If you may recall from my last installment we found out that we are going to be able to take our July 4 Galapagos Island cruise on Celebrity's Flora. We had heard about all this on a TA-only Celebrity webinar that we watched three weeks ago tomorrow.
Of course the very first morning after the announcement we wanted to get all our plans set up. We had originally planned on flying from Seattle to Los Angeles on Alaska Air (our hometown airline) about three days before we were flying to Quito, Ecuador. While in the area we would see my brother and sister-in-law and spend a couple of days doing LA fun stuff. Then we would board our flight to Quito on Friday July second, spend a full day on Saturday touring Quito with Celebrity before heading to the Galapagos themselves on Sunday. We were also scheduled to spend an extra day in Quito after we visited the islands.
But Celebrity has wisely decided that even though most people on the islands are vaccinated, the COVID situation in mainland Ecuador is not a good one. So they have shortened our trip from 11 days to nine. That was OK with us as this trip is all about the Galapagos.
But now we had to redo all our flights because we would be leaving out of LA a day later than we thought and coming back a day earlier. So I got on the phone with Celebrity (they had booked our Quito flights as part of our package) to find out when the new times would be so I could change our other arrangements that would get us to and from LAX.
Besides the fact that they told me they couldn't be sure of anything for a least a week, when they finally sent me the itinerary, it had changed a WHOLE BUNCH! We had originally been scheduled to fly on Copa Air (the national airline of Panama) from LAX leaving at 11:30 AM and arriving in Quito at 9:30 pm our time. We had about a 2 hour layover in Panama City which was OK for us.
The new schedule had us leaving LAX at 2:30 AM!!! And then we had an almost nine hour layover in Panama City, still taking the same Panama to Quito flight we had been on originally that got us in at 11:30 pm. Now I fully realize that some people like flying red-eye flights but we are not two of those people. That would mean missing a night of sleep as we would have to stay up to get on the plane and then even if we were in Business class and had lay-down seats, by the time we got to sleep, we would be landing not to mention the really long layover in an airport we don't know in a country that still has major COVID problems. At our age (seems like I say that a lot ?) we would be wiped out for about two days of the cruise. So this flight was out for us.
I jumped online and started looking for flights either from LAX or SEA but no dice. Either we left really early in the morning (like 2:30) or the previous afternoon and would have to spend the night in an airport, there was basically nothing. We were just not sure how this was going to work out so I decided to take my daily walk and see if just getting out would give me an idea. Walking often does that.
Sure enough, I came up with an idea that Kathleen actually liked ?. My idea was, let's find a non-stop flight to Quito from someplace in the United States, fly to that city the night before and then fly to Quito the next morning. Now we had to pick a city to fly to that had a non-stop to Quito. The airlines made that easy because you can really only fly to Quito on a non-stop from very few airports. We were kind of limited to Houston, Atlanta or Miami.
When I said Miami we both looked at each other and said, "YES!" We decided right then and there that this was the way we wanted to go. One of our best friends in the world, the god of shore excursions, Mike Preisman lives just north of Fort Lauderdale and we will pretty much take any reason to go and visit him. Plus, since the last time we saw him (March 2020) he has met and fallen head over heels for his new lady friend, Cathy. And even though we have met her on FaceTime we really want to meet her in person...and now we will. So we will spend three days with them and have fun in sunny, hot and humid Florida. Not only that, Mike is such a great guy he volunteered to pick us up in Fort Lauderdale and drop us off three days later at MIA.
Our flight from MIA to Quito is only four hours. I always forget that Quito, Ecuador is just about directly south of Miami, Florida and it's in our Central time zone. This makes for a nice medium length flight. And because we had been cancelled on this cruise last year and chose to rebook it, we had some bonus dollars to spend which we used to upgrade to Business Class on American Airlines. The other thing we love is that this flight leaves and gets in at a "normal" time. We fly out at 8:30 am and get in at about 12:30 pm. Our sleep cycle should stay intact and we should have an awesome cruise.
One of the things I love about the flight (Kathleen seems kind of unimpressed) is that on our way down we are flying on a Boeing 787. We have never flown on a Dreamliner before and I am really looking forward to the experience. On the way home we just get a 737...boring. But by then we will be so thrilled about the trip to the islands we have just completed (or so exhausted) that we won't care what plane we fly home on.
