Life Before COVID: 32 Flights 3 Continents in 80 Days to Grounded
 

Life Before COVID: 32 Flights 3 Continents in 80 Days to Grounded



I figured now more than ever the Trip Reports Forum could use a little content. Plus, I think revisiting my travels could be somewhat therapeutic. For background I spent 191 nights on the road in 2019, 60 of which were outside of the United States. In total I was on the ground in 25 countries in 2019. I also did 16 overnight flights, 14 of which were in Economy. I flew 137 segments for a total of 194,813 miles visiting 70 different airports and flying 23 different airlines. I think it's safe to say I travel an above average amount, and it is something that really keeps me going. I am always looking forward to going on a new adventure, and so happy that the kind of work I do requires me to go to the airport week in and week out, and visit new places, and solve new problems.



I was quite looking forward to 2020 being a big year for me. 2019 was the first time since 2017 I didn’t manage to crack the 200,000 miles flying threshold. I was certainly hoping to find a little extra flying in 2020 to put me back in that club. It also was the year I would cross through my life goal of visiting my 100th country. This is something I have always had in my mind as a great goal, and one that I was never really sure if I would accomplish. Thankfully, on January 2nd, 2020 I was able to cross that one off the list. I landed in Nadi, Fiji and once I cleared in immigration allowed myself a moment to realize that I had finished what I had considered a life goal ahead of my 28th birthday. It was interesting to think about what would be next.



Of course, all of that wanderlust, and traveling is starting to feel like it took place on a different planet and in a different life. As I sit here in suburban New Jersey in one of the most COVID infected areas in the world. I can’t help, but wonder when things will return to normal. I have a trip to South Africa, and Zimbabwe in late September on the books, and I wonder if I will be able to take it. I wonder when my next business trip will be, as there are lots of clients out there who are waiting for the greenlight to bring me back in the fold. So, I am still hopeful that in 2020 I can have more adventures, and also go back to doing the work that I enjoy very much.



However, up until March 15th, 2020 I was on the road every week to that point and did some international traveling during that time. So, I thought it might be good to write up a rather long, but interesting trip report covering my life and travels starting from departing on my winter trip on December 26th, 2019 through my ultimate grounding on March 15th, 2020.



I hope you will follow along and enjoy. The routing for those 80 days of the year where I was able to travel is: JFK-LAX-MEL-NAN-SUV-NAN-LAX-EWR,JFK-JAX-JFK,PHL-STL-SAT-BNA-PHL,JFK-LIS-MUC-LIS-JFK,EWR-IAH-SLP-IAH-EWR,PHL-DFW-PHL,EWR-ATL-EWR-MSY-EWR,ISP-PHL-LAX-SAN-DFW-PHL. 32 flights that cover 50,494 miles and 3 continents.

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GC Map Photo


Trip 1 December 26th to January 7th visiting a friend in Australia, and a side trip to Fuji.



To provide a little context this trip had been in the works for about 9 months. I had recently met someone who lives in rural Victoria on a farm. Prior to meeting her I had only been to Australia once in 2017, and it is there that I have one of my only travel regrets. In 2017 on the train from Sydney to Melbourne I sat next to a gentleman who was on his way back to his farm. His description of the remoteness, and challenges faced by farmers in those remote parts of Australia really fascinated me. We spoke for hours, and as his stop was approaching he offered me the chance to go visit it. Now of course for some people this is the kind of thing where you say what are you crazy? For me however I have found that these opportunities have always led to the greatest experiences in my travels. The often unexpected hospitality shown by strangers and the chance to experience someone’s daily life in a remote area. These are things that I really do enjoy. However, being so far away from home, and knowing that changing my course at that moment in the journey would mean forfeiting my J class seats back home, I had to pass on the chance.



Not taking that gentleman up on his offer to visit his farm was something that bothered me for a long time after. I know that it would have been a very memorable experience, but it was on the last day of my trip so I had no easy way to rearrange things. So, when I was introduced to someone who said they grew up on a farm in rural Australia, and they collected their own rainwater etc. I knew I couldn’t let a second opportunity pass me by. Over the next 6 months we spent a fair bit of time together, during which time I expressed interest in seeing her home. Luckily for me, her parents said they would love to host an American traveler at their farm. In the meantime I also met her two sisters who were visiting her in the US, and I guess they also vouched for me. So, it became a solid plan I would spend Christmas Day with my family, and they would do the same down in Oz. On the 28th I’d arrive in Melbourne and we’d take the road trip out to the farm. All well and good to me! I then of course knew that I wasn’t just going to head straight home from Australia. By that time I knew I should be breathing on my goal of 100, so I decided that Fiji would be an ideal place to make it 100.



All was well and good in that regard, and then a mutual friend of ours, asked if they could join. They had never really traveled internationally before, but wanted to get started. As he put it to me, “If I travel with you I know no matter what happens you’ll figure it out. You’re really good at this kind of stuff.” Thankfully, I was able to find award seats, and some reasonable cash fares for them to join me on all the legs of my trip.



So with a trip much different then what I had originally sketched out, and with the added fun of getting to show someone part of the world for the first time the days ticked away. My last business trip of the year concluded on December 7th, and on the 13th I went and visited some other family in Florida, returning on the morning of the 17th.



Finally, the last obstacle before the trip was finished. I attended my family's Christmas celebrations/dinners etc. I drove home that evening and met up with my travel companion as we’d start early the next morning on our trip to Australia.



December 26th 2019 JFK-LAX on Alaska Airlines Flight 237 Boeing 737

We left around 8AM from the Princeton Junction Train Station on what turned out to be a very crowded express train to New York Penn Station. I was quite surprised that so many folks were commuting on December 26th like it was any other Thursday. This was the first time my travel companion had ever flown out of JFK, so I explained to him the joys of needing to ride 3 separate trains, and use three different fare mediums.



Once we got to JFK T7 we headed up to the Alaska Airlines lounge, which we accessed via Priority Pass. It was his first time in any airline lounge, so he was pretty impressed with everything. I told him if he liked this, just wait, he hasn't seen anything yet. We had some breakfast, and discussed what we’d do on our long layover. Since we were connecting on 2 separate tickets in the winter from the US Northeast I wanted to make sure we have plans A, B, and C. If plan A worked as expected we would have a 6 hour layover, which even if you’ve never been to any airline lounges, is too much time to spend in an airport. Plus, he had never been to LA before so I wanted to squeeze something in for him. On the way back from Fiji we left ourselves a 12 hour daytime layover so we could properly visit LA, but we’d still use the few hours we had today.

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JFK Alaska Lounge T7
At the gate the GA paged me, there was only 1 seat left in F, and since we were both on the same PNR she wanted to know what I wanted to do. I of course took the single F seat, and she said she’d leave the middle next to me in the exit row open. I returned to the boarding lounge with good news for my friend. Today would be the first time he got to visit LA, and it would be the first time he would ever fly 1st class.



I’ve flown enough Alaska F to know I wasn’t giving up much, and I knew he would enjoy the experience much more than I would. Not to mention we still had the long haul to Australia ahead of us later that night in Y, so for someone new to traveling it was going to be an exhausting day either way. So, he got comfortable in 3C and I headed back to 17C for the flight to LA.

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AS Seat Pitch Exit Row



The flight was your standard AS Transcon in the back. Starting with a water service, and then a few rounds of drinks at various points in the flight. I admit that looking back at it now I really don’t remember anything about the flight. Though I’m sure I was comfortable, as the Alaska Exit rows are by far my favorite, and with no one in the middle seat I definitely had plenty of room.



The most important thing was that we had landed in LA on time, so our Qantas connection would be quite comfortable.



