Blvd., do not stop at the first station; go on down the road to the Valero on the left. It's 40 cents a gallon cheaper. Exxon charging a premium for rental car renters in a hurry!)
Then, in the airport in Chicago, Tim and I were talking about when to do our next bird count, and the woman next to us interrupted to ask us about it. Turns out she is very big into birds, and does the Audubon Christmas count every year. She seems to travel around a good bit to different counts; her main base of operations is in Wisconsin, where she lives. She told us that she has noticed the same thing we have noticed this year: significant drop off in numbers. She said there were hardly any Snow Buntings. (This launched us into a discussion of the Snow Bunting that Tim and I saw with David on South Padre Island in Texas in 2005.) She did tell us, though, that the Pine Siskins have JUST appeared this week in the north, so maybe we'll get some of those later on in the winter. She also told us about a huge outbreak of Snowy Owls, ranging far south--into Missouri. Tim got an e-mail from Cornell today commenting on that. (Practically no birds showed up at the feeders today; bird count is tomorrow--we'll see what happens!)
At any rate, we are now back home. Bags unpacked, laundry done, shopping done, champagne purchased for New Year's Eve, mail opened, cat fed. Even the three outside cats showed up; evidently the dry food our caretaker gave them every other day was enough to keep them coming back.
The trip ended with a humorous moment: when we got home, there was a box from Tim's sister on the front porch. I opened the door to get it, and handed it over to Tim. He headed into the living room with it. Phoebe, who was observing the process intently, took one look at Tim walking away with the box, and tore after him at top speed. The second he put it down on the floor, up she went on top. The intention was absolutely clear: "That is Phoebe's box. Phoebe will get on it!"
Addendum: I forgot to mention that despite all my complimentary remarks about the miraculous airline travel, I do have one teentsy-weentsy complaint: whoever is scheduling the movies is a moron. I believe I mentioned that on the way out from O'Hare to SFO, there was a movie that was at least half in Spanish, and, since the plane was of the sort which had monitors in the aisles every 20 feet or so, it was impossible (at least for most people, including me) to read them. On the return journey, from SFO to O'Hare, the plane was the same sort, but this time they played a movie in English. It was actually pretty interesting. It was called The Way, and was written by Emilio Estevez and starred his father, Martin Sheen. I had never heard of this movie, but I was rather enjoying it, until, about an hour and a half in, with about half-an-hour to go, the pilot announced that we were making our final descent into Chicago and they cut off the video. Not only THAT, as it turns out, although this was a 2010 movie, it is not yet out on DVD (due out in February 2012), so I can't even get it from Netflix to watch the rest. Go figure. A four-hour flight and they can't manage to schedule one two-hour movie and one 40-minute episode of "Parks and Recreation" so that they both end before the flight does. As with the cable car queue in San Francisco, if I were in charge, this would go faster. BUT the headphones, if you do not have your own, are now complimentary. Ye ha.
