Tucson - day 3

The day started with a relaxing morning out on the deck, Lola ate some breakfast and we all enjoyed the morning sun. Lola still wasn't feeling 100% so a relaxing morning was a good choice. Jason was on a call when we got up, and at the end it was up in the air if he had to travel for work that day. Good think we are used to the aviation business.  It was still undetermined by the time it was noon, so Katie, AA and Lola headed just down the road to the Bisbee Breakfast Club. It was a gas station removed into a resturant. The food was excellent and the atmosphere was pretty neat.

By the time we finished up lunch, we headed back to the house Jason found out that he didn't have to travel that day so we packed up and headed on a road trip to Tombstone. Oh and Jason dressed the part with his cowboy attire, Spurs, hat and coat! An old mining town in the wild Wild West. About 1.5 hour car ride with Jason and Lola signing away in the front while Katie and AA sat quitly in the back. Lola sat in the front as she still wasn't feeling that well. The town had lots of neat shops, where Lola spent most of her American money. Our last stop was to head to the saloon for a drink and some food for Lola. The hamburger she had was delcouis! The saloon was rustic and very neat to see, it had lots of the stain glass ladies and signs with memorabilia and photos all over the walls. 

A dark drive back to Tucson to make a quick stop at the house to get some people some warmer clothing before heading out to Winterhaven. A community that puts up Christmas lights and thousands of people tour through each year. It was neat to be able to walk through the streets and see all the sights, and not be a frozen Popsicle. Much better than driving in your car, fogging up the windows and still being cold while looking at displays out the window. It was about an 1.5 hour walk around to see all the Christmas lights, lots of effort put into the decorating and themes of home decorations. 

We headed back to the house for a late night snack, the boys changed the tire in the jeep and then to bed. It was a fun filled day and beautiful weather. 

Tucson day 2

We got up to an alarm in the morning, to make it to the bi annual 4th avenue street fair. We wanted to get there before the large crowds so we tried to get there around 10. A stop at Starbucks for Jason and Adam, and away we went.  Lola has been 2 other times to the fair, as they were fluke when AA was down for longer periods of time and she would come visit.  This time we planned the trip so we could go. We walked around to all the neat craft booths, had some food and drinks, and walked some more.  We only bought a few things, but it was a beautiful day to be walking around and enjoying the weather. By the time we got to the end it was 4 hour later and our feet were sore.

Famous Arnold Palmer

So why not head for a pedicure as we only had dinner plans at 5:30. AA was very apprehensive to go, but he was a trooper.  4 pedicures and we all have soft feet, and 2 of us got colour.

After that we headed back to the house to relax while we waited to go for dinner. We met Katie's parents at a Mexican restaurant.  The food looked really good, but after Lola ate, she didn't feel so well, to the bathroom she went. Shortly after that we headed back to the house as Lola was not well.  She felt bad that we didn't get to go to winter haven as planed, but hopefully we can still go Sunday or Monday with Katie's parents. 

After a windy ride back to the house, we all settled in on the couches and watched bad moms.  It was pretty good. During the movie Katie also was not feeling well. The night ended early with us all going to bed around 10. Before bed we tried to listen to the jets game but, AA couldn't keep his ears open and so to bed we went.  Hope we are all feeling better tomorrow!

Oh forgot to mention that during the time when Lola wasn't feeling well, she also got scared by AA and  punctured her foot on a door stop. After a bandaid some ointment and an ice pack the bleeding stopped, but she has quite the wound on the top of her foot.

Tucson 2016- day 1

We got up at around 5:00am Friday morning to get to our early morning flight to Phoenix. The taxi driver didn't know what to do when there were 2 police cars with lights and sirens behind us. I yelled at him to pull over.   That didn't give us much confidence in the driver. Good thing we don't have far to go to get there.

Once at the airport, checked our bags, and headed to security and customs. To our surprise we see in the line Adams ex coworker that now works for transport Canada. He was on his way to Tucson as well to witness a test that Adams coworkers went to do. (They went down the day before). He sat with us while we waited at the gate. 

  

Going through customs, we had a woman that didn't know how to ask questions to get answers that she wanted.  Like when is the last time you have been there? Been where? USA? Tucson? The airport?  She also didn't know what rye was.... Whiskey? Still she was very confusing. We got through no problem with the meat that we had brought for Katie's mom (as they used to live in Winnipeg) and really wanted some garlic sausage from Metro Meats.

The flight was not very full at all, we had the entire back of the plane to ourselves.  Disappointed that the Christmas movie I began to watch cut off once we got further into the states and opted to watch James Bond on Adams iPad, and have a nap.  I didn't sleep well that night as well as we got up so early, so a nap was needed. 

Landing in Phenix we headed to the rental car facility 10 bus ride from the terminal. Blue chip member we went straight to the car and off to reserved car ready for us with the keys and paperwork. The blue Malibu is a pretty nice car to drive to Tucson in.  We got excited that there was satellite radio!  Also excited that there was 4G network ( once connected we couldn't get it to work) so not too exciting.

