My Travels

I've taken off to Ottawa to visit family. Airfares to Canada has really jumped and I opted to use miles to fly on this trip. It has been awhile since I've been on Air Canada and found the experience enjoyable. The planes are outfitted with individual monitors (typical JetBlue planes) with USB and electric outlet ports. It was nice to power up the phones, laptops, and watch personalized movies. I have to say that I always forget the international standards for passing through security since I tend to remember the American version most and get discombobulated when dealing with the security people. Since Ottawa isn't a typical destination city, I flew through Vancouver en route to Ottawa. The Maple Lounge at LAX was rather small but provided free internet. The Maple Lounge in Vancouver was nice and comfortable but internet was not free. Same provider, different prices. Even more ironic, the airport provides free wireless internet which makes the pay for use internet

I went up for the day to San Francisco for a baby shower. It has been a relatively good week of travel since I've been in first class for all the flights so far. Yay! Came into the city later than originally planned due to bad weather which will later turn out well for me. Since I missed my ride to the city, I caught the BART to the city using my new Translink card. I do enjoy that mass transit is moving towards plastic cards that can hold cash value. Makes travelling without cash so much easier... Hung out in downtown for the day and saw some friends. When I headed back to the airport, I was able to volunteer to be bumped off my original flight on United Airlines to a later flight. Garunteed first class seat and $400 in vouchers. So for all the incovenience of the flight delays today, I was happy to get some compensation.

Went to the Windy City fo work, I was able to secure automatic upgrades on United for my trip. A pleasant surprise, I arrived to stay at the Four Points by Sheraton by Midway Airport . A relatively old hotel, it was a pleasant stay with the free wireless internet, nightly water bottle service and the Wall Street Journal newspaper. The WSJ is nice as most hotels only provide USA Today as a reading source. Met up with a friend the first night and went out to Mike Ditka's in the Loop. I haven't been in several years and my friend, who is a local, actually never been. We shared the wedge salad, rib-eye steak, jalapeno hash browns and banana cream pie. The food did not disappoint! And before you think sharing seems wierd, the food portions are large that we were busting out of our stomachs with the food ordered. The next night, I went to Vivo for a company dinner. The food was rather forgettable and I was happy when the meal ended. The appetizers helped stave off my hung