Travels

My flight to Vancouver was departing at 6 AM, and usually I leave the house 3 hours before departure. At that time of the day, I could not rely on public transport, so I planned to Uber-ing there. However, I decided against leaving the house at 3 AM: I was moving West, so I would have a long day anyway, and also, the AA lounge opens at 5 AM. With all of that, and with hopes that the early morning ride would be faster than the average one hour, I set my alarm clock for 3:20 AM. I took a shower the night before, and my bags were packed, so it shouldn’t have been more than 20 min, and I don’t understand why it took me more than 40. And when I placed a request for Uber, it took them more than 15 minutes to locate the driver. I started to panic, but the driver told me we had plenty of time, and he was right – we arrived at Terminal 3 at 4:40 AM. However, there was another unexpected problem: there was a construction going on in Terminal 3, and the Priority entrance was closed! They only left TSA pre-checks, and there were plenty open, but I never got it, because Priority was always faster :).

Even though they do not ask you to take the liquids and electronics out of your bag anymore, the line was so long that it took the same time as the Uber ride! (Plus the time I was running around to figure out where to go without the priority entrance). I ran into the Lounge five minutes prior to boarding, but still had time to have breakfast:

I knew that was my only chance to eat until I landed in Vancouver, because they do not serve any food (even for purchase), even on the long flights, and I had two long flights with a very short connection in LA. So I did what I almost never do: I put an apple and an English muffin into my backpack. Well, at least they served coffee on both flights! (Some flights don’t do even that!)

I landed at Vancouver on time. I heard a lot of praise for Vancouver, but I was a little bit cautious about having high expectations. After all, people are going insane about San Francisco, and I like it “objectively,” as a tourist, but I do not love it.

I loved it. It clearly reminds me of Seattle: I know they are geographically close, but I was not even thinking about it st first. I can’t tell what I liked, it was just in the air.

I was thinking, as I often do, why things are so normal everywhere else? Why can you just step out of the airport terminal, get on a high-speed train, and get to the city center in so many cities in the world, but not in Chicago? Or when will our Blue Line start to resemble these high-speed trains? Yes, I know that in many US cities, we do not have even that!