Once in Quito, we will be spending the night at the EB Hotel (at least as of now that is Celebrity's plan) which is near the airport. Then the next morning (Sunday the 4th) while you are prepping your fireworks and barbecues, we will fly from Quito to Baltra (the main air gateway to the Galapagos) via chartered air. We are then on the ship/boat/yacht for seven nights before flying back to Quito, spending the night and then flying back to Miami, spending another night with Mike and Cathy and then home on the 13th.
We are pretty much all set now. We do have to find a place near Mike and Cathy's to get a COVID test within 96 hours of flying to Quito. Once we have that we will be given another test before we board the ship and another when we get off the ship. The 96 hour one has to be the nose swab but the two on the ship are the spit-in-a-tube type.
The entire crew as well as all passengers are required to provide proof of vaccination. We have also been told that 98% of the people living on the islands (there are only about 25,000 people living there) have been vaccinated as well. Besides, once we get on the ship/boat/yacht we won't see another human that isn't part of our cruise until the next to last day when we stop in the only town on the trip. The rest of the time all the stops are just to see flora and fauna.
Speaking of flora, our ship/boat/yacht is named Flora and we have found out that she NEVER docks. We take a zodiac-type tender out to board her and we do the same when leaving or doing any shore excursion. Plus Flora is built to never drop anchor. To not disturb the sea floor she was designed with a system that uses the propulsion system to stay in one place in the water. Pretty cool.
You can be sure that we will be sending you updates and photos from the islands so watch this space for a complete virtual tour of your own. All of that dependent on the quality of their internet connections and the amount of time I have to write and process photos. If you would like to see some amazing shots from a crew member of Flora check out Marvi Cordova on Instagram. She is not only a crew member but an incredible photographer. I plan on asking her lots and lots of questions. I stole the photo of Flora at the top of this post from her.
The only thing I like about air travel is it gives me time to read.
We are sitting here beyond thrilled and had to share. As most of my readers know we have booked, been cancelled and rebooked on a cruise tour in the Galapagos Islands on Celebrity's Flora. When we rescheduled last year on our cancelled August cruise we decided to rebook for this summer (thinking we would have no problems—duh!). We really considered May, June or July but the route we wanted around the islands was only offered every other week so we finally settled on July 4 of this year. Sounds pretty independent, right ??
And since then we have been hopeful about going but each month since last summer we have changed what we thought our odds of going were. At first when we booked it we thought we had about an 80% chance of not being cancelled again. But then as we got into the winter months we revised that to thinking we would probably have to reschedule. Last month Celebrity cancelled all the Galapagos cruises through...June 30 but leaving all of July intact so we thought...maybe...please...please...please.
Since they cancelled through June we have been keeping a close eye on the Celebrity website and last week we saw that they were again selling our cruise, that Ecuador was open to travelers and the Galapagos Islands were 98% vaccinated. Today we were on a travel agent webinar and they officially announced...we are going!!!
Of course there are some caveats. We have to be vaccinated. CHECK! We have to pass a PCR (stick in the nose) test 96 hours before we go. We can do that but since we are going to go down to the LA area pre-cruise we will have to get it down there...so glad to have Kaiser. When we get on board we will be given an antigen test (spit) and again when we get off. We can do all that so I guess we are good to go. Now we have to get busy planning, pre-packing and so much more. Here's exactly where we will be going once we get to the islands from Quito.
We also found out some great news about the cruise itself. First, it will be operating at about 50% guest capacity and 100% crew capacity which means incredible service and more food for me ?. The ship we are on is the Celebrity Flora which is really just a great big yacht. By Ecuadorian law, the largest ships that can sail in the Galapagos can only carry 100 passengers so that means there will only be about 50 guests onboard. Here's some pics of what the ship looks like inside and out.
Of course even though we are looking forward to the cruise itself, we are really looking forward to all the flora and fauna we will see. Both Kathleen and I are having having some trepidation about snorkeling in open water. Neither of us are the best of swimmers but the chance to be able to swim with giant tortoises, sea lions and other marine life is just too good to pass up. We had hoped to try it out off the beach last February in Cozumel but the weather did not cooperate so we didn't get the chance. Kathleen did by me a GoPro more than a year ago to be able to film underwater so you will hopefully get to see some video when we return…or as we go along. Not sure how great the WiFi will be onboard. No matter when you see them, this is a chance for me to really take some amazing photos.
