Wow, this was what everyone was telling me after I returned from my trip to europe.

It was my first time in Europe, a newby indeed. I was kinda afraid to go by myself being so far away from home. Kinda out of my confort zone. After all I had just graduated high school a year ago and have not even turned 20 yet.

A friend of mine from work offered to ride along for the long journey. It was the 27th of May. At the crack of dawn my alarm clock went off at 4am. I still could not believe that I was finally going to Paris. It had been my dream for many many years to visit the Eiffel tower.

I was at the airport by 5:30am, two hours before the flight , which was now 3 hours before due to the weather in the east coast and its GDP in PHL. Finally took off on an Air Wisconsin CRJ-200, window seat, perfect, because it was my first time going to PHL also. Got there at around 11:30am. My flight to CDG did not leave untill 6:30pm.



So I took a train downtown and headed for independence hall, where the movie national treasure was filmed. Then headed the biggest market I've ever seen. Had lunch there, and also got my shoes polished for the next week. Headed towards the airport and me and my friend stopped and bought two boxes of chocolates before the flight. Some of you might have a clue as to what they were for. Checked in, and headed upstairs. Boarded the airplane and got seat 6A! The gate agents are always to busy to play your charm so my next target was the flight attendants. I handed a bag to the first flight attendant with a note and the gift in it. I told her It wasnt much, but I just wanted to say thank you for the ride. About 5 minutes later I was in seat 2H. Very nice. This was onboard the A330-300.







It was a long flight to Paris. But envoy class made it so much better. Had a good lamb dinner with a cheese cake desert. In the morning I got a very nice breakfast after I woke up. Envoy gives you cool little kits with tooth brush and paste to fresh up before you land. We landed in Paris at 7:30am. Foggy morning, there were signs about the swine flu everywhere. Immigration is very fast in Paris. Took about 5 minutes to go through the line and we're off to the city. I have an uncle in-law in Paris so we headed to his apartment right away, its near neilly-sur-seine. Had a quick napped at his aparment and then headed to the city. That day we visited the Louvre museum, eiffel tower, and the Notre-dame church. I quickly realized how expensive Paris really is. You guys werent kidding.





We had crapes in the street for lunch that day. They were so good. Then had dinner with my uncle at his place. Had some good night sleep and the next day we headed for Versailles castle. This was one of the coolest thing I've ever seen. Being in the same place where the kings used to live was just too cool!



We then headed to Montmatre in the north part of Paris to get a view of the whole city. Then we headed for home, because we had a early morning flight to MAD.

In the morning we left the apartment at about 4am and headed for CDG. It was so early that we took a taxi. The flight was with Easyjet. Very cheap tickets and good service all in all. It was a paid ticket and open seating set-up so I took a window near the front. I was surprised on how many different types of food you can buy on this airline. Landed in Madrid and had a long taxi to the gate. We deplaned by air-stairs, and then took a bus to the terminal. We did not have to go through immigration this time, being that is an intra-europe flight. Damn, I really wanted more stamps in my passport.







I also have an aunt-in-law in Madrid, so she picked us up at the airport. Then we headed for downtown MAD where she lives near La Puerta De Toledo. (The Door Of Toledo) If you know Madrid well you will know where this is. That same day we headed out to Museo El Prado, and El Retiro park, also to Plaza Mayor where we sat down to eat Tapas. We then headed home and got ready to go to a huge club called "Grupo Kapital", It's about 12 clubs in one. All sorts of music, and all sorts of people. Here we met some good friends.

Me and my aunt at Puerta Toledo


At Club Kapital. Biggest club I've ever seen.


