This is one of several posts that has been sitting in my drafts for months and months, so I thought I better get with it and clear them all out.
I’ve been meaning to write this trip up for ages but haven’t really got round to it for a variety of dull reasons. This was the third trip ( I think) that I’ve done to San Diego, and although I was looking forward to it I was slightly dragging my feet about going because even though I love the destination, the flights are very long and very busy. But either way.
We set the tone for the trip by getting everyone boarded and just after we had pushed back from stand and were about to start the safety demo the customer sitting in 42E realised he had left his e-cigarette in his hold luggage. On the plus side he had at least had the presence of mind to let one of us know.
As a very brief explanation, e-cigs, like mobile phones, laptops, ipads etc are powered by lithium ion batteries. They have a habit of catching fire for no apparent reason. And god forbid it should happen at 37,000ft somewhere above the Atlantic, it’s better if the battery is in the cabin where we have at least a chance of extinguishing it than in the hold where we wouldn’t necessarily know about it until it was too late. Positive mindset and all that.
So this little incident resulted in us having to return to stand, where we had to wait for what was apparently London Heathrow’s one and only baggage handler to come and go through an entire 747 hold full of bags to find this guys bag, unload the bag, find the e cig and get everything back in the hold, correctly loaded and closed up again then wait for another push back and take off slot. Ideal. An hour and a half after the whole carry on started we were finally underway.
11 hours later and twenty two hours after I had got up and we were in California without too much further ado.
The next morning I had arranged to go for breakfast with a couple of the other girls. For any crew reading this that haven’t done a San Diego yet then Cafe 21 (out of the hotel entrance we arrive at, not the one next to reception, turn left, cross the road like you’re going to the mall and then down Adams Avenue as if your going to Coyote Ugly bar) does the best breakfast mimosas. And coffee with milk not cream if that’s your thing. I had the French toast which was worth writing home about.
We had decided to head out to La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya), about 30 minutes in an Uber from San Diego itself to do a sea kayak safari. If nothing else it promised some good #crewlife instagram shots. La Jolla turned out to be pretty gorgeous and after a quick walk along the beach we walked back into town to get suited and booted for our kayaking. The hour and a halfs kayaking tour, somewhat predictably, turned into a source of much hilarity.
We were sharing the tour with an older American couple and an family from Texas on their spring break holiday. Whilst we were having a great time I would say steering the kayaks through some pretty decent chop was not our strongest skill, every now and then sending us crashing into the older american lady in her canoe who spent the entire tour watching us in pretty stony silence…
About half way through the morning we noticed that the youngest son of the Texan family who was sharing a kayak with his mum was looking distinctly unwell… the next we heard was the young laddie who was in charge of us saying ‘Are you feeling a little wonky!?’ I suspect you may have had to have been there but it was quite funny at the time.
The actual kayaking itself was great, the La Jolla coast line is a state marine reserve so there was plenty to see from dolphins and some very friendly seals to sea lions and dive bombing pelicans. As we had all ended up upside down under our kayaks in three foot of water whilst paddling back in to the shore we decided that it was definitely time to go back to the hotel and have a nap, ready for dinner with the rest of the crew later in the evening.
We had an amazing turn out of the entire crew plus flight deck. This is almost unheard of, although most of the crew will usually come out for dinner, especially somewhere nice like San Diego, there will often be one or two that will be having a slightly more chilled trip or saving money and staying in. To have an entire crew of 15 plus 3 flight crew out is quite the achievement.
We headed to the Marriott hotel Skybar on the otherside of town for happy hour drinks at sunset before dinner. The views were amazing, overlooking Coronado and Point Loma on one side and Petco Park on the other. After one more G&T than was perhaps strictly necessary before dinner we jumped in an uber across to Seaport Village.
*Disclaimer
Given the content of some recently published newspaper articles I’ve been through this second half and edited it slightly. You can use your imagination to fill in the blanks.
We headed to Puesto, a great Mexican restaurant overlooking the harbour, the chicken verde tacos and frozen margaritas come highly recommended. After an excellent dinner we headed back into town, making our way to Barleymash in the Gas Lamp Quarter. Suffice to say fun was had by all.
The next morning we were all in the mood for a slightly quieter day before the (thankfully also quiet) flight back to London.
This was without doubt one of the best trips I had whilst I was flying, and one of those where you have to stop for a moment and remind yourself that you are actually being paid to do this. I still laugh thinking about the memories from those few days. It really was made though by having such an amazing crew, if every trip was like this one then I would definitely still be flying!
Life From Above 