LA Layover 1



Our first LA layover plan was rather simple, and in fact a classic one among seasoned Flyertalkers. We went over to IN-N-Out Burger on Sepulveda Blvd right outside of LAX. They were aware of the cult like status of this West Coast chain, and were happy to finally get a chance to try it.

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In-n-out burger

Between using the new LAXIT buses to get an uber, and having a walk around the block just to stretch our legs and enjoy a little fresh air we killed about 90 minutes or so with our little off airport excursion. This would still leave some time to visit the lounges and walk around LAX. We hopped in an uber back to TBIT, where we checked in without any issues at the Qantas counter. They said the flight was pretty light, and it looked like we’d have empty seats next to us, which on this type of flight is a great thing.



Thankfully since it was one PNR my companion also got PreCheck so we got through in under 5 minutes. The regular security line looked quite long and painful, so I was glad he was able to skip it.



To keep the walking to the max we walked from TBIT over to the AA terminal, where I figured I would start to show him nicer lounges, while keeping the OneWorld lounge in TBIT for last. We headed up to the LAX Flagship Lounge which I always enjoy spending a little time in, as the food and liquor offerings are quite nice. It was pretty quiet as well so there was plenty of seating, and of course great apron views.

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AA FL LAX

After a couple of drinks in the AA lounge I suggested we move back over to TBIT to be closer to the gate and check out one more lounge. Sadly, I am no longer a OneWorld Emerald so we couldn’t visit the excellent QF F lounge. Personally I would still put it ahead of the UA Polaris clubs, which would be my second choice domestically. So, for me we were slumming it in the OneWorld Business Lounge at TBIT, but at least I was alone in knowing that. They had a tray of welcome cocktails, and of course quite a great food and drink selection. My companion was really impressed by how far we’d stepped up since the Alaska Boardroom in JFK.



They called for boarding of next flight QF94 to Melbourne and we headed back down to the terminal for the long stretch over the Pacific.



December 26th 2019 LAX-MEL on Qantas Flight 94 Airbus A380

It was hard to tell who was more excited as we walked down the jetway. I was excited for so many reasons, this was the first long haul flight of this trip that would take me to my goal of reaching 100 countries. It was also only my 3rd flight on the A380, which, amazingly, is already becoming an endangered species. To top it all off, I was heading to Australia for the second time and would be finally getting to visit a remote Australian farm. For my travel companion he was boarding his first transoceanic flight and was certainly quite impressed with the size of the A380.



I assigned us seats across the aisle from one another so we would both have an aisle seat. The good news was with the light load we both had empty seats next to each other. He had 2 since he was in the center section and I had one since I was on the left side. My row mate was a flight attendant for Southwest heading to visit friends in Perth. We talked about the interisland service in Hawaii, and she told me how she had worked a couple of those trips, and was happy they were flying there.



I also sent a quick email to our friend who would be picking us up from the airport once we landed in MEL. As a native Australian she raved about how Qantas was the only way to fly down there, and we’d love the food and the ice cream. There was no ice cream on the menu for our flight, so I told her the trip was already ruined.



We pushed back on time and our flight time was under 15 hours, which, considering the sometimes nasty winter headwinds, I was pretty happy with. This was my first long haul flight with Qantas I had previously only flown with them in Australia, and one hop over to AKL from SYD. While I hope to one day score a QF F redemption via AAdvantage I was still looking forward to seeing the service levels on QF long haul.



Overall, I would have to give it a miss. The A380 cabin was just not in very good shape; it looked quite beat up and tired. The lack of real power points on such a long flight, and lackluster catering didn’t give me the impression that this was the best way to get down to Australia. Dinner was some glorified macaroni and cheese.

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QF First Meal LAX-MEL

With the extra space, and the long day coming from the East Coast after the meal service wrapped up I had no trouble getting some sleep. As you can probably imagine if I wasn’t able to sleep sitting up with my travel schedule I would probably need to be hospitalized. However, I sleep really well on planes regardless of the time of day or length of flight. I can just easily sleep through an afternoon flight from Chicago to New York, as I can sleep through a late night Transatlantic flight. I probably slept for close to 10 hours on that particular flight.



As the lights came back up for the breakfast service about 90 minutes out I woke up, and I remember my travel companion being in awe of how much, and how well I appeared to sleep. He said he was not so lucky, and estimates he was only able to sleep for about 4 hours. I just told him that practice makes perfect, and congratulated him on crossing the equator for the first time.

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QF Second Meal LAX-MEL

All in all, we had a decent flight down to Australia considering we were flying in Y. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to fly Qantas again, but considering I was able to snag saver award level seats for the peak of peak season I was quite happy with the redemption value as this flight was over 2,000USD for cash fares.

Time in Australia December 28th to January 2nd



I don’t think I could write a detailed breakdown of what we did everyday while we were down there. I of course was not taking any notes, and I somehow doubt you as a reader would want to read thousands of words describing the passing hours of each day. I will however, provide some photos and commentary on the highlights of the trip, as we did some amazing things. Of course, 5 days in Australia is not nearly enough, especially for someone’s first time, but it was still an incredible time.



The first challenge of course was getting out to the farm itself. It is about a 5 hour drive if you were to simply drive straight through. However, our hosts would have none of that. They said there were all kinds of neat things to see along the way, and since we had transitioned from the middle of the dark dreary winter to the scorching heat of Australia with 14 hours of daylight to enjoy, how could we say no?



Of course, driving through Australia in a private car with local people paid dividends right away. I learned that pretty much every town has public restroom facilities, and a whole host of things that I missed by never really leaving the cities on my first visit. It was rather enjoyable as the divided high speed highway ended as we got further out from Melbourne.



The first major detour was to the Grampians National Park where they insisted that despite the heat we had to take a short hike to a place known as the Balconies. I was slightly worried between the usual dehydration of long haul flying, and then so quickly setting off on a hike in those temperatures we could run into some issues, but we had plenty of water, and the views at the end of the hike were quite worthwhile.

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Balconies Grampians National park

One other memorable stop along the way was to the Pink Lake. During the middle of the summer this place of course was less of a lake and more of a salt flat. Although, the pinkish hue in the salt was undeniable.

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Pink Salt Lake

It reminded me of the pink salt you see sold these days from the Himalayas. Certainly, well worth the stop.



Once we were on the farm we got to experience real life during the harvest season which was a highlight for me. Of course, at this point one of the stories dominating global headlines was the absolutely horrific fire season that Australia was having.



Although Victoria was doing better than New South Wales it was still very much on everyone’s mind while we were there. That, and a Cyclone was currently battering Fiji and had closed the airports putting our next stop in jeopardy.



That afternoon was a real treat as we got to “participate” in the harvesting. Which these days just means getting up close and personal with massive farm equipment. I have seen the giant harvesters and equipment for sale on the sides of highways in different parts of America, but it was cool to drive my first John Deere a long way from Illinois. All of the technology in these things made it so simple to operate I couldn’t believe I was suddenly at the controls of one. Without a doubt one of the highlights of my year!

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Harvester



It was nice to be out in the countryside, honestly it felt a lot like the American Midwest while we were on the farm. The one day was labeled an extreme fire danger day, so all harvesting work had to be stopped, and we spent the day pretty much entirely indoors as it was well over 40 degrees C (104F).



That night the heat finally broke and there was even some rain, which was good to drop the fire danger, but bad for harvesting crops. The temperature dropped rapidly, and of course that bought some incredible thunder and lighting. It happened over the course of what was probably an hour, and the temperatures dropped down to around 18C (64F). There was so much lighting I was even able to capture a shot of it with my cellphone camera.

