Columbia Adventure (Part 3)

Daughter, Nikki, and I continue the first of our five-day journey to the great state of South Carolina to witness her new hubby’s graduation from basic training.

When we stepped into the main concourse at O’Hare, I couldn’t believe it!

The place was fantastic! It was stunningly bright and gorgeous with its high-beamed superstructure enclosed in glass! Oh course, this was a bright and beautiful sunny day, I did stop to wonder, a few times what it might be like in there on a dark stormy day, or when it snowed?

It was too cool!

The mall-like atmosphere was colorful and exciting at first. Yet, we soon we realized on our, near mile trek to the next boarding gate, there were only about a dozen different vendors and restaurants that kept repeating. Starbucks absolutely came in first showing about every third storefront—but hey, this is America!

After we found our gate in a lesser, not as fancy terminal, probably the older part of the venue, we scoped the joint for lunch. Nik decided on a Chicago Style Pizza (like we can get at home, but hey, we were really in Chicago!)

I had a hot dog of the same fame (though I usually don’t eat hot dogs, but this was vacation time). It was okay. I was very disappointed there was no sauerkraut, but I did have the nice little Asian lady add tomatoes, pickles and onions—that was different. The same nice little Asian lady granted Nik her pepperoni pizza pie. It smelled excellent; Nik concurred, it tasted such too.

While we waited for the next flight, I told Nikki I had dibs on the window seat again, but I really was thinking there would be no window seats as we had seats 1A and 1C—right up front and personal. She gave me just enough resistance to make me feel selfish, so I allowed as she could have the lookie-out side.

Well, as it turns out, Columbia, So. Carolina, albeit the capitol of the state, is not the most popular place on the planet. The plane we boarded was quite a bit smaller than the 757 we were privy to earlier. So small, in fact, that we had to board the old-fashioned way… way out on the runway!

Oh, we walked through the boarding apron in the usual way only to find a stairway that emptied us outside on the tarmac!

Wow, what a shock it was when we stepped out into the frigid sunshine! Nik and I both giggled and laughed with glee at this unexpected event. Our breath came out like white, billowing smoke… brrrrrrrrr.

We were dressed warmly enough to endure the several-hundred yard walk to the gangway. One gal in front of us had on nothing but short sleeves, capri’s, and flip-flops. She obviously wasn’t expecting the hike.

I lead the way into the plane, so happy and chipper, and immediately hopped into the window seat. Nikki sat and said nothing, although she looked at me a bit apprehensively when the stewardess told us we MUST stow our gear above as there was nowhere to stash it under the seat since we were in the front row of the cabin. It took me a few minutes to remember I had offered the window seat to Nikki. I remembered simply because she commented that she had the perfect view of the cockpit.

“Ooooh—cool!” I replied, immediately curious to see too. Then she reminded me of our prior agreement. Oops. I offered to switch seats, but she said she’d take the windows on the way home. Okay.

There was snow everywhere on the ground, a solid six-inch layer everywhere except trafficked places. Nikki marveled, ooed, and awed. She’d never seen it like that before. (I think only once did her dad and I take her, Max, and Roz to the mountains at Big Bear to experience snow.)

The tall, thin, nicely dressed older gal seated across the aisle from Nik mentioned she was from Wisconsin and there they had had over 90-inches of snow! The snow banks were way over her head, and she’s 5’8”.

The sun was setting during the 90-minute flight to Columbia. I could see it somewhat through ports on the other side of the cabin. Very lovely. So much water… rivers, lakes… water everywhere. As the sun went down, the city lights went on and the plane began its descent.

I was absolutely fascinated; it was beautiful! Why have I allowed myself to be so sheltered for so long?!

And then, as we neared touch-down, the epitome!

Wow, I couldn’t believe it!

There, big as life! Just beneath us… LOOK!

To be continued..