Our new friends in Madrid

The next day we went sight seeing again. This time we headed to visit some famous churches and visited the King of Spain castle. I slept a lot that night. Its hard being in Europe with the time difference, you are used to other types of times. lol

The next day we had a morning flight with easyjet to Rome, once again we took a taxi due to the flight leaving so early in the morning. Took off and had a good view of the spanish islands like Ibiza from the air. Got into Rome and headed for the hotel right away, the down side was that it was raining very hard, and it was very foggy. We really did not care, we were in Rome for one day so we were going to go enjoy it as much as we can. Bought a pair of umbrellas and headed for Termini station where we would hop on a tour bus that would take us all over the city.

We got to see the Colloseum and the Vatican, and many other cool things a long the way like the Forum and other ruins. That night we had dinner at a restaurant/club called twins. It was very cool because that night they were hosting a spanish/latin club with salsa, merengue, bachata. I was all over that. So we stayed and danced all night long untill about 2am. Headed for the hotel and slept 3 hours before we had to return to Spain again. We met a lot of new friends in Italy. It was awesome.

The Colloseum.


The Vatican




New friends in Rome


Flew back to MAD and spent one more night there with my aunt. That night we headed to a big shopping mall to walk around and talk between all of us.

The next morning I packed up and headed for the airport, bought some chocolates at the duty free store inside the airport, boarded with a seat of 34F! But about 5 minutes later the coolest flight attendants took very good care of us and had 2A for the rest of the 8 hour flight. This flight felt more like a 3 hour flight. Had a good lunch of Chiken with wild rice on top of all of the other sides, salads and deserts.



I want to give a Big Thanks for all of US Airways employees, you guys are truly amazing at your job, and you guys really know how to look out for other Airline employee's. I hope to help you guys out as much as you guys helped me.

Thanks for reading, more coming soon.

My first step to Europe just happends to be Orlando. lol

So while preparing my zed tickets for my Paris-Madrid trip I was told by FL's pass bureau that the tickets would be sent to me, or I could pick them up in sunny Orlando. uhhhmmmm????? hard choice, do I sit in my butt at home and wait for them, or do I go on a quick adventure and have some fun a long the way.

what do you think?

I'm sure most of you would have picked the same option as I did, that's the reason why we are in this board right???
So I plan on leaving to MCO on the morning Orlando flight 671 the next day. Got my camera ready, and walking shoes ready and off we go. Got to the airplane a little late! In fact they had already closed the door. But the gate agent was very nice and printed a new manifest and I took it down to the captain myself, said Hi, introduced myself to the crew and sat on seat 10F! Right behind bussiness class since it was full.

Got there and one of my friends picked me up! Headed for the Airtran Headquarters to pick up the tickets.
When I got there I thought I was just going to be in and out, but the Airtran Official Administrative team had another plan for me. They offered to take me on a tour of the headquarters. I was all over that option.

So we started with SOC: which is our System Operations Control, this is where our dispatch, flight following,crew schedulers,pax movement, and maintance control centers are located. It was a huge room, and lots of things going on at the same time. Very busy, the dispatchers took me through everything they take into consideration when making a flight dispatch, they also explained to me how they share decisions 50/50 with the captain with lots of things related to the flight.

Very cool and nice people.

We continued into the Revenue and accounting departments of the company, and into HR , and then into the CEO's office, where I got to meet him and chat with him for a bit. He is such a nice person. I loved the small chat we had.

After I got done with all of that, I headed for downtown Orlando to take a stroll around town. It was a very nice and warm day so walking was perfect. Took pictures down town, and in front of the court house. There were a lot of news cameras and helicopters there covering the Casie Anthony's murder case.

Went for lunch at a hawaiian restaurant near Taboo night club, great cheap food. So I headed back to the airport and called headquarters before I got there to thank my guide once again. When i got to the gate, my name was called over the gate intercom. It was odd that they called me because I had done nothing wrong. lol It was an Airtran supervisor, he asks me for my badge and tells me to follow him. I was a little scared by now. On our way down to the gate he told me that headquarters called him and wanted him to give me a tour of the airport! wow!