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Lighting Strike

With the weather breaking, and harvesting placed on hold they decided it was the perfect day to head to the beach and do a little fishing. It meant driving over to South Australia, which for a travel nerd like me was quite exciting. South Australia is one of the few time zones on earth where the time moves back only 30 minutes. Plus, it was another territory in Australia I could say I’d visited.



We headed to Coorong National Park for the day. As we approached the coast the terrain and scenery started to change dramatically. We were able to drive straight on to the beach, which was cool. The beach was absolutely gorgeous, and as it seemed to stretch on forever, we luckily were able to get a stretch totally to ourselves. It was amazing to have such a wonderful beach, and not see any other people. Growing up on the Jersey Shore seeing an empty beach in the summer means you are there right before a hurricane, or its 5AM. We didn’t catch much fishing wise but it was still a great day just enjoying the surroundings.

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Empty Beach

We also visited Little Desert National Park briefly the following day before doing some hiking on New Years Eve in Mount Arapiles-Tooan State Park. The scenery was quite different, and we also visited a fire tower inside the park, where we could see 3 different wildfires that were burning.

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Mount Arapiles

Finally, after a great day in nature we rang in 2020 with some “spotlighting” where we tied ourselves to the back of a “ute” (pick up truck”) and used a giant spotlight to look for different wildlife.

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Spotlighting
One unforgettable way to ring in the new year for sure! Of course being 16 hours ahead of the US East Coast it was fun to send some friends and family New Year’s messages in the middle of the afternoon the day before for them.



As the sun rose on New Years Day it was time to bid farewell to our unbelievably generous and gracious hosts. It was really awesome to get that kind of experience and it is something I will never forget. My suspicions in 2017 were confirmed I knew I would enjoy the outback farming life. I was so just happy that life worked out in a way that gave me a second chance to visit a farm like that. I certainly hope I will get the chance again someday.

We had to get an early start since we would be heading back to Melbourne with our friend and her sister. Rather than take the “boring way back” her sister suggested that if we were keen, we could go back to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road. She said it had been awhile since she’d been on it, and it would make for a great day. So, our 5 hour ride would turn into almost 16 hours, but with the chance to drive one the most scenic highways in the world on the table how could you refuse?



Of course it made for quite a long day, but only added to the impressive list of things we accomplished in such a short trip down under. We drove through some pretty interesting places, and way off the main highways to go from the town we started into the Great Ocean Road itself.



One highlight had to be visiting the Giant Koala.

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Giant Koala

Once we got to the Great Ocean Road and made our first stop it became totally clear this diversion was well worth it.

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Sparks Gully, Port Campbell

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Twelve Apostles, Princetown

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Castle Cove, Glenaire

There were also equally interesting sections away from the coast where you really wind your way through some mountains. I was very glad we had multiple Australian drivers for sections of it. For me making the adjustment to driving right hand drive was no problem on the flat open country roads. However, weaving around mountain peaks would probably have tested my ability to keep left.



To cap off what was really an amazing day we stopped at a local Craft Brewery for dinner. Little Creatures in Geelong.

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Little Creatures Brewery



Where some locally produced IPAs, kangaroo skewers, and pizza were the perfect finish for a day that I will certainly remember forever.



We then headed into the CBD of Melbourne where we’d say our goodbyes to our friend and her sister. It was really hard to put into words the appreciation I had for the last few days that they helped make truly unforgettable.



It was around 10pm when we finally checked into the Melbourne Marriott Hotel for our one night stay. The room was pretty dated, but the location was perfect. Even though we had a crazy long day we still decided to have a late walk through the streets of Melbourne, since we only had a limited time in the morning before our flight to Fiji.



I was able to cobble together a brief walking tour of the areas I remember being important in the CBD from my first visit. We ended up not making it too far on our stroll, but still decided to stop for a beer at a bar that seemed to be a converted barge moored in the river. This provided a nice view of the skyline, and it was good to decompress a little bit after a crazy day.

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MEL CBD

With a 1pm flight the next day we agreed to call it a night, and in the morning make an effort to visit more of the city. We spent the morning visiting the Queen Victoria Market, where along with trying some great foods and freshly roasted coffee. There were plenty of opportunities to pick up some souvenirs from our brief trip to Australia.

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Queen Victoria Market

January 2nd 2020 MEL-NAN on Fiji Airways Flight 934 Airbus A330

After a pretty busy morning, around 11AM we grabbed an Uber for the ride back out to the airport. Thankfully, the cyclone didn’t do too much damage, and the airport was reopened, and our hotel reported they had 0 damage from the storm.



As we pulled up to the curb there were a lot of emotions swirling around in my head. Sure, it was just another airport drop off, and a chance to fly a new airline. That is usually enough to have me feeling excited. This time I was a little nervous this was going to be it later today if everything goes to plan I will be stamped into my 100th country. Certainly a milestone moment capping off an amazing trip to Australia.



Check in was pretty quick, the check in agent and I both were unsure what kind of benefits I was entitled to with my American Airlines status, and Fiji Airways’ OneWorld Connect Partner designation. So, we took that as just fly like a regular non status passenger. Not a huge deal since there was a Priority Pass lounge anyway. The one thing I do recall was just how friendly the airport security folks were. It was definitely not Newark Airport on a Monday morning.



The contract lounge was okay, and it was actually connected to the Amex Centurion Lounge, and they actually told us to just use that lounge instead. We had a couple last Australian beers as well as a light lunch before it was time to board our flight to Fiji.

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MEL Terminal



Once we boarded we saw that we got lucky again with a light load. We were sitting next to each other in a pair of seats on the A330, but when boarding was complete I went back a row so we’d have more room for this hop over to Nadi.



They served a pretty nice chicken curry lunch for the ~4 hour flight over to Nadi. The crews and atmosphere on the flight really set the mood for the visiting Fiji, and I really enjoyed the flight. I knew we’d be in good hands in a few days when we flew them back to LAX.

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Fiji Airways meal MEL-NAN



On descent into the airport I really started to feel rather emotional as it was now clear that I would be achieving my goal today. It was quite a surreal feeling as we taxied to the gate. Immigration was quick, and customs was of course X-raying bags looking for food, and seeds. We didn’t have any issues there, and quickly made it to the arrivals area.



After a quick stop at the ATM to pick up some Fijian currency we got a taxi who quoted us what I had been told was a fair rate over to Denarau Island. We would be spending two nights in the Radisson Blu Resort on Denarau island, before heading over to the capital city of Suva for a night. Then we’d spend one night at the Sheraton Denarau Island before heading back to LAX.



2 day on Denarau Island



With the time change, and taxi ride it was around 9:30PM before we got to our room. They upgraded us to a pretty elaborate suite that had everything you could need. Including, a washing machine, and dyer. That was a first for me in a hotel room! My travel companion very generously told me I could have the actual bedroom, while they made up a bed for him in the living room area. It was quite a large room and would be perfect for our quick stay.

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After we got the room made up for two it was after 10pm so we quickly learned that our only dining option would be room service. So, after we ate we took a brief walk around the resort just to get our bearings for tomorrow.



As you can probably guess by what I’ve written so far I am really not a “resort” kind of person. My ideal vacation never includes sitting around on a beach for a week straight with staff around to cater to my every whim. I really prefer being out there and doing new things. However, when you are in Fiji it seems almost remiss not to spend at least a little time relaxing and trying to enjoy yourself. I also admit that I am not much of a beach person in general. I grew up a stone's throw from the ocean, and going to the beach was not something that was saved for special occasions, or anything like that. It was a quite normal part of my summers growing up to spend many hours a week swimming in the ocean. I have however been to many of the top beaches in the world. Hands down the most “WOW” beach I have been to was in the Maldives, it hasn’t been close since. I was looking forward to the beautiful waters and islands of Fiji and thinking maybe they would give the Maldives a run for their money.



