Plane spotting

When I was a child my family used to visit Maui every summer. Most kids spend their time by the pool, bobbing up and down and building sand castles on the beach. Although I got plenty of that, most of my time was spent watching airplanes taking off and landing from the top floor of our apartment house on Maui (my grandfather owned an apartment there where we’d stay for four weeks during summer.) Throughout the day I would go up to the top floor of the apartment house and watch as planes from outer islands would land and take off again. I knew exactly which planes were which because I always had with me a schedule for each of the three different airlines that flew in, Aloha Island Air, Hawaiian and a scenic airline called Panorama Air that only went out several times at most per day. To say the least I was never bored!

So, ok….how does this have to do with my present China and Russia trip I am blogging about? Because my flight to Shanghai was departing so early the next morning I had to get a place near the airport to stay for the night. I could’ve chosen the usual array of properties off site like The Radisson, The Holiday Inn, Best Western, etc…. This usually involves the torturous process of having to call the hotel to tell them to send the bus, stand around for at least ten minutes inhaling gas fumes on the curbing from idling cars as you patiently wait for your hotel shuttle bus to arrive and then once he arrives you have to run another block or so to catch up because you’re somehow standing in the wrong place, meanwhile dragging your heavy luggage behind you. I was up to doing this, but figured I wanted what the Russians call “a soft landing” meaning none of the usual crap I’ve become used to staying at hotels off site. So, I figured I’d stay at The Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel, which was not only in the airport but had rooms overlooking the runway! When I was given the option of upgrading to a high room with a panoramic view of the runway, I couldn’t resist!

So, that brings me to the present moment laying here on my nice bed watching an Air Canada flight taxi in from God only knows where and a small bombardier airplane from Delta taxi out! I certainly have come a long ways since those days I used to stand up on the fifth floor of Hale Ono Loa apartment building watching for signs of the 2:50 pm flight from Honolulu to come in and land at Kapalua Airport on Maui!

Stay tuned for my next blog post from the super megalopolis and famous Chinese city of Shanghai! Good night from Vancouver :) !!