Now I'm excited, got on a tug and drove over to Airtran's maintance hangar, got a tour of that, and then he took me around the airport to get some good shots of landing British Airways, TAM, Lufthansa, and Virgin heavies 747's and A330's. It was way too cool. Next he took me back to my airplane and told the gate that I would be sitting in seat 1F! wow, so cool.

I really felt like a VIP almost, they took very good care of me, and I had lots of fun. Defenetly a trip I would never forget.

See follow the traveling bug in your heart. A simple ticket pick-up turned into one of the funnest days of my life.

Thanks for reading.

More coming soon

I was born and raised in Puntarenas Costa Rica. And It turns out that one of my aunts was getting married.
I could not miss this wedding! All of my family was going to be there, so It's a very rare chance to see everyone.

So I planned to leave Tuesday the 14th from FLL on Spirit flight 336! While working in Milwaukee I came upon a flyer of a concert in Orlando on the 12th. So I made plans with a friend of mine to pick her up, and drive to the concert where we could party all night in MCO all night sunday. Perfect, even though It was my first time renting a car, and I was a little nervous.

So I hopped on flight 675 from MKE to MCO and of course I got bussiness class! lol not being cocky or nothing. Just luck.
Flight went very well, landed and took the rental car shuttle where I got the car (with the insurance in case I hit something).
Drove to my friends house in Kissimmee! To get there it took me $20 USD in tolls and 2 hours of getting lost around Orlando. lol, finally get there and went to eat with my friend. Spent all night at the concert.

The next morning I had to some how make it to Miami or FLL from MCO! So I looked at my options, It was either MCO-ATL-FLL on Airtran. Or MCO-MIA on Gulfstream Airlines Continental Connection. I've never been on a Beechcraft 1900D before, so me being an airplane geek was all over that option. The flight was oversold to 21, but lots of people didnt show up and I got the last seat which was 1F! I was a little dissapointed on not having a window, but when I noticed the captain start the engines, taxi , and take off without closing the door, I felt like a million dollar in the best seat in the world. Got to watch the whole flight even the landing from my seat. It was very cool, me being a student pilot, I loved watching the Altimeter, and VOR receivers in full working mode. Very cool.

Landed in Miami at 11am, took the train up to FLL airport where I would spend the night at the La Quinta.
It was a very nice hotel with a very nice price. Went for a swim and had dinner at Dave N Busters before I called it a night,

The next day I woke up a little late and missed the airport shuttle by less then one minute, so I took a cap to the airport. The lines were extremely long, so I was happy to have checked in online before hand. This ticket I got for 180 USD round trip between FLL-SJO. I only buy real tickets when I go to see my family.

Landed on scheduled time and headed to Palmares , which is a suburb of Alajuela. About 30 minutes from the airport. Met some friends there, dropped off my luggage and headed to the movie theater for a quick funny movie.

The next week I spent traveling all over the country of Costa Rica in parties, clubs, and amusement parks. It was a lot of fun, and Its one of the reasons why I love going there. There is a lot to do if you know the right people.

Remember, Costa Rica is famous for its cheap food. You can feed 4 people a lot of food for under 12 dollars at a small local "Soda" which is what we call a small restaurant. So I eat a lot while Im there.

On my way back I had to go to FLL-ATL-MKE! Once I got to FLL, I quickly realized the harsh truth, every flight with every airline that could get me out of FLL is overbooked. Crap!!!!!!! lol After done lots of research on an Airtran computer, I found I ticket to BNA (Nashville) for under 100USD so I bought that. For the next day of couse. So I ended up sleeping at the Sleep In at FLL and woke up very early the next morning to catch my flight. Got to BNA and hurried up to C12 where Midwest Connect flights fly out of. Listed for the flight and about 10 minutes later I was on a CRJ-200 heading for MKE!

This was the first time I've ever gotten stuck somewhere and had to buy a ticket. But I always find a way home. And plus It was worth it, for all of the fun I had while I was there.

Thanks for reading.