Sadly, within 5 minutes of waking up and heading out to the resort beach area I knew it wasn’t even going to be close. I was rather surprised by the “beach” here at the resort. It was far from the white sand, and clear turquoise waters of an island surrounded by a reef. It was just a dark blue lapping up volcanic rocks. I was a little surprised since standing there, I really wasn’t feeling blown away by a place so many people wax poetic about. Now I understand I was at the more discount resort on Denarau, but the quality of the beach wasn’t even close to others that I’ve been to. The beaches in Barbados, or even Jamaica did more for me. Not to mention all of the great coastline we had seen in Australia over the past few days.

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Denaru Beach



I was a little taken aback that this was the situation in perfect Fiji. I guess what I had read was true that you need to go further out to the smaller more remote islands to get that perfect beach feeling. I spoke with our hotels tour desk, and found an afternoon boat trip that was used for resort transfers to the more exclusive islands. You could, however, ride the boat on the whole round trip, and return back to Denarau. So, that sounded like a nice plan to me. We could spend the first part of the day relaxing by the resort's pools, while we worked on a few buckets of beer and lunch. Then in the afternoon head out for a boat ride, and enjoy a few more beers, and check out the other islands.



We spent a few hours just vegging out by the pool draining a few buckets of Vanu Lager. It was a pretty enjoyable beer, and not the worst way to spend some time. It being the holiday season there were lots of families at the resort, so the adults only pool was a nice quiet escape.

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Poolside



Around 3pm it was time to head to the port of Denarau for a 2-hour boat ride to nowhere. Where we would get to see some of the Mamanuca Islands where you can find overwater bungalows, and all the luxury resorts you could ever want. I was hoping that maybe on our boat ride we’d see some of the reef ringed islands, and some of that truly beautiful water of the South Pacific.



The most interesting part of the ride without a doubt was sitting on the open air deck. Up there we met and had some good conversations with some of the local people who worked at the resorts out on these islands. The gentlemen I spoke with the most worked as a chef at one of the resorts. He said he worked at least 12 hours a day for 14 straight days, before getting a week off to go back to his family. He said the long hours weren’t so bad as there wasn’t much at the resort for the staff to do after hours, and he said the pay was really good, so he was quite happy to go to work. Always interesting to get a peek behind the curtain of how these places are really run, and all the staff behind the scenes who you never meet. I also learned more about the logistics, like how they generated electricity. Plus, how they ordered food and got it delivered.



All the while before his stop he told us more about the resorts, and their prices. It was interesting to hear his perspective on some of the places. We stopped at Malolo Island where you can enjoy accommodations that start around 1,000USD a night and up. Including their chain of water bungalows.

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Our stop at Mana Island was probably the closest to the kind of water I was expecting all over Fuji. That clear blue water with reefs surrounding the island.

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We made several other stops along the way before finally returning to Denarau. Overall, I was quite glad that we got a little further afield and saw some of the other islands. I am sure there are probably more remote islands that would deliver even more pristine reefs, but I somehow doubt I will ever see them.



Once we got back to Denarau we decided to skip our ride back to the hotel and have dinner in one of the many restaurants around the port area. This area felt a lot like a scaled down version of the port complexes you can find greeting the thousands of tourists getting off cruise ships in the Caribbean. Although, it didn’t seem like there would be a Señor Frog’s type party scene here for a long time to come. That was probably for the best because of our early start for our domestic Fijian flight over to Suva.

January 4th 2020 NAN-SUV on Fiji Airways Flight 7 ATR-72

While you can take a bus between Nadi and Suva several times a day I was very surprised to learn that flights between the two cities could be purchased for a mere 19USD. While, the bus ride takes close to 4 hours the flight was only 28 minutes. With the flight pricing being so reasonable, and getting an extra half day in Suva I never even looked into what a bus ticket would set you back.



Our flight was set for a 7:30AM departure, the first flight of the day, which I hoped meant that there wouldn’t be any delays. I have read that some of the short haul flights with Fiji Airways can be unreliable, so I wanted to avoid IRROPs if possible. Usually the first flight of the morning is a pretty good bet. We got to the terminal a little bit after 6:30AM. As I expected, this was more than enough time. Check in was efficient and security seemed more like theatrics than enforcement.



The domestic terminal at Nadi airport could be summed up as basic. There was only room for 3 check in counters in the “landside”. Once we cleared the single lane of security there was a small airside area with seating for about 40 people. Definitely not the kind of place you would want to get to too early.

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Land side domestic NAN

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Air side domestic NAN

Thankfully we didn’t have long to wait until they started boarding our flight. Which involved someone opening a door and pointing us towards our plane. There were only about 20 people on this morning's flight over to Suva.

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On the flight line



Not a lot to say about a sub thirty minute flight in a prop. There was, as expected, no service offered. Although, for an early morning flight it did feel like they used the PA quite a bit. There was a welcome aboard message from the flight attendant after we took off. The pilot came on to tell us we’d reached our cruising altitude, and then about 3 minutes later told us we were starting our descent. Then there was quite a long message about preparing for landing. Seemed like the PA was on for almost half the flight.



There was no valet checking for our carry on bags, so we got to experience the domestic baggage reclaim in Suva.

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Bag reclaim SUV



Much to my surprise, they actually turned on the baggage carousel and unloaded the bags on it rather than having us pick them up straight off the tractor. A small but nice touch for such a small airport.



I asked my travel companion if he noticed anything different, having now taken a prop plane for the first time. He said other than the extra vibration he felt it was pretty much the same thing.

1.5 days in Suva



Suva’s airport is about 40 minutes from the downtown area. We were able to get a taxi without any hassles outside the airport. Although, it was a Toyota Prius in pretty rough shape, that was beeping constantly, so that was a little bit annoying as the drive into town wore on.



At first, I was really struggling to find any decently priced, or decent looking hotel options when putting the trip together. I was relieved when on my second search attempt I realized there was a Holiday Inn that was located in the downtown area. It was only 15,000 points per night, and since I had recently reached IHG Spire I figured we couldn’t go wrong there.



The taxi pulled up to the Holiday Inn, and we were inside the lobby before 9AM. So, I went to the front desk to inquire about luggage storage but was told it was absolutely no problem and I could check in right away. I don’t think any hotel sees many Spire members in my experience, and I somehow doubt very many of them make it out to Suva. Suddenly, the general manager came out to greet me, and insisted he take us to our room personally. I think my travel companion was a little taken aback at the whole process. Either way I was happy that we had managed to check in so early.

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Holiday Inn Suva



As for what we planned to do in Suva? Well, visiting this part of Fiji had several advantages. As I have been country collecting I have found that there are a few things that I enjoy visiting in each country, and do my best to always make sure I get there. The first being seeing their parliament buildings, or royal/presidential palaces. Second, seeing their national museum. This is a new fascination that cropped up later in 2017 when I visited the excellent National Museum of Denmark. It dawned on me that almost every country in one form or another has a national museum, and they range from incredible, to almost comical depending on the country.



I was also looking for the chance to see more of day to day Fijian life in their biggest city. Sure, it's easy to go to Fiji, or any tropical island and be dazzled by 5 star resorts, and all of that, but what about the everyday people who live in the country? I was interested to get a sense of what Fiji’s biggest and most populated city had to offer. My travel companion vaguely agreed with my sentiments and welcomed this brief detour.



So, there we were in Suva at 9:30AM Saturday morning with our room sorted. Now, what do you do with a day and a half? Since it was Saturday it would be a big market day, and since it was still relatively early the markets were probably quite busy. Visiting vegetable, fish, farmers or municipal markets is also one of my absolute favorite things to do. I just love the energy that is so often found in these places with vendors calling out, trying to draw you into their stands. So I highly recommend that as an activity no matter where in the world you are. Wandering around new markets all over the world is something that I will never tire of, and I was quite excited to see what we would find in Suva’s markets.



