Days off

In the middle of my 3 days off right now, and they even fall on the weekend which is nice. Saturday to Monday.

And of course, booze is a required staple for the days off. Beverage of choice this set of days off is Rye. Alberta Springs 10 year old vintage to be specific. It's actually really good. Mixed with gingerale it's a great bevy!

Here's a pic Shelley my roomate snapped of me an hour ago while I was outside on our deck enjoying a Rye and gingerale and a decent Cuban Cigar while browsing through an aviation book. A nice laid back evening here in Calgary tonight!

C H I C A G O

There's some of the skyline of Chicago as viewed from the Navy Pier. We had quite the day yesterday. Woke up at a reasonable time, had a brunch downstairs in the hotel and then caught a free shuttle to take us to the commuter train station at the airport. There we hopped a train to take us right into downtown Chicago.

First stop... the Sears tower. Here's me standing in front of it:



We hopped a ride to the top and spent some time taking in the views and reading a lot about the history of Chicago. Here are a couple of views from up high:





After departing the tower we began to walk around the maze of buildings in downtown. What a site. You have some of the most amazing looking buildings all surrounded by the older buildings of Chicago's past. Some looking like they were ready to fall down, but most just looked spectacular. The city was extremely clean and the people very friendly. We decided to head towards Navy Pier in Chicago which is a touristy kind of place where there are some site seeing boats and mini cruise ships around a little shopping and dining area that is on a large pier that heads out into the waters east of the City. It was a very long walk and along the way we came across a huge outdoor amphitheatre which was amazing. There was an international band of some sorts playing. They were doing some sound testing and man were they good. So we got a mini free show for 20 mins. There was also this crazy weird sculpture of highly polished stainless steel too. As pictured here:



It was pretty neat, very reflective. Here's a pic of the other pilot and I in the reflection. Hard to tell it's not a mirror, rather a weirdly shaped reflective piece of artwork.




So we finally arrive at the Pier after a LONG walk. We toured around a bit, had some cold refreshements, chilled out a bit and then started getting hungry for dinner. The plan was to head to the Cheescake Factory which is located at the bottom of the John Hancock building. We eventually found our way there an hour or so later and arrived at this very cool restaurant. We opted for the patio outside because the weather was super nice and the views around this little courtyard were quite amazing. We were surrounded by skyscrapers and beside us was a big waterfall and the restaurant itself which was designed to look like the inside of an apple pie. We ate too much for dinner and didn't have any room for cheesecake.. that kinda sucked. Oh well. Here was the view looking up from our table towards the top of the John Hancock building and also a look at the restaurant.. can you see the theme inside!?





After dinner we were headed off to the House of Blues which is a huge bar and venue for some great blues music. After walking around for quite a long time to find the place we eventually come to realize that they were holding a private party that night and we were not able to get in! What a rip off. So we started walking around some more and decided that we were at least going to find a decent pub and have a couple of beers before heading back to the hotel. So we realize we are clueless as to where any good establishment might be; so we walk into a store that's open and asked a couple of people. We walk back quite a ways to an area which was rich in bars/pubs/clubs. At this point we've crossed over the Chicago River about 9 times in our efforts! We pick an intersting little Irish pub, head in and have a couple of drinks. At one point I wanted to have a Rye and Gingerale, and the waitress/bartender had never heard of Rye... what the hell?!!??!!? They had no Rye in this joint and had never heard of it... crazy! Oh well..

It was now 1130 pm and time to catch one of the last few trains back to the airport so we could get shuttled back to the hotel. We make it back in pretty good time and then it was off to bed. I'm writing this blog entry on Tuesday morning and we've just found out that instead of leaving tomorrow morning, we will be flying home tonight. We won't be getting back into Calgary til about 2am. Lovely. Not only that but we are going to have massive headwinds the whole way... yuck.

Well there you have it. My adventures in Chicago. This has been by far one of my most favorite destinations. This city rocks.

P.S. You can click on all of those pics to enlarge them.

In Chicago!

Made it to Chicago late Sunday night. We spent the past couple of nights in Penticton having a very chill weekend. Nothing too crazy, just a very relaxing time. After dropping off the Penticton people back in Calgary, we picked up our next set that we were to take to Chicago. A relatively nice flight out here. There were a few bumps along the way and we had a fairly good tailwind so we were able to make it direct to Chicago from Calgary in 4.5 hrs.

It was already dark here by the time we arrived, but as we flew the approach into the Midway Airport in Chicago we could clearly see downtown Chicago not too far away.

We're here until early Wednesday, so that will leave us some time to explore the city a little. And that's what on the agenda for tomorrow for sure. We'll be making our way downtown to see some of the sites.

We're staying in a very nice hotel near the airport.. a Holiday Inn Express, but it seems more like a Hilton. The rooms are huge with fancy everything. The bathroom is bigger than my room at home! I also have internet access so maybe I'll see some of you online, but don't hold your breath as I do plan to make the most out of my time here in Chicago. All expenses paid vacation pretty much for me!

6 Day Trip Approaching

Well it appears I'm slated on a 6 day trip that begins on Friday and returns home Wednesday.

Friday - Sunday afternoon I'm off to Penticton to spend some time there.

Sunday afternoon - Wednesday I'm then off to Chicago!

This should be an interesting trip as we charge around in our newest plane with all the gizmos and gadgets with the same set of people the entire time. Hopefully it will prove to be a good time.

Days off = booze

Simply put. Pilot's are pretty much alcoholics.. This is because we can't drink on so many occasions that when we can drink we feel the need to make up for lost time.