It was 2am monday, and I was still up. I really had the traveling itch that night for some reason. But my wallet was kinda low on funds. I said, oh well! I can't say "I can't travel, im too broke" every time I'm low on funds, because I'd never go anywhere. So got online and started looking at schedules for the next morning. My options were SAN,SEA,SFO,PHX,LAX! Me being a big geek on airplanes I decided to go to seattle and tour the Boeing museum.

So I called my friend at about 4am and asked him if he'd like to go to Seattle in 4 hours. He says hell yeahh, but go to sleep and get some rest first. Perfect! There was just one problem, at the time Airtran MKE-SEA flight was only one a day, and it returned to MKE right away. So I'd have to either stay the night in Seattle, which I couldnt afford, or fly somewhere alse. So I said, Oh well I'd improvise once I get there.

Woke up two hours later and off to MKE! The flight was running late, so I found a perfect opportunity to get some overtime hours while I waited. Put my vest on, and went to work the ramp for two hours. It was kind of cool to unload and load the plane I was just about to hop on. hooked all of the tow bars and stuff and went upstairs to get my boarding pass. My friend was already up there. First I had to stop by the bathroom and freshen up. Dont want to smell bad during my trip!

About 20 Minutes later, I'm clean and fresh for my flight. Gate agents hand us the tickets, 2A and 2F! Bussiness class windows. Perfect!!! Untill one of the rampers noticed some blood in the engines! Our 737-700 had hit a bird on its final approach to Milwaukee. Luckily it was just blood and the bird was not inside the engine. 45 Minutes later, we're off.

Slept all the way there, untill we started our 20 minute holding pattern due to heavy inbound traffic at Tacoma. Landed and got some information about the city, brochures and stuff and headed for the bus station. Turns out that Boeing Factory is up in Everett, quite a ways north of the city, and quite an expensive ride , which we could not afford. In our approach into Tacoma, I saw a 747, a Concorde and some other cool airplanes in what seems to be a museum. LAter found out it was called the Boeing Museum of Flight at King Airport. So we took the bus there and got a little lost, but made it ok.

Had lunch there, some cheap hot dogs with ships and good iced tea. TOur the whole museum and headed for downtown seattle, where we went to the space needle and to our dissapointment had to pay 20 dollars to go all the way to the top! That was our budget for our whole trip. jajaja. Went touring downtown for many hours, and had dinner at mcdonalds. After this we headed back to the airport to see where we wanted to go next. The best looking flight was Airtran non-stop to Baltimore. Red-eye, so we could sleep, get some free food during the flight and wake up in the morning in beautiful BWI. Landed in BWI at 7:30am, a little rough. But brushed my teeth at the bathroom, bought some gel and off we go.

We decided to go tour D.C, so took the shuttle to the amtrak station and bought a oneway ride down to Washington DC central station for 3.50USD. Get there and start walking around to see if we could find some brochures. No need after we stumbled right in front of the US Capitol Building. From there we visited the National Air & Space Museum and walked towards the white house, lincoln memorial, and eventually across the potomac river and end it up at the pentagon. Wow, such a long walk, from the train station to the pentagon. We were exhausted. It really wasnt that long of a distance, but we've just done so much walking the night before, and on top of sleeping in an airplane for 4 hours. We were just tired.

Took the train down to DCA airport, and listed for Midwest and Airtran flights to MKE. Both had seat open, but the first one was airtran, so off we go. Got home and slept for 13 whole hours.

Overral, it was a great trip, and had lots of fun. And Still love traveling and wondering what to do next when I fly places.

Fly safe everyone, more coming soon.

So I was so hyped to go to Puerto Rico, I had it all planned, got some ticket on US, CO , and FL! Plenty of room in all. I was dreaming all night , of pretty puerto ricans, the beach, the food, the music, the clubs.