It was about a 15-minute walk from our hotel to the market. One thing I noticed quite quickly is there was not a lot of pedestrian traffic on the road from our hotel to the downtown core. We did eventually make it to the main market. As I had hoped it was quite busy with vendors spilling out from the main building in the streets and surrounding alleys. There was a seemingly endless array of fresh fruits and vegetables available.

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Suva Market



There was also a separate street that encompassed the flower market, and seafood market. This was all adjacent to the main bus station, and another block away was a market focused more on clothing, and furniture. So, it was quite a busy hub of activity with all kinds of good for sale. Although the folks that were selling things were very laid back, no one was really trying hard to draw customers in. They were more than happy to conduct business once you stopped.



This market was very much one where folks simply did their shopping and took things home to prepare. I was hoping we would be able to sample some of the produce and even find some cooked meals, but there just wasn’t much of that. After looking around we did find a gentleman that would slice open a coconut for you to enjoy. There was also a stand cutting up fresh pineapple, and watermelon. The pineapple totally stole the show it was by far the juiciest richest flavored pineapple I had ever tried. At roughly 0.25USD for a half it was a very affordable and memorable treat.

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Suva Flower Market



After spending some time exploring all the markets, we did find a small food court area behind the textile market. We both were looking for some authentic street foods, or something along those lines to sample some hopefully memorable food. My travel companion was hoping to find a local spicy curry, or something similar. In the back of the food court we found a place called Rita’s Spicy Bites. I figured that would probably deliver the spicy meal he was looking for. I picked a different stall, as I am not one who can handle very spicy dishes well.



After some pretty decent almost street food it was time to walk back across town to Fiji's Museum. It was located in the back of the Thurston Gardens botanical garden. The walk through the garden was a nice way to approach the museum. I was pretty excited to see how Fiji presented itself through its museum. The quality of these museums has been quite an interesting way to compare nations. I feel like it's every country’s chance to present their history and story in their own way. Fiji’s national museum was probably about the 40th one I have visited since I started making an effort to see them. They have ranged from laughable to incredible experiences.

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Fiji National Museum

I can say with confidence for a country of their size and population Fiji’s was quite well done and was larger than most of the ones I’ve visited on island nations. Although, not as large as the Maldivian National Museum in Male for what it's worth. They had a good overview of their history both before and after colonialism. Plus, a decent section covering the natural history, and animals, and plants that live in the islands.

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After boring my travel companion to almost tears I was satisfied that I had learned as much as I could from the museum. We walked through more of the gardens, and then visited the national cricket grounds. Followed by visiting the parliament building. We managed to fill up a good portion of the day. As it got around 5pm though we couldn’t help but make one more trip to the market for some more pineapple. It was that good!



As we walked back to the hotel to rinse off the tropical heat, we had been walking in all day. I noticed what I hoped was a street food/night market being set up. I also inquired at the front desk where they recommend dining in the evenings. Tikos Seafood was the overwhelming favorite. A seafood restaurant located on a boat moored right off the coast.



After freshening up we decided that we might as well give Tikos a shot. Sadly, they didn’t appear open for one reason or another. I found it a little odd for a Saturday night, but that’s how things go sometimes. The good news was that on our walk back from Tikos my suspicions were confirmed and there were several food vendors set up in a parking lot. I recognized this as our chance to have real Fijian street food. So, quickly we scrapped our plans to find a restaurant and agreed to find a meal at the various vendors. The dish that was being sold, and eaten the most appeared to be a “super sub”.



It seemed to be a mixed grill wrapped up in a toasted bun. We noticed one vendor was adding eggs to his super subs. That was enough for us to declare him our choice. The super sub diet is probably one that will kill you quickly. It was a grilled hamburger patty, bacon, ham, cheese, and fried egg on a toasted baguette. Topped with either hot, or sweet pineapple sauce. Who were we to judge this local delicacy?

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Super Sub

Obviously, when you pack that many unhealthy foods into one, it is an excellent flavor. We each enjoyed some super sub, on some nearby picnic tables. While we were treated to a beautiful island sunset.

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Suva Sunset



It made for a nice end of our first day in Suva. With the early morning start, and quite a bit of walking in the heat and humidity it wasn’t a hard decision to call it an early night. It didn’t seem like we would be missing any major nightlife in Suva either way.



The next day was a little bit more of a challenge to fill up. We had a 4pm flight back to Nadi, so we had quite a bit of time to fill up. Although, we seemed to cross off most of the highlights in Suva yesterday. Plus, with it being Sunday it was clear that it would limit our options.



We started the day at Raiwaqa Bakery as Google Maps said they were a 24/7 operation and the coconut scones were a must have. Obviously, that seemed like a good way to start out the morning.

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Raiwaqa Bakery Suva



They were quite good, and were more than enough for breakfast.



After that we took the long walk from the bakery past the Presidential Palace, which was really a large home and compound for their leader. It included a sentry marching dutifully in front of the main gate back and forth in a full-dress uniform. With the heat and humidity being a near constant in Fiji I really felt bad for him.



Our route led us to the largest shopping mall in the country, TappooCity Suva. This was a 4 story mall that had a large variety of shops, a food court, and grocery store. It was where we ran into the only other tourists we encountered in Suva. With strong AC and plenty of stores we spent a fair bit of time wandering around.

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After we finished at the mall we more or less had exhausted the full tourist program that I had put together in Suva. There wasn’t really much else that we had seen in our wandering, or on the internet that we could find. I guess a day trip would have probably worked, or certainly an earlier flight back.



We stopped for lunch at Suva’s McDonalds. This is probably one of my most disgusting habits visiting new countries. Ever since eating at McDonalds in London when I was 7 I almost don’t consider a country visited without seeing their McDonalds. I probably for my health should stop this tradition, but this was my 100th country so I couldn’t miss the chance to visit a McDonalds. Obviously, it wasn’t the 100th country that I’ve had McDonalds in as I have visited countries that don’t have them. In fact, when traveling with my dad, who is quite an accomplished traveler himself, that is one of our benchmarks. Can we beat the McDonalds? In places like, North Korea, Myanmar, or East Timor the answer can still be yes even in 2020.

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Now having visited what felt like every open business in the city with a few hours still left to go before our flight we decided that a couple beers by the hotel pool was probably our best bet.

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January 5th 2020 SUV-NAN on Fiji Airways Flight 16 ATR-72

Our time in Suva finally came to a close after a few beers by the pool. The hotel was great in giving us a late check out, and getting a taxi sorted for us.



I was actually looking forward to getting to the Suva airport a few minutes early because one of my favorite trip report writers, and Flyertalk members in general ironmanjt has written about the Suva airport probably more than almost anyone. One thing he has bought up multiple times was the chocolate cake at the Suva Airport snack stand. I have to admit back when I was reading those reports it never occurred to me that I might ever find myself at the Suva airport someday. I have followed ironmanjt and his recommendations for things like flying fish restaurants in Barbados, and once even laughed as I found the same video game arcade in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan as he’s written about. So, if he mentioned this chocolate cake more than once, I was certainly not about to miss the chance to have a slice.

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Suva Airport Cake

It certainly was far from the best I had ever had, but it was cool to try something that previously had only existed on my screen on Flyertalk. After my slice of cake we had no delay in checking our bags. Security again was rather informal. Although, I have to say the waiting area was much larger than in Nadi.

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Still not the kind of place you would want to spend a lot of time in any case. Thankfully, our inbound airplane was right on time, so we didn’t sit there for long.

