Weekend Coast to Coast Mini Vacation

Wednesday, November 7th I flew out after classes and headed to St George Utah, where Hunter works. I took the usual route of YLW-SEA-SLC-SGU. Because flights were tight I almost didn't make SGU, and I would have had to spend the night in SLC. Because of the full flight, I ended up using my first S2 pass on Delta. S2s are a higher priority level of standby for when making a flight is important, although we get several every year we very rarely use them and instead save them for emergencies. Since we have gotten through most of a year without using any we decided it was ok to use one and skip me having to spend the night in an airport. In the end, a bunch of people didn't show up for this flight. While this meant I made it easily to SGU, it also meant that I didn't actually end up needing to use the S2, but I have two for the year so it is not a big deal. Hunter picked me up from the airport around 11pm and since he is working nights now he technically had to go back to work for a few hours, but his coworkers were incredible and early released him so he could go home with me. We swung by to say hi and pick up his things (and say thank you to Katie) before heading back to his apartment and falling fast asleep.

Thursday we had a relaxed day in SGU. Originally we had been planning to go to Asia but first class was full and we were looking at 12-15 hour flights in economy. We're so spoiled that we can just pick where we want to go that has first class and avoid economy! We ended up sleeping in and I spent a lot of the morning working on homework. I was feeling pretty sick from a cold Hunter gave me and I didn't want to do anything besides sleep and eat Hu Hot of course! Hu Hot is a delicious Mongolian Grill that is based in the Western US and recently opened a St George location. Since Hunter first took me there it has quickly become one of my favourites. We also did a little bit of shopping. Initially, we went to JC Penny which I normally love, but we could not find anything at their St George location. Next Hunter took me to Dillard's, where I found the prettiest dress ever. It's a secret so that's all you get to know! From all the shopping, we were pretty tired out and ready to go home. After shopping Hunter surprised me with a trip to Durango's, a Mexican place we both like. We got their salads which are amazing and then headed home for the night.

Friday we flew to LAX bright and early on the once a day direct SkyWest flight from SGU and spent the day enjoying the sun and southern Californian lifestyle. Since LAX is so hard to get around on foot or by transit, Hunter rented us a car through his work. He is a top level member so we got a free upgrade from a small car to a midsize SUV, with way more space than the two of us needed! Hunter got to brave the LA traffic while I played navigator and DJ. We went to The Grove, a very high end shopping centre near Beverley Hills, and home to my favourite baker, Dominique Ansel, bakeries! We had a delicious limited edition double-decker cream puff shaped like a polar bear for the holiday season. It was called a "religieuse". We also shared their Cronut of the month and had a few other pastries. I was super excited because we got to see the owner working with the staff there for the first time. We had already been to their location in Tokyo and they are fast becoming a favourite for us. After strolling around the shopping center, Hunter found a t-shirt he really liked on sale at Banana Republic. As we were going to have to pay for parking if we hadn't made any purchases, the shirt was practically free. Next, we wanted to go to the Regan Library in Thousand Oaks, however, the night before a huge wildfire had broken out north of LA and was threatening the area. We decided it was best to steer clear which turned out to be a very good idea. Instead, we went to the Santa Monica pier and enjoyed people watching, the cool ocean breeze, and playing some arcade games. I taught Hunter the rules of Skeeball, which he had never played. Since we only won a few tickets we gave them to a little girl and went on our way. She was very happy to get more tickets. As we walked on the pier we could see huge pillars of smoke from the fires as well as the VLAT firefighting aircraft trying to put it out. They have slurry tankers as big as intercontinental jets down here because their fires move so fast. It was definitely a bit surreal being surrounded by all the excitement and seeing such important emergency work going on. After walking around the pier, we headed to our favourite LA eating spot for a late lunch which is, of course, In-n-Out burger at the end of the North runway of LAX. There we were able to enjoy delicious burgers while watching aircraft roll in from all over the world. Hunter will always excitedly identify rare planes and tell me what type they are and where they are coming from. He also has a virtual reality app on his phone that lets you just hold up your phone and see floating ID tags over airplanes! After lunch we decided to head south towards our hotel and got to partake in the LA tradition of sitting in traffic for hours. I used Waze, a navigation app that tries to find shortcuts to guide Hunter as we weaved through traffic. Eventually, we made it closer to our hotel and saw what looked like a great mall. We went shopping and I found a really nice dress shirt that was on sale at Macy's. It was a great colourful professional shirt for an office environment and looked nice for non revving. We checked into our hotel and took a breather after the long day. We eventually got hungry and went back out. We had Chipolte for our late dinner, my first ever time there. It was ok, but I have had better (I still prefer Duragno's in St George and Merry Piglets in Jackson).

SGU to LAX

Here is a picture of the DreamLifter. Not the best quality but a very cool plane to google!

Plane in LAX - Hunter likes taking pictures of planes so be prepared for many plane pics!

Large teddy bear in the LAX

Double-decker cream puff

 Fire cloud seen from the Santa Monica Pier

Plane spotting at In N Out

New dress shirt!