I invited a friend to tag along from Midwest Airlines, he'd never been to P.R, so he was also pumped to go. I'm an aviation geek, so I looked up the schedules from MKE-SJU, the most obious way to get there was through ATL on Airtran, lots of seats open, perfect. Well I had another Idea on mind, recently while playing on flightaware, I found out that the only domestic A330 flight in the US was from PHL to SJU. Wow, I was sicked, I could already see myself in the gaint. Well so we got ready and went to PHL on Air Wisconsin CRJ from MKE at about 5:40am. We got to PHL early about 7 something am.

It was to our surprise when we got there, that our flight had been cancelled to SJU and that everyother flight to SJU for the rest of the day had become overbooked due to the cancellation. So now I need a plan. I noticed there was a 767-200 departing for Charlotte. Perfect, Puerto Rico here we come. Nottt! I get to CLT and the 767 going to San Juan was downsized to a A319! So now everything out of Charlotte is oversold too!

I've never let this ruin a trip for me, when you fly stand-by you just have to have lots of flexebility. walked over to the boards and noticed three destinations that may be fun to go to. New Orleans for some good food, St Thomas for a nice beach or Key West. We checked the loads for all three flights, and the best one coming back was from Key West. That's another thing, always check how it looks on the return flight, there may be 80 seats open there, but it could be overbooked by 10 on the way back.

So we had the US Airways rep switch up our tickets for Key West (EYW). To my surprise it was on a Republic Embraer 175. I've never been on that type of airplane, so that's a plus. Took off and had a great nap next to the Window on 18F all the way down to the Conch Republic , as locals call it. Landed and from the air we got to see part of the island. Beautiful.

Landed and to my surprise, no jetbridge, the air stairs came up to the plane, I love this! As we proceeded into the terminal I noticed a very small building which was the terminal. As soon as you walk into it from the airplane, right then and there is baggage claim, and about 20ft away is the door. Kinda like the size of my house.
Went outside and just went for a walk to enjoy the scenery. 1 Block later, there it was, the ocean. So beautiful. And only a 5 minute walk from the airport.

There we mapped out the island with all the brochures we took from outside the terminal. Found a good hotel (Hollyday Inn) which offers a airline discount for 79USD a night. We were only staying one night so i was about 43 dollars each. Took about a 20 minute nap at the hotel and headed for the pool. Heated pools are perfect for January when the water its a bit cold.


After the pool, it was time for some more brochures. Found a scooter rental! 30 dollars for 24 hours! Perfect. Only sucky part its the 300USD security deposit. Oh well, it did put me on low funds though. This things were so much fun, It was one of the funnest things that we did during this trip was ride this girly mopeds with hawaiian flowers on it. But for some reason you feel like you are riding a harley davidson while you cruise down Duval Street, which is where the main street where all of the pretty girls and tourist walk down to shop, eat and party. Its also near the cruise ship port. Which we could not see at night.
Had some seafood that night and called it a night!

The next morning It was off to tour the Keys, Drove around Stock Island, and Key west, and went to walk around the cruise ship port where this massive giants unload 5000 people at a time. Very nice area with a lot of historical sites, and lots of fun things to do and buy. Drove to the scooter rental place and dropped them off. There we met some cool guys who gave us a ride to the airport and loved to talk about cars.

Got there and everything went very smooth. Got the seat request cards and continued through security where of course i was SSSS like always. But got through it quickly and there was our Beauty. The EMB-175 was waiting for us to take us back to CLT. This time we came very close to making the flight as we took the last two seats on this flight. Good. Once in CLT I expected the worst, so got us listed to ATL on Airtran and then to MKE. Sure enough when we get there the MKE flight was oversold. So ATL here we come. Made the quick flight to Hartsfield and almost missed our connection because of a ground hold before taking off that took about 30 minutes. But At the end, everything worked out and one more trip later I finally made it home.

Thanks for reading more coming soon.

This was a group trip! 10 People from work decided to fly somewhere fun and interesting! Far away!!!! So we could relax on the beach, and get away from our -10 degree weather in MKE.