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We boarded our ATR for another short hop back across the island to Nadi. Once again I found that they were on the PA for what seemed like half of the total flight. This time though I was in a much more alert state then I was on our early morning flight here. Looking out the window I realized that the real beauty in Fiji might not be its beaches at all. The lush green jungles and mountains that you could see out the window looked like it could be quite an interesting time. You could tell from the air that some areas didn’t even have roads cut into them; it was just jungle. If I ever return to Fiji I think I would turn my attention away from the coast, and see what could be found in the interior.

The Last Night and Day in Fiji

Once we were safely back in Nadi we had one more night on the island. Plus, a very long day before our red eye back to LA. I was rather looking forward to our last night as I used my Bonvoy Titanium free night certificate for one night at the Sheraton Denarau Island. The night in question had a cash price around 500USD so it seemed like an excellent use of the voucher. Plus, it seemed like the pinnacle of the entire hotel loyalty scheme in the first place. Dutifully keep all of your business trips on OPM with one hotel chain. In exchange, they will let you redeem those points and vouchers at aspirational properties. It seemed like a beach resort in Fiji is just about as aspirational is it gets.



We checked in, and were upgraded to an ocean view room, which was certainly a nice touch. They also were willing to grant me a 4pm late check out for the next day. This would be perfect considering how late our flight was the next day. I also decided to forgo the points, and figured we could get some good value out of what I hoped would be a pretty nice breakfast buffet.



I have to say that staying in hotels with retail prices of 500+ is something that I do not do with any kind of frequency. However, I was rather disappointed with our room. It was, all things considered, pretty basic, and was lacking in a lot of the soft touches that tend to make a property “luxury” in my view. The biggest hassle was there were 0 accessible outlets near the beds. These days I just find that kind of thing to be inexcusable at any hotel. Who isn’t charging some kind of device each evening?

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What I did find out a little bit later was the whole hotel was going to be closing in 2 weeks time for several months so they could totally renovate it. So, I guess we were seeing the property right before its major makeover. Although, that didn’t seem to be reflected in their peak season rates in any way. I was certainly glad that I was paying for our stay with “monopoly money”, and our room did have a great view.

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We decided to head back to the Denarau port area, and have dinner at the Fijian restaurant that we saw there a couple days ago. Since, we somehow doubted that all Fijian cuisine involved “super subs”. We wanted to try some of the seafood dishes that we assumed would have to be excellent on an island. The food at Nadina Authentic Fijian Restaurant was really good, and they had some great rum-based cocktails.



The next morning it was a little hard to believe that our whirlwind trip in the Southern Hemisphere was coming to a close. It also meant that this was our last day of summer for 6 months. The plan was pretty simple, since all three Bonvoy properties are connected and you can use the facilities at the other resorts, we would try to visit all the pools, and pool bars across the resorts.



I have to say the buffet breakfast at the Sheraton was as extensive as you could hope for in a hotel breakfast. It was on par with the breakfast spreads you can find at the high-end properties throughout Southeast Asia. It even included all the coconut water you could want straight from fresh coconuts. Certainly, a nice start to the last day, and worth more than 1,000 Bonvoy points by any measure.



After that we changed into our swimwear and hoped to soak up as much warmth and sunlight as we could. While walking around the resort I did notice that, compared to the Radisson, the Sheraton had much more of a beach, but it was still far from postcard perfect in my eyes.

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The day passed easily as we went from pool to pool, and resort to resort. It was certainly better than being resigned to the same lounge chair all day in my view. Around 4 or 5pm we still had a couple of hours until we needed to leave the airport we decided to head back to the port area one last time to pick up some last minute mementos, and maybe some rum (the local rum was growing on us by that point). With all of that out of the way we took a car from the hotel back to Nadi Airport.



I have to say overall; I just didn’t get all the hype surrounding the beaches in Fiji. I had a great time there and was certainly glad that I got a chance to visit, but I just don’t see it as the ultimate beach destination that some people say it is. Of course, you just read about my enjoyment of McDonald’s around the world, so maybe I am not the right person to give you travel advice. I would however have to say if you are looking for an aspirational beach vacation to burn your points and miles, or a stack of cash. For my money or miles, it would be the Maldives 10 times out of 10. Just food for thought. I certainly enjoyed visiting Suva, and getting a chance to spend time in Fiji, but I just think the ocean water is much more mesmerizing in the Maldives.

January 6th 2020 NAN-LAX on Fiji Airways Flight 810 Airbus A330

Check in was smooth at Nadi airport. Somehow here my OneWorld status did entitle us to lounge access at the Fiji Airways lounge. I wasn’t going to question the inconsistencies. I was just happy we had a place to wait, and take another shower before our redeye flight to LA.

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We did finally find the right price on some Fijian rums at the airport duty free, so we bought a few bottles to bring back. I find that my friends enjoy me bringing unique spirits home way more than t-shirts. So, at least I would have some exotic booze to bring to my next few dinner parties.



The lounge itself was quite nice, and I understand it had recently been fully renovated. They had plenty of rum flowing in there as well. I had a couple as I knew they would be helpful in getting some sleep, as we were looking down the barrel of back-to-back redeye flights.



Our flight time was right around 9 hours, so I was really focused on getting as much sleep as I could. As I mentioned my travel companion had never really been to LA so we agreed to do the double redeye approach, so we could get a full day in LA to see the sights. I knew we would end up doing a lot of driving, so I wanted to be as rested as I could be.



I didn’t try either of the meals that were on offer, and honestly, slept almost the entire flight from wheels up to wheels down. So, from my view the flight was perfect, although I don’t have much to say about the onboard service or product on the long-haul flight. LA Layover 2

Once we landed in LA we had to split up as I was able to head to Global Entry, and my travel companion headed to the regular lines. I actually used the extra time I figured I would have to do ahead and complete my Global Entry renewable interview on arrival. I guess something in my application stopped me from just automatically renewing. I did have an appointment in a few weeks, but I figured why not just get it done.



My travel companion actually beat me through all formalities as it took about 45 minutes for the interview on arrival process. Once we were reunited landside at LAX it was time to pick up our rental car and go see LA. Now, having lived almost all of my life outside of NYC I have taken more than my fair share of friends, and coworkers to New York City for their first visits. In fact, I have a fairly standard NYC highlights in a day route that I can recreate whenever I need to.



LA is a little bit of a different story, however. I have visited LA 20+ times in the last few years for work, and for a couple of years my dad was living out there. So, I wouldn’t say I am a total novice when it comes to navigating LA. It was my first-time playing tour guide though. Of course in the 11 hours we had before we needed to get back to LAX I knew we would hardly be able to scratch the surface of a city as large and diverse as LA.



Naturally, I let my travel companion set up the day as he wanted as this layover was for his benefit. His picks were, seeing the Hollywood sign, the Santa Monica Pier, and Venice Beach. I have to say I wasn’t ever drawn to needing to see the Hollywood sign, and know that it’s the most cliché thing you can do in LA. I knew that my dad would give me such a hard time for visiting it I was looking forward to sending him a photo.

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Our visit to Santa Monica and Venice Beach ate up the rest of the layover nicely. As touristy as the Santa Monica pier is, it's one of those places I find myself enjoying each time that I’ve been there. Venice Beach was a lot less “weird” than I remembered from my last visit in 2016. It seems like it has changed away from its pot heavy image. I guess the laws have changed a lot in California in general, so it was interesting to see the changes there.

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It was overall a nice day visiting some new parts of LA and revisiting old favorites. It was kind of a small bonus trip/day that was worth squeezing in.



My travel companion really learned the true story of spending time in LA. As we were driving back to LAX I asked him what he thought. He said, “It seems like all you do is spend time in your car driving from place to place if you live here.” If that doesn’t sum up the LA experience I am not sure what else can.



