Leaving on a jet plane...or trying to

I’ve made it a personal goal to get into conversation with my plane seat partner(s) on this trip to Chile and back. Here are the interesting people I've met...

Seat 10A: Long Beach, CA to Salt Lake City, UT

Seat 10B: Don grew up in Detroit but now lives in Southern California working as an engineer. He likes to race sailboats in his spare time. Even before we got on the topic of sailboats, I guessed he was a sailor because of his mouth. He’s very strict with his crew (no alcohol on board) and wins races often. He told me stories about his 14 day race to Hawaii and other races down the West Coast. Once he saw a grey whale that was so close it almost took out his boat. His favorite thing is watching dolphins play in the wake at night because they look like war torpedoes coming at the boat.
We talked a lot about traveling, and for every travel recommendation he gave me he told me to plan my trip around the trees. Don says spring is the best time for both Mackinac Island (for the lilacs) and Washington DC (for the cherry blossoms). “Don’t bring a car to DC because there’s no where to park it.” California is best visited in September because that’s when the water is the warmest. Boo June Bloom.
Since he was on his way to SLC for a wedding, we talked some about marriage. His advice was, “you’ll never find perfect, but you will find good.” He was married to his first wife for 19 years, they divorced but when she got cancer he moved back in to take care of her. The hardest thing he’s ever done was bury the mother of his 3 daughters. Now he’s married to a nurse. They’ve been married for 14 years.
Don makes great pumpkin bread, so say all his co-workers. He shared his secret with me: use one sugar pumpkin and one cheese wheel pumpkin. The cheese wheel is a rich flavor and gives it a creamy texture.

Seat 31E: Salt Lake City, UT to (unscheduled Nashville, TN) Atlanta, GA

Seat 31D sat Sylvia, a regal, retired southern bell who was traveling back with her husband from a week in Montana. She hates take offs and landing and would always reach across the isle to hold her hubby's hand. She and her husband love college sports. They have season tickets to Duke basketball and football and spend most of their retired lives traveling to watch the games. Sylvia was a social studies teacher back in the 60s, then went on up to be a vice-principal and in charge of curriculum. She was kind enough to share her cookies with me when we emergency landed in Nashville. Before we got off the plane in Atlanta, she gave me two granola bars to tide me over. She is one sweet lady!

Seat 31F sat Esther. Esther had a great hispanic accent and lives in Florida with her husband. She too shared her food with me. She got the fruit and cheese platter (more like dish since it's so small!) because I asked what kind of cheese the green marble-y kind was. Esther was coming back from visiting her daughter in Wyoming. They went to Yellowstone and stayed in a cabin. She spent most of the flight going over an audit for work, but we had a good time watching the Red Wings/Penguins hockey game. She was rooting for Pittsburg and I thought I'd root for the home team of Detroit. When we finally got to Atlanta, Esther and I stood in line together to find out our fate. Both of us missed our flights but enjoyed each other's company.

PS: I've also made it a personal goal to be a better blogger than my other two siblings who are out of the country. Watch out kids!