As I walked out of the terminal, I realized that this was old-school flying.  I was going to have to walk up the stairs just like they did in the old movies, which was in character with this tiny airport.  TGNR  Thank God no rain.  As I went up the stairs I admired the brand new tires, and the shiny plane from the outside.  As an airport worker with a safety vest on was scurrying  around underneath the plane, I joked that everything checked out.  He chuckled and seemed like a pleasant guy.

As I went to my seat, I noticed that I COULD ask the aisle guy to move so that I could take my window seat, OR take the window of the exit row ahead of him.  Guess what I did?  Yep, got the exit row.  All of the crew was very upbeat, almost as if they loved their jobs.  I was told that I was in fact in an exit row, and could I perform the necessary procedures?

I laughed at the idea of a water landing, from Long Beach to Salt Lake City (SLC).  I was transfixed by the view of the brand new blue engine out my window.  When I asked, the gentleman told me that the plane was 13 days old (young).  Brandy New!

As we were informed of the proper procedures, I ignored them as always.  As we were getting ready to get ready to take off, I heard from the captains mike, "Buehler,   Buehler,   Buehler"  I heard some other chuckles, these guys just like to have fun.

The take off was prefect and we gradually climbed, leaving the LA area.  I kept staring at the blue engine as it shined when the sun hit it.  Did I mention I LOVE half full flights?  I know that JetBlue doesn’t like them as much as I do.

Each seat has its own TV, wow.  I did NOT get the headsets, and I planned to get some work done on the short hop to SLC.  Unable to ignore the TV, I was forced to endure 15 minutes straight of Martha Stewart.  When did she get out of jail?

OK, back to staring out the window.  It seemed like every 15 minutes there was another body of water.  I didn’t have a map. so I would only be guessing which ones they were.  At the beginiong of the flight they said "in the event of a water landing…." and I laughed.  I figured there was a better chance of Jet Blue buying Continental then us doing a water landing, but you never know.

I was given my drink and some cashews which I liked and got more.  They had other choices, and I REALLY liked that I did not get those teeny packages of pretzels this time.  I enjoyed the upbeat attitude of the crew.

Anyway, the descent into SLC was smooth and following some braking on the runway we were taxiing over to the terminal.

As we exited the plane following the great photo oppportunity, I felt they were sincere in offering up the pleasantries.

Thanks Jet Blue! 

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The deal was almost too good to be true.  JET BLUE, going into Salt Lake City, exactly where I wanted to go.  At a very reasonable price.  What was the catch.  Well, there happened to be two.  First of all, I had ten days in which to make the purchase and I wasn’t sure were the money was coming from.  Second, it was going out of Long Beach CA.  It did not seem right. I kept the ticket in mind and made some other plans for the trip as the day quickly approached.  The day before I had a tiff, (a tiff is a term for a fight, but not a big one), with my wife.  I could tell she was not completely on board with my decision to go to Salt Lake City for the first annual convention of our network marketing company, Zrii. She would not help by buying the ticket for me, and eventually I called my old buddy Paul.  Paul was my business associate and had stood up in my wedding 3 years ago.  We were going to convention and we were rooming together. So he had an interest in helping me.  In that trusting and loving way he agreed, and charged the ticket for me.  What a guy. Now, about the Long Beach detail.  What kind of rinkydink parking lot looking small airport was this?  Was this a hidden gem someohow forgotten from the 50s and even WW II?  Who went to it anyway? As my awesome friend Lance quickly frove me from Huntington Beach to the airport, I noticed that it was a big parking lot, that was not properly marked with signs.  Maybe a secret place that only locals knew.  As he pulled right up to the only possible place to unload, all you-know-what broke loose. WWIII was led by one, not so bad looking male cop with a mustache, and a morbidly obese Rambo wannnabe who started to waddle over to me with an angry look on his face.  We moved, darnit, and I had to walk a ways back with my stuff.  Well as things returned to normal, and the security threat was lifted, I focused on the building. I left them dreaming of their next artery-clogging dozen crullers, I navigated the checkin process to perfection.  The smiling Jet Blue employee not only helped me very efficiently, she pushed others through (with check in luggage).  People like this are solid gold, all companies need them. It was small,  like a barracks.  It was one level, and I guess around 4 gates.  CUTE.  And what a cutie ahead of me.  A young mother was training her tiny child to be ‘big girl’ right in front of me.  The experiment was working, and this little doll was imitating her mommy at every opportunity.  Mind you, somtimes these exercises go terribly wrong.  I’m usually the one behind something like this, but for once it was refreshing…. I started to hear the announcements for the Jet Blue flights and lots of light-hearted comments were tossed around, making me smile.  I could see the attitudes of almost all of the fliers.  They were upbeat.  In fact these were very attractive people, who probably all had shopped at Irvine Spectrum or were holdovers from Sharper Image.  They looked like actors, I expected a movie set to be unveiled at any minute.  And themn the announcement.  This was the innaugural flight to Seattle from the cute little airport and "would you like a piece of cake?"  Now I know that I was going to SLC, not Seattle but I felt that I totally could have a piece.  But no.  I’m watching  my girlish figure.  I had discovered where the roly poly fat cop got HIS figure-the free cake parties. What a deal, a party at the airport.  Usually the scene of uptight  TSA types and tense passengers that left 20 minutes too late from their home.  I liked it.  I started out toward my flight. See Part 2,   soon.

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