787 inaugural DFW-ORD (we obviously weren't on it).

As we anticipated some festivities at the gate, we got an
early shuttle to the airport and arrived at L10 in the
depressing part of Terminal C, where they had set up a
somewhat gala reception for the crowd of dignitaries and
enthusiasts who had turned up for the occasion.

Being the custodian of my friend Annie's camera, I snapped
a bunch of shots of the 787's first commercial at least
visit to Chicago.

Before the hordes debarked, we rushed off to the Admiral's
Club, where we staked out a nice spot in the quiet room.

At some point, on one of my trips to refill our glasses of
the light, pineapplish house red wine, I ran into the
happy bunch who had been on the flight, of whom I knew
oh, maybe, 20. Friendly Skies, legalalien, techgirl,
ParanoiaTX, and a passel of others; there were supposedly
upward of 75 FTMMers on that trip, with more who hadn't
signed up on the thread.

As we were scheduled on the return to Dallas, we went
back to L10, where we were given bags of a strange mixture
of cheesy and caramel popcorn courtesy of Garrett, a local
snack company. The combination (I didn't taste until later)
actually kind of works.

They handed out commemorative amenity kits that included
that same Garrett popcorn (Chicago origin) and Dallas
Popcorn Co. popcorn (from Hyattsville, MD), an iPad cover,
and an i-device charger.

AA2334 ORD DFW 1210 1454 788 12AB

We got two seats in a three row, and the unfortunate third,
an active-duty military guy who had zero idea of what was
going on, turned out not to have gotten a kit. I offered
him mine, which he initially accepted and then decided he
would go back off the plane and get one of his own, which
he eventually did, so I got mine back, though I gave it
away to person or persons unknown.

kiwi Flyer, the most extraordinary traveler I know, was in
6A a few rows ahead, and I went up there for a visit; he very
kindly offered to let me sit in the seat (I accepted for a short
while) and taste the festive meal (looked like Chef Boyardee
rigatoni in tomato sauce with cheese; I declined the honor).

It was a nice and pretty pumped crew, different from the
inaugural one; they kept asking those who were doing the
round trip whether their service was up to that of the
other flight - from what I heard, the answer was yes.

Off to the Admiral's Club right by the gate for drinks and
chats with kiwi, who had charmed the desk into giving him
an excess of drink coupons, so instead of the usual swill
I asked for a Pyrat XO in a snifter ,,, and was given
something strange, which turned out to be Captain Morgan,
which does not go well in a snifter. I had to get a Coke to
balance it out. We decided this was a cue to get out of
there, so we said goodbye to Kiwi and went two terminals
down to the Centurion lounge, whose catering is designed if
not executed by Dean Fearing.

The offerings included fideo with winter vegetables and
grana, totally tasteless; short rib tacos with not so much
short rib in them, despite which they kept running out; and
smoked chicken enchiladas, which were surprisingly okay.
Also surprisingly okay were refritos and surprisingly
unokay was rice. We witnessed a couple of southern origin
who exclaimed excitedly in Spanish "!arroz y frijoles!" when
they saw them. Almond cake for afters.

Given the good things I'd heard about the San Francisco
one, and considering that Dallas is the equal of that city
in wealth and pretension, I found the place unimpressive
enough. On a subsequent visit the food was substantially
better, though the boozal situation was not. Which
included a line at the bar, which periodically went
unattended; it turns out that you can give a roving waitress
a buck, and she gets the stuff much faster than you can
yourself. My drink of choice was Remy Martin VSOP; lili's a
couple glasses of a reasonable Rhone.