Flying to Bremerton…Again

After yesterday’s explanation of three trips in one day, it’s time to show you the second leg of our journey. This one took place between Home Base and Bremerton with two passengers in back.

The view of the Grand Canyon is always stunning to me. I am also impressed that Gladys can get us there in about fifteen minutes, while I’m pretty sure it took about four hours in a car.

I’m not much of a road-tripper, and that is only confirmed by my job. “We could have been there hours ago,” says I in a whining tone. Unless I’m in an airplane, it isn’t really the getting-there part that I enjoy. I just want to be there!

I even had a snack on this flight. Have you had the chocolate chunk cookies at Jimmy John’s? If not, we need to remedy that situation as soon as possible. They are quite wonderful.

I always get my mountains mixed up in these parts. It could be Mount Rainier. Or Mount Hood. It isn’t Mount Everest because this mountain still has its top intact. Whichever one it is, I think it looks pretty nifty just off Gladys’ winglet.

This also means that we’re getting close to Bremerton again. This flight took under two and a half hours to complete.

The clouds aren’t very thick during this descent, and it’s warm enough that we didn’t need to turn on the anti-icing equipment. We certainly did this past Monday when we landed here to begin the week of fun. We’re about to dip below the clouds as we arrive at Bremerton.

Oh golly. Isn’t this so beautiful? I would live in these neck of the woods for a summer home. Actually, Everett, Washington is still my number-one pick after my bus ride home from Canada. It’s close to Seattle but still has that small-town feel and charm.

And an outlet mall. But don’t tell Hubby that is a weighing factor or I’ll lose all credibility. And there’s very little left as it is…

Those yellow flowers are a dead-giveaway that we are almost landing in Bremerton. Isn’t everything so green and lush? Coming from the desert, I am always blown away by the amount of non-dead foliage in these parts.

“Bremerton Traffic, this is Gladys. Short final, Runway 1, full stop landing. Bremerton.”

Since this airport doesn’t have a control tower, it’s up to me to make position reports to others in the area so they know how to avoid crashing into us.

I don’t mind talking more on the radio at all…but I’m sure that surprises all of you.

We made it! Look at that green field! That is the area surrounding the runway!

After I unloaded lots of bags (more than two kids backpacks, anyway), I arranged for fuel and then went in to pay the bill.

It didn’t feel too rushed, but I was anxious to get home. My suggestion a few days earlier was to spend the night here, then head home when we were refreshed the next morning. I lost that thumb wrestle, and we turned around for our third time between Seattle and Phoenix in one day.

I was beat! How did I used to do this all the time?!

We had our maintenance logs in the baggage compartment, since we weren’t going back to our home airport. Our intended destination instead was Williams-Gateway in Mesa, where there is an Embraer Service Center. We love having them so close, and they do wonderful work for us.

This is my step ladder, too. This baggage compartment is so huge (and often filled to the brim), so I need a way to climb inside to get all of the bags from the unreachable areas.

Yes, I’ve had nightmares about being locked in here before a flight. I would die, of course, since this part of the airplane isn’t pressurized. But I keep telling myself that someone would notice if I wasn’t up front flying the airplane when we took off. So that keeps me feeling safe when I dig deep into our baggage area.

Two out of three legs done for the day. We are almost finished!

Let’s Go Home…Twice!

I knew that Saturday was going to be killer. We were to take two passengers home that morning, turn around and come back to Bremerton with two different passengers, then head home empty for a few weeks of maintenance.

Three trips back and forth between Seattle. It felt like a typical day with my old job! And even now, I still look back wondering how on earth I survived that schedule for so long (five years!).

For today’s post, I’ll just show you the first leg, from Bremerton to Home. The first time.

It was actually a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest. After reading the temperatures in Phoenix, I was dreading leaving the 63-degree weather here for home’s sweltering fun.

But it looks weird if I ask to stay another week, so I just went with it.

Of course, we passed through lots of clouds before finally finding perfect Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) up above. It’s a shame to not see the incredible scenery below, because it is breathtaking.

This one just makes me want to burst out into song. I get that way sometimes…

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE!

Oops. Man! Sorry.

It’s easy to forget what the sunshine looks like when you’ve been absent from it for a week. As soon as we climbed through about 5,000 feet, we were on top of the dreary weather and got to enjoy the sun all the way home.

Thanks to an awesome tailwind and my being nice on the radio for some shortcuts, our flight time was less than 2.5 hours. Pretty good for this trip!

Gladys is so fast!

Don’t be alarmed, but I am sitting in back for this picture. That’s why it is a shot of the left wing instead of my normal right. Since we had two young guys on board, I swapped them seats so they could each sit up front with the Captain.

They loved it, and it gave me a chance to test our new headset in the back for the passengers. They can put it on and call us up front, if they want. In case walking five feet to tap us on the shoulder is just out of the question. They can even stay on and listen to our Prime Country on Sirius! I doubt that will ever happen, as they’ve already teased us for that musical selection.

I just think they’re jealous.

All of the headset jacks work perfectly in the back for this new headset. The boss will be thrilled!

