Traveling, Meeting, Hiking

03.30: Out of bed for a 09.30 customer meeting in Santa Ana, Los Angeles

04.15: Starting the drive from home to the Oakland Airport (15mins before plan) – Yes!!

05.00: Parked at the airport lot, done with security and at the flight departure gate (30mins before plan) – Yes!! (Wish the flight could take off early too)

06.30: Boarded Los Angeles bound flight – Yes!! (I can’t be late now)

07.15: Touch down in Los Angeles. Flight on tarmac (15mins before schedule, wow)

Mayhem begins …

07.16: Pilot Announcement: We have landed early and will need to wait for the other flight to vacate our gate

07.30: Pilot Announcement: The flight has vacated the assigned gate, but the gate seems to have an issue. The maintenance crew is looking into it (scheduled time)

07.45: Pilot Announcement: The maintenance crew needs more time (15mins behind schedule) 

08.00: Pilot Announcement: Maintenance crew is still at it and we have been allocate another gate (30mins behind schedule)

08.15: Pilot Announcement: we are at the new gate but the airline crew wasn’t expecting us at this gate. We will need to wait for them to get to the new gate and open the doors for us (45mins behind schedule)

08.30: De-boarding the plane (60mins behind schedule)

Note:

·         Flight time – 45mins

·         Time spent in flight on the ground in LA – 1 hour 15mins

08.45: Starting the drive from the rental company to the customer location in Santa Ana for my 09.30 (75mins behind schedule, stopped counting). Time to destination 1 hour.

09.40: At the customer’s parking lot. Cannot reach the other team members attending the meeting

09.45: Meeting done.  Everyone is out and I meet my team in the parking lot (man!)

10.45: Team drives to the airport for their other meetings (30mins later they find out their flight is cancelled. Not delayed, CANCELLED. HAHA)

10.45: My return flight is at 19.50 because this meeting was original scheduled to be at 15.30, rescheduled last minute.

Now I have around 6 hours to kill, hmm, decide to go hike the Corona Del Mar, along the Newport Beach, in business formal clothes and shoes. With absolutely no regards to what people, and there were many in bathing suits, would think when they see me exaggeratedly dressed for a beach, that’s how much I enjoy hiking and in turn photography.

Here are some pictures and I highly recommend this spot.

Clicked on an iPhone 6s. All rights reserved.

More cool shots at Flickr

18.00: At the Los Angeles Airport, my return flight is delayed, new departure time 20.30, thankfully just delayed and not cancelled.

Moral: Always carry a pair of change and comfortable shoes.