Flight Over the Volcanoes

So I had to fly for work. Again.



This time I took a trip to Washington - the state, not the capitol. It was nice to only suffer a 1 hour and 45 minute plane ride. Plus, I've gained enough travel experience now to finally nail the itinerary. I wasn't killing myself for an early morning flight, or sacrificing sleep for a red-eye, or languishing for hours at the airport, or skipping meals to rush from one terminal to another, or missing my ride to the hotel and losing 2 hours of sleep, or planning, actually planning, a 16 hour work day just to get it all done. Finally - FINALLY - I think I got it right.

I'm telling you, everything went like clock work and I was really pleased with the trip.

First off, I managed to pick the correct side of the plane to sit on. Shockingly, this really paid off because I got to see the entire line of volcanoes from here to there, as white and fat as pearls on a looooong strand stretching from Lassen to Mt. Rainier. It was magnificent! We even flew right beside Crater Lake. I've never seen that beautiful bowl from the air. It was gorgeous. Made me want to land right there and hike around the rim. From the angle of the plane, I even got to look right down into the tiny opening on Wizard's Island. Wow!



I remember a road trip the family took, a long time ago, up to Idaho. We managed to drive along most of those volcanoes. So I've seen those volcanoes before, up close. But I don't ever remember Mt. Rainier looking like that! It was huge! I mean, from the air. It's. Like. HUGE! It was breath-taking.

And then the plane banked to land at the Seattle airport. And, even more shocking to me, we banked right over where I planned an afternoon stroll. You see, I specifically padded my trip to include a nice walk through some local nature. I would have killed to be able to go all the way to the Olympic National Forest, but it was just too far away. So, I looked for anything along my route, I-5, that could provide me with some small amount of peace and quiet after the jitter and jangle of a flight, two busy airports, and a hour commute through a metropolis. I found the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge and thought that it would do. So I studied the map, figured out my directions, and read up on it. That's why it was easy for me to spot it so clearly from the plane as it banked. It was a perfect match to the map I had just been studying. Wow again!

So, I landed, got my rental (there was a little glitch there, I will admit), hit the open road without once getting lost (no GPS, just me), and found Nisqually an hour later.



Ahhh, beautiful. It really was that green too! It was a very nice stroll. It wasn't as quiet as I would have liked because of some nearby construction, but it was exactly what I wanted. I relaxed nicely and, bonus, I worked up an appetite for dinner. Double wow!!

The rest of the trip went smoothly. The hotel was great; I got a full night's sleep; the WA VSP folks were hospitable; my work progressed on schedule; the vendor I met up there was on time and knowledgeable; I wrapped up on time; I drove back on time; the car rental place knocked some money off my bill; I had time for a really good meal at the airport; and my flight home was only delayed by 10 minutes. All in all, it was a great trip.

I wish I could pull that off every time!