I figured everyone wasn't going to show up, but at least one or two woukd. I worked the day before till about 10:30pm, snowed a lot that night, so I started worrying about the weather in the morning. Wether it was going to delay our flight to CLT. Ohh well I went to wallgreens and bought sandals, tooth paste, and all essencials. Remember people, lots of things are cheaper in your hometown before you leave, then at your destination.

Next morning I got up. late! By the way people, before I continue I would like to let you guys know , I've always been well known for showing up last minute at the airport and taking whatever flight I can to get out of Milwaukee.
I drove very fast to the airport, checked in and ran to the gate where my Air Wisconsin CRJ-200 flight was waiting for me. Everyone had boarded already, so I did not know who was really going to show up or not. Got my seat (1C) and went down to the plane where I was happy to see some smiling familiar faces. Three other people showed up for our trip. Ted, Sherry, and Justin. Plane de-iced and blasted off MKE runway 19R off to Charlotte. Very pleasant flight, about 2 hours.

Once we arrived in CLT, I was shocked to notice that CLT was having a cold week, with a temperature of only 23 Degrees, it was very cold to be out in the tarmac with only a sweater.

We had about a 2 hour connection for our St Thomas (STT) flight. Got some chicken and talked to my co-workers to get some sort of game plan going.

Soon we saw our crew come into view, and our beautiful 757-200W version pull into the gate with screaming kids from MCO! The planes flaps would not retract all the way, actually the slats, wouldnt retract, so maintance was called, now I'm sweating. No seats yet, maintance problems, and the desk is full of people asking questions. 30 Minutes later as Im dosing off into sleep, I hear my name being called, I jumped and ran to the gate, once I get there the gate agent tells me, Boy! You really wanna get on huh?! I said "Yees Mamn! We all get seats and rocketed into the skies of North Carolina for our 3.5 hours of flight. We each got rows to ourselfs all the way in the back of the 757. Smooth flight, saw many airplanes up at cruising altitutte with beautiful white contrails. Soon the Virgin Islands came into view. Slowed down, flaps down, gear down. Three green, and boom! Beautiful touch down at Cyril King Airport.

Now the fun part, all the way in the back of the airplane, we there thinking, well its gonna be a while till we get out. Not quite, they brought the airstairs to the back of the airplane, and off we go. You could just feel the beautiful sea brease in your face.

Came to rent a car and three hours later we are still waiting for our it. Remember you are in Carribean Time once you are there, no rush for anything. Finally got the car and off we go. We very quickly learned that in St Thomas driving is a bit different. It turns out that you drive on the left side of the road there. Well 10 blocks later and a lot of beeping we learned that lesson. jajaja, I love to improvise, but sometimes it may be better to do a little research.

It took us 4 hours to find our hotel. In the islands there is so such thing as street signs. So with a very bad map with no detail of all of the side roads it was very hard to find. Lots of people will give you directions there in a very weird nature. Such as, cross the street, when you see the church go around the big circle untill you see the big three, ohh and If you feel lost you are defenetly going the right way.

We stayed at The Villa Olga near French Town. Beautiful small hotel with a pool and rooms overlooking the downtown area of Charlotte Amalie bay! And Just happend to be right in front of where the Seaplanes land. Me Being an aviation nut, I loved that.

Villa Olga shares amanities with Bolongo Bay Resort, so we were told that we were welcome to use their watersports and their private beach. We drove to the cruise area, and went shopping and then off to the beach. Kayak, snorkel, and lots of other watersports were absolutely free, because we were staying at the sister resort. Even get a free drink. So lots of fun in the water that day. Also that day I got some free Sailing lessons out in the ocean, this was a lot of fun, and a must for any non-rever.I could not stress enough how well they treated us at the Villa Olga. The lady saw that four of us were going to share a 2 bed room, so she offered us a free room because it was empty. Here is the adress to the hotel:

http://www.bolongobay.com/VillaOlga.htm

That night we hit up a Wisconsin Themed bar named betsies, whom the owner was a native from Wisconsin, so lots of free drinks and called it a night. Next day was the funnest challenge. Drive around the whole island.
This was absolutely beautiful because the roads are so narrow and so many dangerous clifts and curves all over the island. Its a very fun drive.