I love traveling and seeing new things, learning the histories of different cultures. But I've always wanted to go to the Galapagos to see the giant turtles.
Yesterday I sort of detailed the first two days of our SoCal trip to see my brother Steve, my sis-in-law Jamie and their awesome family. Here's the balance of the week. As I am writing this I am sitting at the gate for our flight home to Everett at John Wayne International. I won't post it until tomorrow because I have never done two posts in one day and I don't want to start now ?.
Day 3–Family Day
Jamie has a BIG family. Beside their daughter and son, her Mom Pat lives with them. And then she has two brothers and a sister and all are married and have lots of grown kids. We have traveled with her sister and her family and will again in 2022. I have booked travel for her brother and his wife and they were supposed to join us on our river cruise that was cancelled last year. Saturday Jamie invited all these folks to dinner. Mind you, her brother who lives in Fresno and his family didn't come down but her sister and her family from Huntington Beach and her brother and his wife from Poway were there as well as another of the cousins and our niece Cassie's boyfriend Omar.
Food was outstanding as Steve grilled chicken and steaks and Jamie did her usual awesome job of making every side known to man. Her mom Pat (who I mentioned yesterday) put together one of her world famous cheese platters and others brought dessert and lots of wine. We all ate and drank and had an awesome time. I can say that I truly enjoyed myself, even helping Jamie's sis-in-law Jill wash dishes. I think everyone had an absolutely wonderful time—I know we did!
Day 4–The '55 to Laguna and back
Sunday was listed as a day of lounging around the house on our itinerary but since one of the places I really wanted to go was Crazy Shirts in downtown Laguna Beach (just up the coast) Steve rolled out their 1955 Ford Fairlane Sunliner and we set off on a drive from San Juan Capistrano, through Dana Point, Laguna Beach and almost up to Newport Beach. It was a great drive, the sun was shining and when you are in a car like this you get a lot of looks from those on the sidewalks. I do have to say though that sitting in the back of a 1955 convertible at highway speeds is an experience in wind velocity I am not quick to repeat ?.
Day 5–Home and Wine
My sister-in-law Jamie was our travel agent/tour guide on this cruise ?. She had texted us about a week before we were to come down with a complete itinerary with all kinds of things for us to do and see. Today was road trip day. First we were heading to my brother's and my hometown, Palm Springs. We had two goals: to see the house we grew up in (which has been REALLY changed by the present owner since we sold it to them after our Dad passed a few years ago) and to have lunch at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, The Blue Coyote.
The house looked fine but quite a bit different. Lots of new growth around the front yard. We had a kind of funny experience with the house. When we got to the house we parked in front to take a look and the current owner drove out of the garage and as he drove by us he gave us a real good and long look. Like this bunch of almost senior citizens was going to burglarize his house. After he left we drove up to the other end of the block and turned around to back past the house again.
In the meantime he had driven up the street but came back and drove into the driveway of the people across the street to tell the neighbor to keep an eye on us (criminals that we are ?). We (Steve and I) got out of the car and went back to talk to him and the neighbor who is someone who has lived in the house since 1961 and had been our neighbor since then. He told the current owner he had nothing to fear as we had grown up in the house and had a valid reason for stopping. We hoped he would then invite us in but he had an appointment and hurried off after he knew his house was safe.
Then it was off to lunch at Blue Coyote where the food was great, the service superb and the margaritas...AWESOME! We have been there more than 10 times over the years and I think this was the best yet but that just might be the margaritas talking. A very nice couple from University Place (about half way between our place and our grandkids in Olympia, WA) took our photo for us.
After lunch and a quick turn around the town we were off to our final destination for the day—South Coast Winery in Temecula. It was much more than we expected. A really nice place where Jamie had arranged a really nice one-bedroom villa for both of us set amongst the grape vines. The place was very reminiscent of Tuscany and we arrived just in time to catch the last wine tasting of the day. We did five different wines including a port and to be honest, I wouldn't buy any of them again. Pretty run of the mill. Nothing even close to what we had in Walla Walla when we went with our neighbors Jayesh and Lisa two summers ago. When we did that trip we ended up joining three wine clubs but I don't think I would join one at South Coast.
But their rooms and the restaurant where we had both dinner and breakfast were excellent. After a quick dinner we both retired to our respective rooms, watched a movie and basically passed out after this VERY busy day.
