If you're going to San Francisco - Getaway Day

My trip home was pretty uneventful, so I'll talk a bit about the hotel and airports.

Hilton Garden Inns are OK, but I am not sure what their Niche is in the Hilton chain. Hampton Inns are the entry level, Homewood Suites are the long stay, and Hilton the higher end. They also have Embassy Suites, Doubletee and Hilton Garden Inn. The HGI has a small restaurant and bar in it but it's not open all day long that I can tell. They have a breakfast buffet plus they'll cook you an omelet or eggs like you want them (like Embassy Suites). The buffet is a bit expensive (8.95 to 9.95) to me. I've never tried other meals there and would never go near the bar. I guess the closest hotel in type would be a Courtyard by Marriott.

I have discovered a new problem with flights in general. Now that most airlines charge for all checked luggage, people carry on more than ever. On every flight I was on (except those leaving and arriving at Barkley), the overhead bins were crammed full. The flight attendants spend a lot of time and effort cramming everything carried in into the bins.

Paducah's airport is very easy to get into and get through security since it's smaller. They have free wireless internet. It's only 10 minutes from my house too. What I don't like is there is only one carrier (Northwest) with three 30 or so passenger flights a day to Memphis. Departures are at 6:30, noon and 4:50. Arrivals are at 10:50, 4, and 8:30. American used to go from there to St Louis, but dropped out a couple of years ago.

Depending on where you are going, it can be hard to get flights unless you make them way in advance or with multiple connections. I occasionally have driven down to Nashville to fly when the options are really bad at Barkley. I hope when the Delta merger goes through, we'll get more options.

The Memphis airport is OK too. All of it is behind one security point which is nice (more on that in a bit). They are a bit limited on restaurants (in my opinion) although they have opened a few more places (notably a Popeye's and a few more Starbucks).

The San Francisco airport is spread out. You have to ride a railway to get to your garages and rental car area and back again when departing. They do have a BART line right to the airport so its conceivable (depending on where you stay) that you could do without a car when there.

On the way back I had to go American from San Francisco to LA (LAX). LAX has separate security points for their terminals. I arrived on American so I had to hike about 10 minutes to another terminal. Their signage doesn't do a good job of explaining that. Fortunately, there are numerous employees all over the place with notebooks of maps who seemed eager to help people find their way. I had a 1.5 hour layover and needed the bulk of that to go through security there (per several of my fellow travelers in line, the security there is always slow). I had enough time to grab a sandwich, chips, water and a brownie which cost almost 17.00!

The rest of my trip went fine (I grabbed Popeyes at Memphis) and caught the last flight home. Donna and Jonathan were waiting for me which was very nice and make me feel important and missed. They took me home and I went to sleep comfortably in my own bed.

If you're going to San Francisco - Day 3

I managed to sleep a bit later. I headed on in to the city. I ate at McDonalds (my old standby) and attended a full day of class. We ran late and I didn't get back to my hotel til after 6. I hustled out so I could get to Wednesday night services at the Airport church of Christ. After I finally located it, I went to grab what I thought would be a quick meal at KFC. It took FOREVER to get my food. I wolfed it down and headed down the block to services.

Everyone was great. There were several visitors there that had Kentucky ties (two were from Paintsville ). Then I saw Jennifer Davis. She is living there now and is the daughter of my friend Larry Davis (he's the one who told me about this congregation) whose mother Elizabeth attends Central with us. It was really good to see her. I'd taught her in Bible class and she had taught my sons when they were little. She said it made her feel really old to find out they were now a freshman in college and a senior in high school. One of the ministers there had been baptized by my friend Ronnie Whittemore (who preached at Heath when we were there).

It's always cheers me up to find a congregation of loving and friendly people when I am out of town. I'm usually pretty homesick by this point and it is a big help. It's also good to know there are always fellow Christians wherever you are. I know if I had an issue that I could have called people there and they would have been glad to help. I am not very good at being hospitable and welcoming and this helps encourage me to do a better job of that.

I stayed for quite a while then went back to my room and went to bed for the night.