Chipolte

On Saturday we left early in the morning to take a flight to NYC. This was going to be my first time in NYC. We also were trying to get a rather special flight on American Airlines. Hunter was really excited to tell me we might get Flagship First. It would be both Hunters and my first time getting it and on one of only two domestic routes that have Flagship First. Hunter watched the earlier fights go out full rather nervously while I did my homework, then it was our turn and we got cleared into 5A and 5F! I was so excited for our first class flight. The plane was really cool. it was mostly business and first seats with only 70 economy seats in the back, 20 lie flat business seats and 10 amazingly nice first class seats. I had a HUGE desk to work on, lots of pillows and comforters, all the Diet Coke I wanted, and a delicious 5-course meal. The food was amazing and felt like more than we have had on any of our long haul international flights in Delta One. There were nuts and olives to start off, then shrimp skewers, a delicious exotic mushroom soup, an asian salad, a steak, chicken, or vegan main course, and huge ice cream sundaes. We were stuffed by the end, but the food was so good we kept eating! As if that wasn't enough we got warm cookies in the middle of the flight as well. Hunter took a little nap while I worked on some school assignments. It was nice to have tons of space to spread out but before we knew it we were in New York.

While waiting for our flight Hunter took more plane pictures! This is QF11 LAX-JFK.

Here is a flight that goes to Tahti

Flagship First Seat

All the food was AMAZING!

Once we got to New York we headed to the Hilton Garden Inn. Although we hoped to go see Times Square at night, the air train connecting the hotel to the subway and rail network was broken and it would have been very expensive to Uber there. We decided to stay in and get some rest so we could start out nice and early.

In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast was included since the stay was booked through my parents diamond account which was very nice of them (THANK YOU MOM AND PAUL). Hunter ordered a Denver omelette and I had French toast. It was pretty great! After eating we took the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station and then walked up 7th Avenue to Times Square. I was super excited to see all the street performers and colorful billboards. Some of them were even in 8k which was pretty impressive given they were the size of buildings. We went to an H&M but we did not see anything amazing. We then walked down Broadway to the 34th street Macy’s. This is the largest Macy’s in the world and has been in several movies and tv shows. While their window displays weren’t quite ready for Christmas, they were having a big Veterans Day sale and there were lots of people lined up outside waiting to get in. We joined them and were happy to escape the cold. It was really cool to get to see it in real life. It had some very meticulously detailed antique escalators and tons of stuff. There were so many things that it almost felt impossible to find anything! Eventually, I found a black dress that I liked while Hunter found a golf shirt that was on sale. From Macy’s, we took the subway down to the tip of Manhattan. We visited the World Trade Center site which was packed with visitors and mourners on Veterans Day. It was very nice to see the memorial they have. I was too young to remember details, but the event has always been talked about by my older family and I feel just as strong of emotions when its discussed. We also visited the winter garden where Hunter would eat lunch when he was in NY for model UN. Next we walked along the Hudson River and saw the Statue of Liberty, as well as Ellis island. I had no idea of the history behind it and Hunter share all about how it served as a center of immigration. From there we walked across town to trinity church a famous and ancient church in the middle of downtown Manhattan. Because it has been there for so long, they own lots of the real estate around their church. This includes some very expensive Wall Street offices which they collect rent on. The money they get from the rent funds their different programs which is nice. Next Hunter wanted to show me the charging bull on Wall Street. Since he was last there someone has added a statue of a defiant little girl in front of it. This has made the site much more popular and it was packed with people. We weren't able to get any great pictures of the statues, but it was awesome to see in person. From there we walked to the New York stock exchange which was impressive to see in person.

Times Square 8k display

The NYC New Years ball drop was a lot smaller than expected!

Famous Macy's

World Trade Center Memorial

Freedom Tower

Winter Garden. They had some can displays around. Here is the USA flag.

Hudson River

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

New York Stock Exchange

After walking down Wall Street we found ourselves near a subway station and realized it was time to head back out of the city towards our hotel in Queens. We took the subway all the way this time instead of the LIRR which was slower but let us see more of the city. Hunter made sure we got an express train which was a little quicker. When we got to the end of the subway line we planned to get lunch before heading back to the hotel to get our bags. However, we found ourselves in a rather sketchy area of town so we ended up just getting a Lyft and deciding to find food at the airport. We checked in and got through security quickly with our first class boarding passes. Hunter originally was going to get the same Flagship First we had coming to JFK back to LAX but he decided to stay with me instead. We headed to JFK's Terminal 8 which is a really modern nice airport compared to some we have been through. This terminal is almost all American Airlines flights and there were departures for all over the world. My flight to Seattle was right next to a flight to Milan, Italy. Hunter read some online reviews and found an Italian restaurant that was based locally in Queens and had a location in Terminal 8. They also had great employee discounts we took advantage of! We got a calzone, meat lovers pizza, and pasta. It was delicious and we enjoyed watching the international flights roll out as the sun set. We then boarded our six hour flight to Seattle. While economy wasn't quite as nice as the first class seats we got on our way to JFK it was nice to get some more time together.

After reaching Seattle we got dinner and headed to the hotel. We had to wake up early to get me back to YVR in time for the good flight loads to YLW. Since the Alaska direct flight from Seattle was full I had to go to YVR first. Luckily there was a very empty Delta flight and I even got first class with a Diet Coke before takeoff (yes, I drank diet coke before 9am *laughing*)! Hunter flew back to SLC and got some beautiful pictures circling Mt Rainier. It was pretty impressive getting to experience both coasts and an amazing first class flight in one weekend. I am really thankful for Hunter's flight benefits that allow us to go on such cool quick trips.

Huner using his silly filter I despise

Flying out of Seattle with some cool views!

Plane to Vancouver - 1st class seat

Trip Date: November 7-12, 2018