Back to Logan From California

Monday, May 21st

Our flight was at 7:00AM and so we got up at 4:30, did last minute showering and packing (leaving the busted cooler bag, some chips and peanut butter, an unopened bottle of pineapple juice, and lots of old, wet cardboard and empty boxes behind), slung our bags over our shoulders, and missed the 5:00 shuttle.  Oh well, the clock in our room was late and this wasn’t the end of the world.  We had some time to relax in the hotel lobby and drink some coffee while waiting for the 5:30, that got us to the airport in plenty of time.  Checking in took a while, but then we had no problem through security and in getting to the gate soon before they started boarding.

It was a Monday morning and the plane to Boston (jetBlue 632) was full and the gate for the jetBlue plane to New York was just beginning to heat up too.  People will move around.  It was a long flight back to Boston but they had a Grateful Dead channel on the Sirius radio and that saw us through.  Landed at Logan at 3:33 and got out to the curb with our luggage at a bit after 4, and Matt was nice enough to drive in and pick us up.  We thought it might be a rush hour nightmare getting home but we took the shortcuts and we were back to Green Street before you know it, miles and miles from California.

Weeks later I can still be struck still by the thought of how beautiful it was, the memory of the smells, the vistas, or the profuse fauna and flora that we saw.  I can also laugh at how long it took to get anywhere in California because of the distances and/or the traffic and the delays.  It was like we were stuck in honeyed quicksand at times.  In reality I suppose the traffic, the delays, and the endless people are as bad (or worse) in the Northeast than in most of California, it’s just that I’m used to it here and know the shortcuts.  Maybe in some lifetime we’ll end up in California long enough to know the shortcuts there.