So.. I'm on days off and of course the first thing that happens at the beginning of our scheduled days off (3 days off every 12 days) is a visit to the booze store. So yesterday I hit up the superstore liqourstore.. yup.. you heard right.. thanks to privatized booze! Anywho... Crown Royal had a special where u got a free glass as well that had the logo of a CFL team. Much to my success the only glasses left were of BC Lions. Hey, works for me!

So the picture above is my prize... I'm already on glass 3 and it's 5pm on Saturday here.. nothing to do because the weather is so freaking miserable.. so I've been having a couple of drinks and surfin the net with tennis on in the background. A riveting 3 days this will be!

Downloading up a storm

Last night the laptop was buzzing away with 9 consecutive downloads.

On the hitlist right now:

The OC - The third season just started on Thursday so I was downloading that episode in HDTV Widescreen... ahh.. finally.. the OC is back! (My guilty pleasure)

The Office - NBC's Americanized version of this series that began in the UK.. I keep on hearing that it's good stuff, so I've got the first season downloading

Over There - This is a miniseries based on the Iraq war and the soldiers and stuff 'over there' I just realized that it had already started in the states so I have the first 7 episodes downloading...

So far only The OC and the last episode of Over There have finished downloading... the others may take some time. Ahh the internet.. what an invention! I rarely watch tv live anymore, I just download the higher resolution and widescreen versions off the internet and play them on my widescreen laptop!

Regina.. wow.. party town & "Are you good with kids?"

First off.. Regina was NOT a party town during our stay. Upon arriving into Regina last week and driving through some rougher areas of the town on our way to the airport, we quickly realized that this was going to be an interesting layover. Once checked into the hotel we KNEW it was going to be one heck of a layover. The hotel was packed. It was labour day weekend and so it was busy busy. The hotel was crazy: 2 weddings, kids running around the pool and hotel hallways and crazy parties.

We took a walk outside looking for a decent restaurant but after a 40 minute walk we came up with nothing. Back in the hotel now we walked into the completely empty hotel bar. We sat down and ordered some food off of the menu (it was actually pretty good) and had a couple of beers to help us forget the fact we were in Regina on a Friday night. After the beer and dinner we decided to temp fate and walked to the "club" next door to the hotel looking for a little Regina fun. When we walked in however, we discovered a completely empty bar/club except for one table of 'questionable' individuals... we promptly turned around and walked out of there as quickly as possible!

Ok, we now needed another drink. So back to the hotel bar, where we pulled up a couple of bar stools and the drinks started to flow again. After a couple of more drinks a few more people had since filtered into the bar, including an older asian guy who sat down next to us at the bar. We were rather friendly that night thanks to a few drinks and so we started to chat him up. He was from Houston Texas and was involved in the oil game. He was up in Regina for the Labour Day Classic football game which was the next day. Quite the character.. we chatted him up for a good hour I think. At one point he calls the bartender over and promptly exclaims "how 'bout we circle the wagons here!" The other pilot, myself and the bartender and I aren't quite sure what to make of it. After a few seconds of awkwardness we all realize he'd like to buy us another round of drinks! We graciously accepted, even though I had already cut myself off, I accepted another crown and coke thanks to the hospitality of this southern individual. It wasn't much longer and we got kicked out as the bar closed.

The next day we were supposed to end up in Edmonton for a night, but that flight was changed and we just ended up in Calgary for Saturday night. The next day it was off to Kamloops for a beautiful morning of flying.

My last flight since then was to Vancouver for a quick pickup on Tuesday. After loading up the bags of the family of 4 I returned into the lounge area to escort them to the aircraft. The mother and young boy were in the washroom and the father with baby girl was waiting for them as he noticed me walk into the lounge. He then asks me flat out "are you good with kids?" How the hell am I supposed to answer that question professionally? "Sure am!" is my quick reply. Great.. I knew what was coming. He walks over and asks if I would hold his child while he runs in and quickly uses the washroom. Holy pressure batman. So I gingerly pick up the baby girl and hold onto her as he runs to the washroom. I am now standing in the middle of this executive passenger lounge in full uniform holding a baby girl who hasn't quite figured out who the hell I am and I can see her looking straight into my soul with her big blue eyes. One of the receptionists even asked me "I didn't know that was in your job description!" The mother returns with younger boy from the washrooms and sees me holding her baby. She comes over to take back possession and the little girl nearly jumped out of my arms to get to mom. I quickly explained that her husband was using the facilities. Phewph... The flight home was great and uneventful. I even had a greaser of a landing. :)

So that's been my last few days. My buddy Mike a.k.a. "Crazy Mike" has been in town for a couple of days while his plane is having some upgrades installed on it here in Calgary. He flies for a medivac company in the bush in northern Manitoba. It's been great with him visiting and catching up on old college times.

Regina and Edmonton

Ooooooooo... such exotic locals! :)

I kid.. I kid. I'm happy to be flying... wherever the destination. Although there are a couple of trips to New York on the schedule that my name isn't next to. Ah well... next time.

So it's Regina for Saturday night and then Edmonton for Sunday night. Then off to Kamloops on Sunday morning and back to Calgary to finish off this little trip.

I'm quite fond of my schedule. It can be quite hectic at times, but it certainly isn't a 9-5 job. If I'm not flying, I'm on call. So I'm pretty much getting the best of all worlds. When I'm not doing what I love, I'm not doing anything else! A little win-win if you will. :)