A fake two-day and fun in Chicago

It took a couple of days to recover sleep-wise from my last trip.  Referred to as a "fake two-day", we departed early in the morning from Washington (IAD) to Las Vegas (LAS), arriving to the hotel around 11 a.m.  We were there for about 11 hours--just enough time to give the casino a little money, sleep and then work the redeye/all-nighter back to IAD, arriving around 8 in the morning.

I actually like these "fake two-days"...they give you a lot of hours in a short amount of time, and the Crew Desk has to leave me alone when I get back.   I'm naturally a night person, so staying up all night isn't a problem for me--never has been.  But, man, when I got home, I was "out" within the hour.  I slept hard until late afternoon.  So, the next couple of days are spent getting back to "normal".
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Tomorrow my 21 year-old son, Chase, my 8 year-old Little Prince, Brendyn, and I we are going to Chicago for a couple of days--on a mission!  The LP loves Legos, and we are going to the Legoland Discovery Center. We also have plans to go to the Skydeck at Willis Tower, Navy Pier, and the Hershey Store.
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Oops!  Mean to post this last week!

We are back from Chicago and had a great time.  We stayed in downtown and had too many things to choose from to fill our days.   We were able to stick with our plan and visit the Willis Tower, Hershey Store,  Navy Pier and Legoland...here are some pictures:

On the ledge at the Skydeck in Willis Tower. 103 stories above the city, with 360 º views. We loved this attraction-especially the elevator ride to the top!

This made Chase very happy!  The street sign says"Mike Ditka Way." It is one of the many honorary streets in Chicago, this one for the famous coach of "da Bears!"

Off to the Hershey store!

With an "Official Factory Worker" ID card, my Little Prince set about making candy and filling up his bucket.  He is an outstanding employee!

Off to the Navy Pier for dinner and fireworks!

Spaghetti in Chicago:  mmmmmm!

Crashed!

With our big agenda today, guess who was awake early?

Out in the suburbs, Legoland!

This is about 4 feet tall, all made of Legos!

Downtown Chicago-in Legos!

In the Loop...

There are a lot of Open Trips on the computer.  Open Trips are ones that are not fully staffed and a lineholding Flight Attendant can pick one up or it can be assigned by the Crew Desk to a Reserve.  A Reserve Flight Attendant gets the luck of the draw which can be great or terrible.  Guess what I've gotten the last three days?

This month I am a Call-In Reserve which means I know what I am going to do the next day at 7 pm the night before; instead of Ready Reserve where I wait for The Voice to call at least four hours prior to departure time.

Since I haven't flown any of July, I have the least amount of flight time accrued among my Reserve colleagues.  That and other contractual rules meant I was to be assigned one of the first (meaning earliest time) positions.  I was in this "time accrued" situation on Tuesday, Wednesday and today.  Look where I've spent my last three mornings:

BWI Crew "Lounge"

IAD Crew Lounge

The last two days, I was assigned a 5:45 am  Standby (ONSB) at Baltimore (BWI).  Airport Standby is in case something goes wrong (i.e. a Flight Attendant gets sick while working, misconnects from another flight, etc.)  We have to be ready to go anywhere from Dubai to Buenos Aires and Bozeman to Tampa.   If you are needed, you go on a trip.  If you aren't needed, you go home.

(To be fair, I "preference" BWI over Washington Dulles (IAD).  They are equidistant from our house--and, BWI is easier for me.  IAD is just a pain in the neck to get to, with all the construction around the Washington Beltway for the new Metro line.)

Last night, just after 7 pm, I looked at the computer and saw that I had Standby again for the third day in a row, this time at IAD, and at 5 am...and all I could do was just shake my head, and go to bed.  Getting up at 2:45 the last three mornings has been ugly.

We have an expression used when a Reserve Flight Attendant gets assigned several International trips in a row due to the luck of the draw...it's called being in the "International Loop."

I guess this means I'm in the "Standby Loop!"



Update:

I got a trip last night--once again a 2:45 a.m. wake-up (5 a.m. sign-in, and 6 a.m. departure) with one leg to Chicago (ORD) and one leg to Houston (IAH).  Tomorrow, another 2:45 a.m. wake-up with one leg to Denver (DEN) and one leg back to Washington (IAD).

Okay, so I'm out of the "Standby Loop" and am definitely in the "Oh-Dark-Thirty Loop!"