Leaving on a Jet Plane.

Well, Diana and I have come to Houston to help my sister out with her two young children. Her husband is a pilot and so we got to experience the joys of flying standby for the first time last Saturday. Things went pretty well. Trent was able to drive us to the airport on account of Marion and Jared were still at scout camp. We got to the airport about 7:30 for our 9:25am flight. I don't know what the deal is and why there have to be so many dang people at the Las Vegas Airport all the time. I am constantly amazed that no matter what time or day my flight is there are always about a billion other people trying to fly home. I guess I can't blame them for wanting to leave Las Vegas, but that is a post for another time. Anyway, we stand in a ridiculously long line and finally make it out to our gate. We did come plenty early and so we had time to enjoy a lovely breakfast that we had to pay an arm and a leg for. It did taste good and was large enough that we could split it and so that was good. We then finally made it over to our gate to wait and see if we would make it on the plane. Once again I was astounded by the large crowd. Doesn't anyone want to sleep in anymore? Diana was very disapointed that we did not join the others as they stood in line to board the plane. Turns out that this plane was very full and we learned a new airline term "weight restricted". This term means that there may be too much weight on the plane and they have to wait until the last minute to determine if any of the stand by people can go. Apparently this is done by some kind of averages because the airlines think people might take offense to actually being asked to step on a scale before boarding the plane. Although with everything else you go through, why not add another thing to the process. Bottom line when it was all said and done, they reached their weight limit and so we did not get on even if there were some empty seats. I realize that we are not paying customers and so we should not complain, it was just disapointing for Diana who was overly excited to get going.
The next flight was at 11:10. This was just an hour and a half away. We decided to walk around and do some window shopping to kill the time. I was surprised at how fast the time did go and Diana was excited to purchase a little artist kit at one of the nearby shops. I was excited that it was only $10. We went back to the gate and took turns sketching each other. Finally they started boarding the next flight. This time we hit the stand by lottery and we were given seats. It is almost as exciting as if Bob Barker said "Pat and Diana Hammond, come on down, your the next constestants on You've Got a Seat." We happily boarded the plane and were even able to trade seats with someone on the plane so that we could sit together. Finally we were in the air and I was reminded of how much I hate to fly. I am a member of the Mr. T. school of flying where I prefer to be sedated when flying on a plane. Just because I prefer this, does not make it so, but if I could choose I would not choose to be awake when I am off the ground. There was a lot of turbulance when we left until we got high enough up that things settled down. Did I mention that I don't like to fly? Yikes. The flight went well and we got to see the movie "Bridge to Teribithia", which neither Diana or I had seen. Finally we were getting close to Houston. I guess the weather was a bit bad and we hit some air pocket or something. It felt like the plane went over something like Splash Mountain. The guy sitting next to me said we must have fell 50 feet. I have never felt anything like it before and many of the passengers screamed all at once. I have to admit to being to scared to scream, which must be a first for me. Needless to say, I was very happy when we were back on the ground.
We are having a nice visit with my sister, although two children under two do require some attention. It is nice to be out of the heat as it is only in the 80's here. The humidity is quite interesting, but I am getting used to it.