Day 4.5 - The Extended SFO Visit

Did we mention we had the best time this past week? We came into today very relaxed (for us), had a lovely back road trip to the airport and even arrived with a few minutes to spare. We checked our luggage and wandered leisurely to the gate where we had time to charge the laptop, get some lunch and a cup of Peet's Coffee. Then, we spiraled into the SFO Airplane Vortex where planes do not take off and most certainly do not land.......because of weather.

At first it was a minor delay which is no big deal usually in the SFO Airplane Vortex. And we had a two hour delay getting out of Eugene and we handled that with perfect chillin' ease BEFORE we were in the zen-like trance of relaxation which we now found ourselves. No worries, we thought.

Then, we spiraled even further.....CANCELLED. "All other flights today are booked", came over the loud speaker. "If you are a famous person or buy the flight attendant a new car, we might be able to get you on the bottom of the standby list". "Did they just cancel our flight?" I asked a very relaxed Map Guy. "Yes", was his reply. So, Map Guy went to wait in a very short line for the next 45 minutes while I confirmed on-line that we had no other options but to take the 6:45 am flight TOMORROW; which as it happened United had ALREADY booked us on.

Did I mention that about 5 minutes after jumping in line and on-line, United was kind enough to call and tell me in person (okay, a computer person) that my flight had been cancelled, rebooked for o'dark thirty tomorrow morning (the reason we didn't use air miles and fly TOTALLY FREE!) and that they loved me very much. Wow, they are efficient and so thoughtful.

After an hour, Mark motioned for me to come do the business traveler thing that I used to be good at and negotiate the best solution to our problem with the United Agent who had been doing this with other people just like me (and older retired people) for the last hour. By this time, we'd figured our best option was to let them put us up in a crappy hotel, feed us and take the flight tomorrow. But, as it turns out, the cancellation was due to WEATHER which eliminates their obligation to compensate us in either of these ways. Now, if you did a check of the nationwide weather (Map Guy was all over this; watching the United big screens which were tuned to the Weather Channel), you would have noticed, that the weather looked pretty good today. So, we Pricelined a Sheraton at the Airport, managed to get our luggage back and grabbed a shuttle out of SFO for the night.

I could tell Map Guy was a brewing over the "Weather Cancellation" because when we got to the hotel he decides he's going to go work out. "You do know we've been running a bit the past couple of days, don't you?" "Yep". Okay then, let's go. So, we went and worked out. Ran our brains out for an hour. Afterwards Map Guy seemed to have accepted our circumstances. Or so I thought.

We found a Kuleto's Trattoria down the street and had a good (not free) dinner and then a nice walk back to the hotel (because we needed to walk more). I've included some pictures and (will be uploading soon) videos which I think speak for themselves about Map Guy's actual feelings about the incident. Plus, we proved without a doubt that in fact planes can take off and land at SFO.

Planes DO land at SFO!











They really do. Stay tuned for the video.........








"Airplanes Really Do Land - Take 1"

"Airplanes Really Should Land"

"Airplanes Really Can Land"


"Airplanes Really Deserve to Land"


"Spying on Map Guy"