I was up early the next day for my usual pre-dawn photowalk and WOW, was I rewarded. Not only did I get some really nice sunrise pics from the vineyard, just as I was about to head back to the room to shower and change for breakfast I saw ten hot air balloons launch from near downtown so I had to wait to see what they would do. What they did was to come right at us. Within 20 minutes I was literally surrounded by hot air balloons as you will see in my photos below.
After this excellent photo experience we were off to breakfast where they had some of the best chilaquiles I have had since New Mexico. Truly delicious. One of my favorite breakfasts. After breakfast it was back in the truck for a quick tour of downtown Temecula. It's a historic city from the 1800s and we spent about an hour walking around. Saw a pretty awesome old Chevy too.
From there we headed south and then west so we could stop in northern San Diego County to see the blooming ranunculus. Now I had never seen ranunculus before but these (from somewhat far away) were nice. Nothing like the tulips in Skagit County (north of Seattle) but still nice. Then it was home to S&Js place so we could fly home on Wednesday (yesterday).
Since we had a 6:25 pm flight we got to spend the day with S&J before we headed north to the airport and a late lunch/early dinner or as we like to call it, dunch. And because we had LOVED the food at Houston's on the day we flew in, we decided to stop there again. I mean it was THAT GOOD! And guess what we ordered? The exact same thing—artichoke appetizer and fried chicken sandwich. And they were still as great as I mentioned in my last post except that this time I remembered to take a photo so you could see them. The artichokes are grilled on a wood fire. When mine came to the table part of the stem was still burning. They are amazing. And what makes the fried chicken sandwich so good is the slaw that sits on top of the chicken—amazing.
After lunch S&J dropped us off, we waited the prescribed two hours, boarded and took off right on time, landed almost 20 minutes early, found a Lyft in less than five minutes and were home and turning off the lights by 10:15! Whew, I got tired just thinking about that.
To sum it all up, we had an AWESOME time. It felt so amazing to be traveling again. My sister-in-law Jamie is a fantastic SoCal trip planner and we ate and drank a lot more than we should. Oh, and we would do it all over again in a minute.
It's true! We are traveling. In fact as I write this we are headed for home later today after a six day visit with my brother Steve and his wonderful wife Jamie (S&J). We have been wined, dined, toured and traveled all over Southern California.
Day 1—Flying South
Let's start with the flight south from Paine Field in Everett. Never had a flight that went so well. Just a dream. We did have a little bit of a hard time getting a ride to the airport. We tried Lyft first and no dice at 5:45 am. There was a guy at Bellevue who we thought was coming but then he found something closer. Finally we got a superb Uber driver who got us there in no time. And he drove a car with a stick shift. Shocking!
Once at the airport it was about seven minutes from the time we got out of the car until we were sitting at the gate. That's the wonder of Paine Field. You can see the inside of the lounge between the two gates in the pic above. Boarding was beyond easy and the flight itself was about one third full.
We had paid a little extra for Alaska Air's premium economy seats and on the Embracer jet we flew on, they were amazing. I am six feet, two and a half inches and I could fully stretch out my legs or cross them without a problem. So much so that I sent photos to my brother and other tall friends to say, "check this out!" See what I mean?
We flew into John Wayne International Airport in Orange County and Steve and Jamie picked us up. Another smallish airport (lots bigger than Everett but MUCH smaller than LAX). We were off the plane and out the door and in their truck within 15 minutes of landing. See what I mean about a great flying experience. We will find out if this continues this evening when we fly home.
After we were picked up we were headed out to lunch. Jamie had made reservations at a restaurant near the airport thinking it would take us a while for us to get our bag and find them but we were out so quickly, we ended up sitting in the parking lot of the restaurant until they opened. We didn't mind the early lunch since we had been up since 4:30 am and had coffee and some yogurt at 6:00 am at the airport. There is currently no food service on the plane if you are in economy.
The restaurant we went to was new to us but they had tried to take us there a few years ago and we had to leave because we didn't know you needed reservations for lunch. We weren't that worried about going there because it was "just a restaurant." But then I started my pandemic walking and listening to Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast and he went on and on about the chicken sandwich at a small chain of places called Houston's and that was the same place we hadn't gotten into. So this time we really wanted to try it.