That day we headed back to the cruise ship port and got some souveniers and off we go. Arrived at the US Airways ticket counter and to my surprise, the ticket counter was outside. Very cool, got my seat request card and off to the gate. On our way there we stumbled into Customs and Immigration. It turns out that as of Feb 01 2009 you are going to need a passport to get in and out of the Virgin Islands. But we were two days early so no problem for my friends who did not have one. Lots of questioning, mainly about my status in the country since I'm not a citizen of the US. Well 15 minutes later and lots of questioning later they let me go.

The gate was full of people, very full. Now I'm worried, because there is four of us sweating for seats. 10 minutes before departure they called us and thankfully we got seats. I got 31F, window, so I was happy. All of the other guys got isles.
Now off to Charlotte leaving a beautiful island behind into the sunset.

Bad weather had gone through CLT that morning, so lots of flights were now overbooked. Great!!!! jajaja. We decided amongs ourselfs that If there was one seat open, we were going to let our friend Ted have it because he had to work the next day. An US Airways Captain took the jumpseat for him and he was able to get on. Good. Now Let's find a back up guys. I quickly reach for my phone while looking at the flight boards and called a friend in MCO to see if he'd be willing to let us crash at his place. He says sure come on down. Next thing I remember is running to a whole different concourse where another 757 was waiting for us. Gate agent was so nice to us and gave us Emergency exit rows on our 1.5 hour flight down to MCO. I remember that night the moon was so bright and not a single cloud on the Florida skies. Perfect flight. Once we landed we got picked up by another friend which took us to go to our friend house.

On our way there, he asked us If we'd like to go out with some Airtran People. The other guys were very tired, so they said no. I said Of course man, lets go. We went to this really cool open air bar. Me being only 19 I couldnt order any alcohol, but they shared with me. JAJAJA . Its now 5am and we're still all there just talking and having fun. Time to go home and crash in the couch for 2 hours before I head back to MCO airport. In the morning woke up and drove to the airport with my friends car, which I had to returned because he had dranked way to much the night before, so he couldnt drive. Dropped my friends off at the airport and went to pick up my friend who drove me back to the airport.

The flight to MKE was oversold, and now I'm running so late. My friends keep calling me and asking me where I'm at. Well I made it and luckuly a family of 6 decided to take a later flight, so that left just enough seats for us to fill. Perfect. Isle seat 18D all the way to MKE, and one more trip to talk about. It was lots of fun, and I recommend St Thomas for any first time non-revs, because its close by, and lots of airlines operate in and out of STT.

Once again thanks for reading and more coming soon.

Let's start with a quick introduction! My name is Dario, Im a CSR agent for Airtran Airways in Milwaukee, and I love to travel. I just recently found out that one of my good friends got sent to Schofield Barracks in the Island of Oahu in Hawaii. My first thought was great, now I can go to hawaii and visit, and have a place to stay and a car to drive.


So I planned it for spring break, I'm not going to school right now, but I have a friend who wanted to come with me, so she was out of school on those dates. I got her some tickets on Frontier Airlines from MKE-DEN-LAX, where she bought a cheap comfirmed ticket from there to HNL.

I in the other hand was going to non-rev all the way to Hawaii and back. It was tough, because it was spring break and lots of the flights were full.

So I worked on saturday night very late, untill about 2am, and i had to be back at the airport at 6am for a 7am PHX flight with US Airways. I got home and got all my stuff ready and went to sleep about 4am.
I planned three back ups. One Counter to Counter on Midwest Airlines to PHX, other on US Airways and the last one on Airtran. All non-stops.