January 6th 2020 LAX-EWR on Alaska Airlines Flight 556 Boeing 737

Our flight back to the East Coast was pretty straight forward. I think we got to LAX about 80 minutes before departure. We had to check our bags since we had the bottles of rum with us. This was handled without any issue.



The good news for the flight came at the gate. The gate agent told me that he had 2 seats in F and would upgrade both of us. That was a welcome treat as we were about to take our second red eye in a row. Plus, I was planning to go straight back to work on arrival. I knew that was pushing it, but that is where the fun comes from for me.



Again, I took part in zero of the services on board. My main focus was to spend as much of the 5 and a half hours as I could sleeping. As usual for me this was no problem at all I slept pretty solidly through the whole flight. Unfortunately, my travel companion said he didn’t have much luck and didn’t sleep at all on the flight. Luckily, he wasn’t as bold as me and had already taken the day off from work.



Our bags came out quickly as usual with Alaska; we weren’t even close to invoking the baggage guarantee. We didn’t have long to wait for a train back to the suburbs. I got back to my house a little bit before 8:30AM. I took a quick shower, and headed into my office.



Summary

It was far from the longest trip I have ever taken, but considering the distances traveled, and the amount that we saw, and did it was a trip that will certainly be memorable as one of the more interesting ones I’ve taken. It really had a lot of unique elements, from getting to experience rural farm life in Australia, to taking someone on their first international trip. Completing what I had listed as a life goal of visiting my 100th country. It felt like 2020 was going to be the year where anything was possible. I don’t believe that the word COVID had even entered my lexicon yet. The wildfires in Australia seemed like the biggest calamity facing the world at that time.



Now if you are still with me I am really thankful! This really grew to be much longer than I expected. I was able to compile all these details from emails I sent to friends and family during the trip, and of course the Geotagging in the photos certainly made things easier to recall.



This is the first trip of 2020 and this report although I don’t expect each entry to be quite as long. The upcoming trips start to become much more of my regularly scheduled programming. They will consist of business trips around the US and Mexico. There is one of my annual work trips to Europe as well, I expect that one will be a little bit longer.

I hope you found this an enjoyable read. I plan on having the rest of the trips written up in the next few days. I also apologize for the quality of some of the photographs in the report. I didn’t expect to be publishing a trip report, so some of them are not up to the standard I normally would keep.

I hope you will join me for the next installments.

Very nice! Waiting for the next installments.

Trip 2 January 12th to January 15th A conference in Jacksonville, Florida

After a few days back at home I was ready to get back out there and take my first business trip of 2020. During the week I made time to see some friends, and on Saturday visited some of my favorite bars on the Jersey Shore. I usually do my best not to have to travel on the weekends, but with the way this conference schedule broke down, there wasn’t really a choice.



January 12th 2020 JFK-JAX on Delta Airlines Flight 1043 Boeing 717

Not only do I try and avoid traveling on the weekends, but I also try to avoid flying out of JFK for domestic work trips. So, I was really batting 1.000 to start out my 2020 work travel. It felt like it took all day just to get to the airport. Since I stayed at my buddy’s house Saturday night after our bar crawl, I had to get back across to my home in NJ. Followed by the three-train shuffle from my local station to the correct AirTrain stop at JFK.



It was my first ever Delta flight out of T2, which is by far the smallest and worst terminal at JFK. That is really saying a lot considering the pits that T1 and T7 at Kennedy are. Thankfully, I didn’t leave myself too much time to enjoy the terminal. I probably only had about 20 minutes to kill in the terminal before we started boarding.



As a mere Gold Medallion, I was number 4 on the list for 3 seats. In those situations, I somehow find it almost more depressing than being 74th. You only miss it by “that much”. Oh well, for the two hour hop down to Florida I knew I wasn’t going to be missing much. Other than the upgrade list which I only recall because I sent a screenshot to a couple of Flyertalkers, and still have saved in my phone I can’t say much about the flight.



3 Days in Jacksonville



I arrived a few minutes early into Jacksonville airport. I hadn’t been in JAX since 2016 and that visit was very short and didn’t take me downtown. So, I was looking forward to my first experience in downtown Jacksonville.

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JAX Concourse

Considering the location of the conference the best hotel option for us on that trip appeared to be the Omni. It was my first time staying at an Omni hotel, and from what I saw I was quite happy with the offering. My coworker beat me downtown by a couple of hours. Unsurprisingly, I found him down at the hotel bar watching that afternoon's late NFL games. He had also met up with some fellow conference attendees, so we all had a couple of beers and some conversation.

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OMNI Jacksonville



We all broke off to do our own thing for dinner. I am always a fan of trying to visit the different craft breweries that seem to be in every city and town in America these days. I saw that there was a taproom a few blocks from our hotel along with a few other bars and restaurants. It seemed like it would be a good part of town to spend our free evening before the conference got underway.



We started with a couple small pours in the Bold City Brewery Downtown taproom. They had a couple of very good high ABV IPAs that I rather enjoyed. The bartender there was very friendly, and even gave me a JAX Ale Trail Passport. There were more breweries than I expected, and I was quite sure we wouldn’t be able to make it to them all in the three days we had.



The bartender also recommended that if we wanted a low-key bar dinner to head down the block to Bay Street Bar and Grill. I would say it was a little bit beyond low key, and much more in the Dive Bar category. That being said, all the various fried foods that we ended up having for dinner were quite tasty. They also had karaoke going on, so I surprised my coworker by signing up and performing a song. “Day Tripper” by The Beatles is always my go to in those situations if you're curious. At that point it was late enough to be sure, and we headed back to the hotel with plans to meet in the morning to get the conference underway.

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Jacksonville



I will spare you the details about the conference itself. It was par for the course, and the sessions that we attended provided us the information that we had hoped to glean. The only other thing that I did of note at least for me was taking a ride on Jacksonville’s very own downtown mass transit system.



I was as surprised as anyone to realize that there was actually a city in Florida that had rail transportation in its downtown core. The Jacksonville Skyway is an automated people mover in downtown Jacksonville that is of the same vintage and design as the Detroit People Mover. As a self-described rail fanatic, I was almost disappointed in myself for being unaware of Florida’s only downtown rail transportation. Even better is there is no cost to ride the Skyway, so one day after the conference wrapped up before meeting my coworker for dinner I took a spin on the SkyTrain.

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Later that evening I actually suggested to my coworker that we use the train to head to dinner at a brewery that was near the other end of the Skyway. This allowed us to visit Aardwolf Brewing Company. It made for a nice evening in a different part of the city. My coworker was also in disbelief that Jacksonville had any public transportation, so he was very skeptical when I told him my proposed plan.



Otherwise, it was just the usual conference. Sessions, network breaks, meals, more sessions, more breaks, more sessions. I am sure most of you are probably very familiar with how those days go.



January 15th, 2020 JAX-JFK on Delta Airlines Flight 1043 Boeing 717

No that is not a typo, it was the same flight number both coming and going. That is a phenomenon I typically only see on Delta. Although, I am sure most people don’t look at flight numbers as closely as I do.



I did manage to score an upgrade to first on this flight right at the Gold Medallion window. My coworker's flight was a few minutes after mine, so we went to the airport together. Since my last visit in 2016 they have added a priority pass lounge to JAX. It was better than the NASCAR Bar and Grill I remember having a beer at in 2016 that much could be said for it.



I bid farewell to my coworker who I would see at yet another conference in a few weeks’ time and boarded the flight. I guess the F service was completely unremarkable as I didn’t even take a photo of the seat or the service. What sticks out in my memory was the seemingly endless walk from our gate in T4 to the exit. I think I would have preferred another visit to T2 over that walk. I repeated the three-train shuffle and got home around midnight to wrap up my first business trip of 2020.