We were so glad we did. If you ever find yourself in a city with a Houstons, go there. Order two things—the fried chicken sandwich and the artichokes if they are available. Later that day I said it had almost a perfect lunch because not only had I eaten the best chicken sandwich I had ever consumed, I had also eaten the most amazing artichokes I had ever scarfed down as well. How much did we like it? So much that we are going back for a late lunch/early dinner today before we fly home. What am I going to order? The artichokes and the chicken sandwich. ? Maybe I will remember to take pics this time.
After lunch it was back to their house to rest a little, have a little dinner and just get a chance to catch up with them and our niece Cassie and Jamie's mom Pat (who we love—my brother has the best mother-in-law ever!). It was a great start to what would be a great trip.
Day 2—Doheny Beach and San Juan Capistrano
On Friday we pretty much stuck around the town where they live, San Juan Capistrano (SJC). You may have heard of the town—it's where the swallows return every year in March. I started the day with a really long (for me–8.9 miles) pre-dawn walk that took me down to the world-famous Doheny Beach (The Beach Boys sang about surfing there). Got some great pics as I hope you will agree.
After a quick breakfast we were off to downtown SJC to tour Mission San Juan Capistrano, one of the 21 California missions that stretch from San Diego to San Francisco. It's a beautiful historic building with gorgeous gardens so it was great for photos as well.
After the Mission tour we met up with some cruising friends, Eileen and Bob, who live in nearby Cypress. They had journeyed about 30 minutes south to visit with us and it was great to see them and compare travel plans, past travel (we sailed with them to New England in 2018) and just generally catch up. It was a great meal except for the service. Suffice it to say that after complaints to the management while we were there and a blistering letter to the owners by Kathleen after we got back to S&J's, the manager fired our server. That's how bad it was. It's a story best told in person so ask us the next time you see us. The restaurant is called Mayfield (so if you come to SJC, give it a pass). Food was fine but to me that's almost a negative.
After lunch it was more rest, relaxation, catching up and food back at S&J's. One thing about going there is you get fed very well. The next day would prove that true beyond a shadow of a doubt. Come back tomorrow to find out more. My fingers are tired now ?.
We live life in restaurants, it's the center of social life, where we celebrate with family and friends, make new friends, travel without traveling, and of course, eat.
First, yes…we know. We are not supposed to be doing anything but “essential” travel. Well, if you are traveling fanatics like us it feels “essential” for us to go someplace. We decided that since we are fully vaccinated and it is becoming more and more clear that vaccinated individuals can’t pass on the virus, we are going on a short six day trip to Southern California to see our usual traveling companions, my brother Steve and my sister-in-law Jamie as well as the rest of their family.
To be honest, this was a kind of spur-of-the-moment trip. We were texting with Steve and Jamie and they invited us (since they were all vaccinated), we looked at each other and just said, “Why not?” They had been up in October but after Jamie’s bad fall just after they got here, we only got to see her for two days of what became a 10 day visit for her at Evergreen Hospital. So we did some research and found the safest options for travel for this trip and put it together.
When I say the safest options, I mean avoiding Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at all costs. The crowds there have been terrible and the lines long according to press reports. So we have opted to go north and fly from Paine Field in Everett. If you are on the west coast or in Denver or Las Vegas and coming to visit Seattle, consider Paine Field. It was only opened a few years ago but we love it. Most of the flights are with Alaska Air but United does have a couple as well.
First, from our house the commute to get to the airport is against the traffic in the morning, when we usually fly. Then when you arrive you get out of your car (we are going to take Lyft for this trip) and walk directly to the security line. Because of the size of the airport and how few flights they have each day (about 20) as soon as you are through security (which usually takes less than a five minutes) you are at one of 2.5 gates. I say 2.5 because they have a gate 1, 2A and 2B. These last two are essentially two gates with the same waiting area, just different doors out to the airplanes.
That’s it. The last time we flew from there it was about 5 minutes from curb to gate. The gates are pretty great too with very comfortable furniture. Another thing we like about flying out of Everett is the kind of airplanes that Alaska Air flies from Paine Field—the Embraer E175. It is a small jet but the best part during the pandemic is that it is a 2-2 arrangement so we don’t have to worry about having someone we don’t know sitting in the same row as we are (on our side of the plane) as there are no middle seats.
At the other end of our flight is John Wayne International Airport in Santa Ana, California. Not exactly a small airport but definitely not a large one either. When we come off the plane we won’t have to spend too long before we grab our checked bag and meet Steve and Jamie who are coming to pick us up. I am really looking forward to getting into their car. Not just because I want to see them but because after about 4 hours it will be the first time I can take my mask off.