Unfortunally I slept in and missed both of the Midwest and US Airways flights. woke up about 9:30am and got ready faster then I've ever gotten ready before. I had my dad dropped me off so I could save time on parking the car and stuff.
The Airtran flight to PHX left at 10:30, here I am leaving my house at 10:00am, get to the airport at about 10:15 say good byes and run to the gate where my friend was waiting for me with my ticket. When i got there, there was about 100 people in line at the security area, so I whipped my badge out and onto the employee line I go! By this time they're calling my name over the PA. (The girls knew me and did not want me to missed my flight) I called the gate and told them to board me and to put me on the manifest and close the door. I could run and open the door with no problem.

It literally took me 3 minutes to go through security, quick run to the gate and I made it. Come down and to my luck I had gotten Bussiness class seat 1C! Perfect. Asked the flight attendant for some water and here we go 3 1/2 hours non-stop to PHX.

When I get there the Honolulu flight was way overbooked so I hopped online and bought a Ticket from Maui to Honolulu on hawaiian airlines for 35 USD. Made the OGG flight and got a good window seat all the way to the islands. Here I come Hawaii.

Once I got to Maui I took lots of pictures of the airports and the random cool airlines that reside in Hawaii. Beautiful place. Hopped on the Hawaiian Airlines 717 quick flight to HNL. Let me tell you, the flight attendants for Hawaiian should be in the Miss USA. They are beautiful. Got some good sights of the Islands from the airplane of what is going to be my home for the next 3 days.

Hawaiian Natives are very friendly, and very beautiful too. As I waited for my friends to pick me up I met a group of very pretty girls that welcomed me to the Island. And were wondering where I was from. I told them I was a Native Costa Rican, and they wanted to know so much about my country. Nice girls.
That night we went out to what is supposed to be the "worldst largest outdoor mall" near waikiki beach. Lots of people in the streets and lots of stores everywhere you look. Had some fish and chips at Pier 38 and went to my friends place to call it a night.

The next day she was supposed to work, so me and my other friend went to Waikiki beach and Hanauma Bay for some fun in the sun, and a lilttle snorkeling. Lots of fun. It was the first time I've ever gone beach hunting, we stopped at so many of them it was just crazy. Went to pick up our friend for dinner and this night we drove around Honolulu looking for Hawaiian food. I was wondering why people were looking at us like we were crazy for asking where I could find Hawaiian food. Later I hit my head and came up with a better term for it , "Local Food" jajajaja.

The third day I found a good package on a coupon book to try out the watersports for 70USD which included Parasailing, Speed Boat and Jet Skis. We said Aloha to our tour guides and enjoyed jetskiing right next to Hickam AFB which is also Honolulu Int Airport. It was like being in St Marteen, so many 757's , 767's, A340's and 747's flew very low over our heads while we were playing in the water. Beautiful experience. So we hurried up into our parasailing session where they took us up 800FT over the water and gave us a beautiful view of the airport and of the island it self.

After this, I decided that I could not leave Hawaii without driving around the whole Island of Oahu, which I did in about 3 hours. Some of the most beautiful views I've ever encountered. We drove thru the Dole Pineapple plantations, also through the famous north shore beaches, and all the way around to finish my trip at HNL airport where once again the flight to PHX was oversold. The Newark flight to Continental was wide open but I had a different Idea on my head. I bought a one way ticket to Kona in the main island on Hawaiian and had the most beautiful views out of my window seat for 38USD. Arrived in Kona and checked in for my flight, where there were 89 open seats.

The Kona airport is beautiful, Its a completely outdoor airport with little shacks acting as gates. Very unique experience. Boarded the flight on a window seat and off to PHX we go. I had the worst heartburn on this flight but I made it to PHX ok and catched the first MKE flight where I got 28B as my seat. I did not care, I was just happy to get home and get some rest. Plus I was sitting in between two pretty girls. It wasnt so bad.

Thanks for reading, more coming soon