Friday, July 31, 2026
I’m never a fan of traveling to the airport on the same day of the flight. I much prefer to spend the night at an airport hotel and take an early flight out. Today was one of those days that I really wished we had done that scenario.
The day started out great. The weather was clear. Pumpkin was not meowing to go outside (he did go hide under the couch when the suitcases came out😿). Traveling to the shuttle office was uneventful. We left for the airport on time. That’s when the wheels ran off.
We had to make two auxiliary stops on the way to the airport to pick up people. Those stops always adds time to the trip. Then we hit the stop-n-go traffic. We got to the airport 30 minutes late. To add insult to injury, the driver had to drop all of us off at the North Terminal even though most of us were flying out of the South Terminal. “Construction at the airport.” I don’t think the construction is ever going to end.
We schlepped all the way over to the South Terminal and then went outside to use the Delta luggage drop-off. Typically, it is less congested than using the ones inside. Not today. Today, there was a line and only one person was at the counters taking bags. And, it was very hot outside. We were not in a good mood. Finally, two more people appeared at the counters and the line started moving faster. We were able to check all 3 bags.
Once we went to Security, Chuck had trouble getting the CLEAR TSA scanner to recognize his face. He kept having to move forward and then back. Finally, it gave him the green light to proceed. But, he was then “randomly” selected to go through the full-body scanner. Not helping anyone’s mood.
I was happy that we were going to be at ‘A’ gate but then saw the change that we were at ‘D’ gate. Just love being jostled and crowded on the underground train. By the time we got to our boarding area which was at the end of gate D (of course), we had less than 30 minutes to boarding so no time for lunch. Glad I had packed some Powerbars in my backpack.
The flight was full and the pilot said we should arrive earlier to Boston than scheduled. Yay! I started on the movie Hoppers and Chuck put his earplugs in and started on a nap.
About mid-way through the 3-hour flight, the pilot announced that there were storms on the East Coast and we were being directed to go out into the Atlantic to avoid them. As we got closer to Boston, he then announced that we would have to circle for a while before being allowed to land. We ended up being 30 minutes late on the landing. People with connecting flights were very agitated because when we did land, the weather was gorgeous. Not sure where the storms were but they weren’t here.
We had to walk a long way from our gate to the Luggage pick-up and then we had to back-track to find the UBER pick-up area. I was missing the underground train now.
The last couple of times to Boston we have used the HAL hotel and transfer option. Since we have seen most of the downtown Boston tourist attractions, this time we opted to do our own transportation, and I found us a room at the Hyatt Place Boston Seaport which is very near the port.
The UBER pick-up was pretty quick once we found the right spot at the airport. Very efficient system they have in place. Even though it was a Friday night, the ride to the hotel was fast. The hotel check-in was easy, and we were soon in our fifth-floor room. There was a sign at the desk that we may experience late-night noise because of the outdoor concert that was being held next door at the Leader Bank Pavillion. We were encouraged to go up to their roof-top bar and restaurant and listen to the concert for free. Tori Amos was performing that night. We had never heard of her.
We did enjoy the rooftop bar. Chuck had spicy chicken wings and I had a bowl of excellent clam chowder. We split some eggrolls. We had a pleasant conversation with a mother and daughter while enjoying the view. The daughter lived in Boston and was just starting law school and the mother was visiting from California. In the small world category, when I mentioned I grew up in Kentucky, the mother said she had relatives that lived in Cadiz and had I ever heard of it? Well, yes I did know Cadiz. Only a stone’s throw from my hometown. So weird.
We did not stay for the concert. Our long, exhausting day was catching up with us, so we decided on an early night.
Up Next: Embarkation Day
