Day -01 - Saturday 03/02/24

 Departure day finally arrived.  We were up by 6am and our son picked us up at 7am for the short drive to SeaTac airport.  Upon arrival at the United  Airlines area, we had to manually check in as our travel agent booked us as a part of a group and wouldn't provide the booking code.  It was a real pain to do that compared to the 'old' days when one could just approach the ticket counter, state one's name and destination and a clerk would handle the rest of the booking process.


Armed with a boarding pass and less our checked luggage, we made our way to the boarding gate where we learned that our flight was delayed about 15 minutes because the crew 'timed out' last night after a late arrival into Seattle.  It was a full flight and we left our parking position about 10 minutes late from the original time.  With our weight, our takeoff roll was a tad longer than normal.  It was a nice 3.5 hour flight to Houston with an on time arrival.



Our luggage was among the last off the conveyer, and we joined a long line outside for the hotel transfer shuttle.  We got the second shuttle and were whisked to the Sheraton.  There we encountered another long check in line which took 40 minutes.  We ended up with a 3rd floor room facing the end of the airport runway which yielded some nice views not unlike those at our home.  


Our friends, Susan & Rick, picked us up just after 5:15 and took us to Pappas Bar-B-Q which was excellent. We reminisced about our trip together last fall on the Holland America Grand South America cruise, and caught up on life events.  All too soon, they brought us back to the Sheraton where we chilled in the room before falling asleep in anticipation of embarkation day tomorrow.




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