Eventually, it was time to head back up front so we could begin our descent into The Valley of the Sun. The flight actually felt very fast. Which is good for me, since I get to do this trip twice more today!

This is Cottonwood, which isn’t too far from Sedona. They do sky diving out of here, but we didn’t hear “Jumpers Away” on the radio today.

I didn’t mind. Sky Divers can be so messy to wipe out of an engine, you know?

Ahhhhh, home sweet home. It always feels wonderful coming back, no matter how long I’ve been gone.

And I did miss the sun. It’s been six days without it.

Landing Runway 21.

I got our passengers on their way. Their older brother picked them up. Unloading two tiny backpacks was a breeze. We should travel with kids all the time!

This is our fuel farm, where our line guys hook us up to get jet fuel. We took 416 gallons on here to make the return trip back up to Bremerton.

After the airplane was ready, I was famished! I texted the boss to see if we could run to grab a quick lunch nearby. He said he was running a little behind, so the timing worked perfectly!

Just half a mile from the airport was a Jimmy John’s Sandwich place. (Merrill, you would love it!). So we were able to eat to be ready for our next flight to the Seattle area with happy tummies!

We are based at the perfect location in the middle of the airport. We really love our home hangar and those staffing it. We are always pampered, and you know how I feel about being pampered.

As you can see, Saturdays aren’t a very busy day at our hangar. And it slows down quite a bit in the summer, too, because most people avoid the triple digits like the plague! Smarty pants.

With two people in back, we were soon on our way out! It’s about 3:00 PM now. Perfect timing!

Of course, this airport is always good for some eye candy. This Gulfstream V was waiting to go from it’s own private hangar. We aren’t that bad…at least we share a few large hangars with others.

Some people just don’t like to share.

We were wheels-up and on our way back to the Seattle area. Thanks to the direction of flight and, thus, some headwinds, this flight took about two hours and fifty minutes.

We still made excellent time in a rocket named Gladys.

A Day of Eating in Bremerton

After a lovely few days in Canada, I had Friday to enjoy in beautiful Bremerton. However, thanks to being old, I had forgotten my jacket at home and thus didn’t feel too excited about being outside in the 50-degree temperatures.

Hey, they don’t call me “Weak-Sauce” for nothing.

Around noon, I knew it was time to brave the temperatures and grab some lunch. The lovely Bremerton Bar and Grill was just a few blocks away from my hotel.

I have always avoided this place in the past because it seemed a little pricey to me. After two weeks in the Caribbean, however, I’ve realized that dropping $12 for food isn’t the end of the world. At least is isn’t $40!

So I opted to try this restaurant and wasn’t disappointed. Especially because they let me swap out my soda for hot chocolate on the daily special.

The restaurant is located right across the street from the Navy shipyard, so people are often rushed to get in, eat, and get out. For that purpose, Bremerton Bar and Grill has wisely created a rush menu with ten items that can be made in under ten minutes for ten dollars, and it includes a drink.

Though I was seriously considering getting Habanero Mac and Cheese Balls, I opted to try their shredded pork burrito from their quick menu. I loved the idea that it came with homemade potato chips. (Remember when we made homemade potato chips and devoured them with perfect manly sandwiches?)

Everything was so yummy! It probably helped that my last meal had been fifteen hours previously and was at Subway. I’m not a huge fan of that sandwich establishment, and this burrito made up for it.

Of course, while I ate my lunch, I enjoyed reading a little bit of Harry Potter on my Kindle app on my iPod Touch. I have since replaced such a reading device. Wait until you see the improvement!

Later that night, when my stomach growled and said it was dinner time, I decided to try a place just across the courtyard called Fritz. It was a Belgium fry house, whatever that means.

I asked for a glass of water, which shocked them, I’m sure. I didn’t realize that it was also an ale house! But the water was very, very good.

I’ve never been that into ale. Like, don’t even know what it is!

I also accidentally ordered this. Wait! Let me explain! I saw that they had fried zucchini, which is one of my favorite things at my favorite restaurant. So I thought I would try them here. And they were only available in the combo basket.

It’s a vegetable, right?

So I also accidentally got two chicken strips, two mozzarella cheese sticks, and a small fry with my zucchini. I was able to pick two dipping sauces with my meal, so I opted for their BBQ sauce (for the chicken) and a dill ranch sauce (for everything else).

Don’t worry. I ended up eating about four bites of this entire basket. What was I thinking?! It was good but just too greasy for me! What a waste.

The zucchini was better at my other place, too. But I managed to eat a few of the small pieces here before calling it quits. Then I just wanted to find a salad bar and go to town to make up for my poor decision-making skills as far as dinner was concerned.

Never again!

The sunset view from my window helped me feel a little better about eating so poorly tonight. Isn’t this a gorgeous view of the harbor? I really love visiting this city.

We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, but lots of flying. So, really, it’s a perfect day!

UPDATE: After finally getting in touch with the hotel manager, I was able to be reimbursed for my stolen shoes! Yippeeeee!