Friday October 7, 2016: Boston Departure
Work on Friday wasn’t bad for me but Chris had a busy day. We both got out at 2:00 as planned, then went home and finished up our preparations. We were on the road a few minutes after 3:00. for our 8:20 flight. It should have been an easy 3-hour drive, but traffic started about halfway between Albany and Boston on the Mass Pike, and was relentless
We tried a few different routes but everything was crowded; endless stop and go traffic on 90 and just about every side road too. We were within 10 miles of the airport, stuck in traffic seemingly forever, as time kept ticking...
I was actually worried for the first time in many trips that we might miss our flight! Luckily we arrived at the parking place at 7:15 and a shuttle bus was waiting to depart. We just made it on the bus, but of course it went to our terminal last. We ran to the check-in counter which was pretty much closed, and they informed us that we had missed the deadline to check bags, so any checked bags would almost certainly not make it onto the plane and would arrive at least a day late.
Dinner and wine followed shortly, and we tried to settle in and relax after the crazy drive. The food was nice (for airplane food), with lots of foie gras, cheese, and other assorted French delicacies. We definitely needed food and drink to help the adrenaline wear off after the drive.
In Paris, we'll meet up with two of the others from our group who have flown in from Toronto, and they will join us on the one daily AF flight to Madagascar. Our last two companions flew the South African Airways route a few hours before us, directly from JFK to Johannesburg, then they have a short hop over from Joburg to 'Tana. They will arrive tomorrow as well, in the late afternoon.
Work on Friday wasn’t bad for me but Chris had a busy day. We both got out at 2:00 as planned, then went home and finished up our preparations. We were on the road a few minutes after 3:00. for our 8:20 flight. It should have been an easy 3-hour drive, but traffic started about halfway between Albany and Boston on the Mass Pike, and was relentless
We tried a few different routes but everything was crowded; endless stop and go traffic on 90 and just about every side road too. We were within 10 miles of the airport, stuck in traffic seemingly forever, as time kept ticking...
I was actually worried for the first time in many trips that we might miss our flight! Luckily we arrived at the parking place at 7:15 and a shuttle bus was waiting to depart. We just made it on the bus, but of course it went to our terminal last. We ran to the check-in counter which was pretty much closed, and they informed us that we had missed the deadline to check bags, so any checked bags would almost certainly not make it onto the plane and would arrive at least a day late.
Since one of our Madagascar bags contained some larger bottles of liquid, we had to check at least one bag. Luckily, we could carry the other two aboard, so score one for traveling light! Unfortunately, I didn’t think to transfer the liquids into our South Africa bag and check that bag, instead of a Madagascar bag, but we were pretty frazzled from the drive by that point and just grateful that we'd made it to the airport at all. So we checked our bag, wondering when we'd see it again, and dragged the rest of our stuff to the plane.
Security was mercifully pretty fast, and we had packed smartly, so there were no problematic items in the bags we had to carry on board. We were through and on board the plane before 8:00, so there was no time to relax in the lounge before our flight. Odd that they didn’t serve champagne before takeoff; we had really been looking forward to that after the crazy drive! But we pushed back right on time at 8:20, and we were pretty ecstatic about just being there. After a very short taxi we were airborne just after 8:30.
Once we were airborne, the captain thanked us for boarding expeditiously, and announced that he had pushed back and taken off promptly in order to avoid missing a narrow window for takeoff. Had we missed that, we would have had to wait another half hour. Because of the slightly early departure, that should give us a longer connection in CDG, so we’ll take it. And then they served Champagne, so all was well.
Security was mercifully pretty fast, and we had packed smartly, so there were no problematic items in the bags we had to carry on board. We were through and on board the plane before 8:00, so there was no time to relax in the lounge before our flight. Odd that they didn’t serve champagne before takeoff; we had really been looking forward to that after the crazy drive! But we pushed back right on time at 8:20, and we were pretty ecstatic about just being there. After a very short taxi we were airborne just after 8:30.
Once we were airborne, the captain thanked us for boarding expeditiously, and announced that he had pushed back and taken off promptly in order to avoid missing a narrow window for takeoff. Had we missed that, we would have had to wait another half hour. Because of the slightly early departure, that should give us a longer connection in CDG, so we’ll take it. And then they served Champagne, so all was well.
Dinner and wine followed shortly, and we tried to settle in and relax after the crazy drive. The food was nice (for airplane food), with lots of foie gras, cheese, and other assorted French delicacies. We definitely needed food and drink to help the adrenaline wear off after the drive.
The entrée was supposedly created by Daniel Boulud, a French chef whose restaurants we've dined in before, and enjoyed very much. He made a Basque style chicken which was pretty tasty.
And of course, it's Air France. So there were several nice French wines to choose from. We made sure to sample all of them.
But even after dinner and wine, we were still much too wound up to sleep. Since it was a short flight, there was not much time to relax and unwind, so we resigned ourselves to sleeping tomorrow. We both watched movies; Chris fell asleep but I still couldn't. Next stop, Paris! One more day of travel to go!
In Paris, we'll meet up with two of the others from our group who have flown in from Toronto, and they will join us on the one daily AF flight to Madagascar. Our last two companions flew the South African Airways route a few hours before us, directly from JFK to Johannesburg, then they have a short hop over from Joburg to 'Tana. They will arrive tomorrow as well, in the late afternoon.
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