Trip 3 A Quick Visit to DC

The following week I had a simple one-night trip via Amtrak to Washington DC. Always a city that I enjoy visiting.



For that trip I stayed at one of the Marriott Hotels that had multiple brands sharing a building. My understanding was that the brands were on different floors in some kind of pattern. On a good day I can never remember what brand standard is what anyway. This place certainly didn’t help matters. It had the location that I needed, so that was what was important. I was in the Courtyard part of the hotel for what it's worth.

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Courtyard Downtown DC



I had a standout meal at Unconventional Diner as well. They had all kinds of different types of what I guess were fusion foods. The Moroccan Taquitos still stand out as being excellent from my memory of that meal several months later.



The only other highlight was using a little bit of my spare time on that trip before I headed back was riding out to the end of the Green Line at Branch Avenue. I can’t really explain why I enjoy riding trains so much, but if there is an opportunity to ride them, I almost never pass it up.

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Branch Ave Subway DC

Otherwise, it was a simple trip with a few things that needed to be taken care of all wrapped up quite simply. I go to DC several times a year for both work and pleasure and am always finding new things to like while I am there. Getting to ride Amtrak to and from is just the gravy on top.

Trip 4 January 27th to January 30th A Trade Show in San Antonio

This is an annual trip for my organization. It was one of the largest yearly conferences for the industry that I work in. It is also where one of our largest marketing pushes of the year occurs as well. It is always a draining event for me as I am the senior person from our US technical staff at our booth. Our marketing team does a great job of handling 97% of it, but it always comes down to me doing some last-minute set ups and checks before we are ready to welcome folks to our booth. We have folks join us from our organization from all over the world for this event, so the evenings at least are always quite fun. It is also the only time of year that I fly with my coworkers and my boss just make the experience truly special.



January 27th, 2020 PHL-STL on Southwest Airlines Flight 2785 Boeing 737



There is only one nonstop flight a day between Newark and San Antonio, and unfortunately the timings coming and going were just not conducive to our schedule. The best schedule actually came from Southwest through Philadelphia. From where we are located in NJ it is not much further to fly out of PHL versus EWR, and I often look at both airports when booking my travel. We wanted to get to San Antonio as early as possible to get set up before the show, so we had a very early morning to make our flight. I drew the short straw and became the designated driver from our office to the airport. In retrospect it was probably for the best that we took Southwest because of the staggering amount of stuff our marketing person insisted we take down ourselves instead of shipping with the booth.



It was also really the first time I had a coronavirus conversation. Of course, by this time I had read a little bit about it, but one of the coworkers I was traveling with is from China and told me what her parents were currently experiencing. She also was flying with a mask on something that she had not in our few previous trips together.



I had booked these flights, so I was a little disappointed in myself when I forgot that we were playing the Southwest game. I had forgotten to check us in until several hours after the window had opened. This gave all of us positions deep in the middle of the C group. I felt bad about it, but thankfully I don’t think anyone else knew that our poor boarding positions were my fault.



Thankfully, everything worked out and even boarding as C20, somehow all 3 of us found aisle seats for the flight over to San Antonio. I even somehow managed to end up with an empty middle seat as well. Not bad all things considered!


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WN PHL-STLThe flight itself doesn’t stand out in any other memorable way.



January 27th, 2020 STL-SAT on Southwest Airlines Flight 5764 Boeing 737

We had a little bit longer than an hour between our flights so one of my coworkers insisted that I try the coconut milk latte at the airport Starbucks. It was an experience I have yet to repeat. All of the non dairy milks I’ve tried so far don’t really do it for me. Otherwise, we just found some space near the gate and talked.



My good fortune did not last on this flight, however. I think some of my coworkers did better than me, but my FlightMemory shows me sitting in seat 26B. Certainly not where you want to end up, but I guess I used up all my good karma with the empty middle seat on the first leg. You can bet I set a calendar remember to check in at T-24 for the way back ;).



We all arrived in San Antonio on schedule and more importantly with all of our checked luggage.



3 Days in San Antonio

Obviously, almost all of my time was spent inside the convention center over those 3 days. However, we did still manage to have a little bit of fun while we were down there.


We stayed at a Tru by Hilton, which was my first time with that brand inside the Hilton Portfolio. I would say it was a cross between the Marriott Moxy brand and your standard Hampton Inn. You could sum it up as middle aged branding consultants designing a hotel they think would appeal to 20 somethings. I certainly would not go out of my way to stay there again, but it wasn’t that bad.

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Tru by Hilton San Antonio



On the business side we were successful with our efforts. We have been exhibiting at this show for years, and the organization believes the dividends are certainly there. I feel like I spent three straight days in our booth, but that is to be expected. I was able to sneak away a couple of times and took in some informative sessions.



On the fun side we did have some good nights on the Riverwalk with plenty of tacos and margaritas. I also have a European coworker who loves the American beer scene, so the one night after dinner we broke away from the others and hit up a brewery together. Roadmap Brewing was an easy walk from our hotel, or the convention center if you find yourself there. We had a few excellent beers and had some good conversation until they closed their doors.

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Roadmap Brewing Company San Antonio

On the last day we had a couple hours in between the show wrapping up, and us needing to head to the airport. Since, some of our group had never been to San Antonio before obviously we had to visit The Alamo. I hadn’t been inside the Alamo since my first visit to San Antonio when I was around 12 years old, so it seemed like a good time to go back.

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The Alamo San Antonio



January 30th, 2020 SAT-BNA on Southwest Airlines Flight 1530 Boeing 737

With a successful show in the books it was time to head back. It was a little hectic as we all needed to get back because we were all expected to be in Europe the following week for our annual global meeting.



Obviously, the airport was quite busy as we were not alone in trying to get out of town the convention ending. The good news was I checked in right around T-24 so we were in the A boarding group for both of our flights.



My FlightMemory shows me having nabbed seat 20D on the aisle. There wasn’t much I can say about this flight. My biggest concern was I had booked us a rather tight connection at BNA of only 40 minutes. Thankfully, we took off on time and it looked like it would be no problem.



January 30th, 2020 BNA-PHL on Southwest Airlines Flight 927 Boeing 737

I am sure it only happened this way because we were on time, but our connecting gate was literally the next gate over. That still stands out to me, because I am positive had we been running late our gates would have been as far apart as possible. Of course, at BNA that is a lot easier to manage then in an airport like ATL or IAH but still.



I grabbed a quick sandwich before we lined up for boarding. This flight wasn’t really full, and with a low A boarding pass I was able to grab seat 8D and the middle did stay free for the flight.



We arrived a few minutes after midnight at PHL. The baggage reclaim process was thankfully a quick one. I think I got home around 1:30AM when it was all said and done. Although, I wouldn’t be home for too long as I had a flight on TAP over to Europe waiting for me on Saturday night.



That trip will be covered in the next installment. I hope you found this part of the report interesting as it covers the more mundane day to day slog of a domestic road warrior. These weeks for me are very typical, and only a fraction of the details really become memories.



My next two installments will cover more international travel, so if that is what you are interested in reading stay tuned.



I really appreciate you taking the time to read all of this, and I hope you are enjoying it!

Well, I have to say I'm a bit envious about this part. It's been a goal of mine to make it to 100 countries. I had planned a 9 country trip next month that would get me into the 90s, but that's been canceled (fortunately before I booked anything). I'm sure I'll get there but kudos to you.

I did get all 50 states by 50 which was another big one.

Thank you
 

Another excellent TR that makes me miss traveling so much!
Looking forward to the next installments :)

Gorgeous picture! You just pressured the camera button to take 60 instant pictures in a row?