Speaking of masks, I got a new one just to travel with. It’s tough to find anything that has to do with travel that also fits my oversize head ?. Got it from Amazon if you are interested in getting one for yourself if you love traveling the world like we do.
We don’t have a lot of things we want to do for the six days we will be there. We are mostly going just to see them. But we know that Steve and Jamie are making plans. We are meeting some old cruising friends for lunch (outdoors) one day. Haven’t seen them in a couple of years. We will probably take a day trip out to our old hometown, Palm Springs. Gives us a chance to see the house we grew up in. It had been turned into an AirBnB type rental but I can’t find it on any of the rental sites now. We have seen pics when it was a rental and you can still see it on Zillow. The pictures we’ve seen of the interior are quite impressive. We still want to drive by. We will also want to stop at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, The Blue Coyote for a great lunch and some wonderful (if they haven’t changed) margaritas. I am so glad that Steve will be driving ?.
I hope to do a bunch of photos walks so I will be posting while we are there. It’s going to feel so good to be traveling again since we haven’t left Washington State since the day we got back from our Mardi Gras cruise on March 2, 2020.
We know we aren’t going far away and we still have high hopes that we will still be going to the Galapagos in July. Our seven night cruise hasn’t been cancelled yet but we should know more later this week. Celebrity (the cruise line we are sailing) is starting up cruising again outside the USA. I will update as we get closer.
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. —St. Augustine
If you may recall from my last installment we found out that we are going to be able to take our July 4 Galapagos Island cruise on Celebrity's Flora. We had heard about all this on a TA-only Celebrity webinar that we watched three weeks ago tomorrow.
Our flight from MIA to Quito is only four hours. I always forget that Quito, Ecuador is just about directly south of Miami, Florida and it's in our Central time zone. This makes for a nice medium length flight. And because we had been cancelled on this cruise last year and chose to rebook it, we had some bonus dollars to spend which we used to upgrade to Business Class on American Airlines. The other thing we love is that this flight leaves and gets in at a "normal" time. We fly out at 8:30 am and get in at about 12:30 pm. Our sleep cycle should stay intact and we should have an awesome cruise.
Sunday was listed as a day of lounging around the house on our itinerary but since one of the places I really wanted to go was 
The house looked fine but quite a bit different. Lots of new growth around the front yard. We had a kind of funny experience with the house. When we got to the house we parked in front to take a look and the current owner drove out of the garage and as he drove by us he gave us a real good and long look. Like this bunch of almost senior citizens was going to burglarize his house. After he left we drove up to the other end of the block and turned around to back past the house again.
Then it was off to lunch at Blue Coyote where the food was great, the service superb and the margaritas...AWESOME! We have been there more than 10 times over the years and I think this was the best yet but that just might be the margaritas talking. A very nice couple from University Place (about half way between our place and our grandkids in Olympia, WA) took our photo for us.
Once at the airport it was about seven minutes from the time we got out of the car until we were sitting at the gate. That's the wonder of Paine Field. You can see the inside of the lounge between the two gates in the pic above. Boarding was beyond easy and the flight itself was about one third full.
We had paid a little extra for Alaska Air's premium economy seats and on the Embracer jet we flew on, they were amazing. I am six feet, two and a half inches and I could fully stretch out my legs or cross them without a problem. So much so that I sent photos to my brother and other tall friends to say, "check this out!" See what I mean?
First, yes…we know. We are not supposed to be doing anything but “essential” travel. Well, if you are traveling fanatics like us it feels “essential” for us to go someplace. We decided that since we are fully vaccinated and it is becoming more and more clear that vaccinated individuals can’t pass on the virus, we are going on a short six day trip to Southern California to see our usual traveling companions, my brother Steve and my sister-in-law Jamie as well as the rest of their family.
That’s it. The last time we flew from there it was about 5 minutes from curb to gate. The gates are pretty great too with very comfortable furniture. Another thing we like about flying out of Everett is the kind of airplanes that Alaska Air flies from Paine Field—the Embraer E175. It is a small jet but the best part during the pandemic is that it is a 2-2 arrangement so we don’t have to worry about having someone we don’t know sitting in the same row as we are (on our side of the plane) as there are no middle seats.