Northwest 2015 (Day 1 of 22): Atlanta-Phoenix-Portland

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Saying goodbye to Lulu

Headed to the airport

The trip itinerary

Made it through security

Plane Train

USAir to Phoenix and then Portland

We always think there's plenty of time, but it's always stressful until we actually make it onto the plane

We relaxed too soon

The pilot announced that they were having problems getting the jet bridge to retract from the plane. I figured somebody was pushing the red button instead of the green one and that they could get the problem resolved pretty quickly. Half an hour later the pilot announced they were still trying to get in touch with maintenance. So nobody was actually working on the problem that whole time. I had hundreds of hours of planning into the trip. I paid a premium to take off and land at a reasonable time with minimal layovers, and now all that planning was being undermined by the jet bridge.

We finally took off about an hour and half later than expected and landed in Phoenix about 1:45 - 20 minutes before our connecting flight to Portland. I checked during the flight and saw that our connecting flight was only 2 gates away and figured that we would make it. I also figured USAir would coordinate with our connecting flight.

We arrived at the gate about 1:55. The gate agent was still there, but the door was closed and the agent refused to board us. We went back to our arrival gate and found that they had rescheduled us in flight without telling us. So we had an unplanned 3 hour layover in Phoenix. We've been to or through the Phoenix airport on many of our recent trips, so we're getting to know it really well.

Our connecting flight to Portland made it without incident. However, we landed 3 hours later than we planned.

The Portland airport is really nice. Evidently, the carpet is a big deal.

Mo's has an airport location...let's try it

Adam discovered he really likes clam chowder

Impressive cuckoo clock

Thrifty Rental Car

I have been using Hertz, but found a particularly inexpensive Thrifty deal so I went with it...with some concern. They originally assigned us a white Impala, but the kids said the Malibu next to it was more comfortable so we took the Malibu. Thrifty, being the economy brand, seems to carry mostly base models.

Instead of traveling along the Columbia River like I had planned, we took the most direct route to our hotel, the Timberline Lodge, on Mount Hood - about an hour from the airport

The room came with a queen and two singles. Now that Derek is so big, I really tried to get separate beds for the boys when possible. I figured the more comfortable I could make them, the better travel companions they would be.