Off to Denny's to get me some food in my belly.  I was hungry.  Typical breakfast was had of build your own grand slam.  AA had an omelette.  Oh and my first of many iced teas (unsweetened).

Arriving in Tucson about 2 hours later we headed to Whole Foods for adam get on a conference call  (that no one showed up for). And Lola went to get a few snacks for the few days we are here.  She sure loves that store, so many options of food.  

We headed to Jason and Katie's to wait for the to arrive, as Jason was arriving from Miami that morning/afternoon.  We sat on the deck, and enjoyed the sunshine.

Once they arrived, we made ourselves comfy and headed out for supper to catch up. To the outback steak house we went. Food was good and we had a good catch up.  We then headed to the Tucson Roadrunners game. It was in the convention Centre in downtown. It was much smaller than we are used to.  The roadrunners are in the same league as the Manitoba moose. The roadrunners dominated the first period and then didn't play so well but managed to win in Overtime. During the game there were lots of fan participation, including a teddy bear toss after the roadrunners first goal. Teddy Bears of all shape and size were thrown onto the ice. We brought a Winnipeg Jets bear to throw. Hopefully a sick kid enjoys it. It was a great time.

Back to the house we went after the game, and to bed we went.

The day was long but a lot of fun!  Lola 

Feels like old times

It feels just like old times.  I'm in Montreal looking for things to do during the weekend, waiting to come back home.  No difference this trip other than I'm in a hotel and the time to be killed was not anticipated today.

With flight testing delayed until Monday, I had to think of things to do - I needed to make the most out of the nice weather.

The day started with getting breakfast in the hotel and eating it in my room while I read the complimentary National Geographic Explorer in the room.  I then did some work but limited to only an hour and half.  Next, the gym.  It wasn't busy (I'm not surprised).

Empty.  And sunny.

After 5 miles on the bike and some weights, it was time for a shower.  Then, it was a short drive to the Namur park-and-ride to hop on the metro to head downtown.

On the way down into the station

Waiting for my ride

New trains!

Electronic screens

Once downtown, it was time for a short walk to Rueben's Deli for a smoked meat poutine.  I was not disappointed, it was delicious.

No caption needed

This makes me hungry again...

After the bill (facture) was paid, it was time to walk back to the metro station to head to the Old Port.  I went back to the same station I came from, but this time went through Windsor Station to get down into the metro:

Windsor Station

The old jalopy (metro train) 

In order to kill more time than wander the shops at the Old Port, I made my way to the Notre Dame Basilica.  It's been quite a while (9 years) since I've gone inside so I figured what better way to spend some time in the Old Port?

This Notre Dame is narrower than the one in Paris.  And taller.

The alter piece

The organ

Commemorating the building of the Notre Dame

The large, bronze alter piece in the Chapel

Can you see the hidden stained glass window?

I've never been on the tour of the basilica and it started 10 mins after I arrived so the timing was perfect.  Here is some history I learned:

• The basilica was built in 5 years by 250 workers.  Construction finished in 1830.
• The initial planned seating capacity was for 7,000 people.  The final seating is for 3,000.
• The seating is on an gentle declination to promote a theatrical seating arrangement.
• The main organ has 7,000 pipes.
• The alter piece was re-designed to block the large windows which would allow way too much light into the church on Sunday mornings and was too distracting to patrons and the Priest.
• The stained glass windows on the lower level of the basilica portray the history of Montreal, with the last piece showing the Notre Dame being built.
• There is a smaller, more intimate "chapel" behind the basilica.  The chapel partially burned down in 1978 which revealed some hidden stained glass windows that were between two walls of the basilica and the chapel.
• The alter piece for the chapel is made of numerous pieces of brass sheets.  In total, the alter piece weighs over 30 tons.

The tour was pretty cool - definitely worth the $5 admission.

Afterwards, it was a short walk to the Old Port.  I made my way down one of the piers to snap some pictures.

No boats in the harbour

Marche Bonsecours with the tall dome

I realized I had wifi down on the pier (crazy!) but it wasn't good enough of a connection to FaceTime with Lola.  So, she has to wait until I post this blog ;)

At this point, I needed to find a bathroom.  Luckily, there are public washrooms in Marche Bonsecours which was right near by.  After a quick bathroom stop, I wandered through the shops in the Marche.  Then, outside I stumbled across a street festival full of many different shacks selling art, wine, chocolate and of course maple syrup.

Very festive!

As I made my way down the street, I saw that the Habs game was just finishing the second period.  I made my way to 3 Brasseurs to watch the end of the game.

Two beers later, the game was over - Habs won in a shootout.

Ok, so 1.5 beers really

It was time to start to make my way somewhere for dinner.  There was a good rib place beside where I parked the car so this was a good option.  I made my way back to the metro and 30 mins later I was at the restaurant.  

City Hall

Downtown Skyline

An empty metro station

12 minutes later, I was eating.  It's not like it wasn't busy (it was very busy) - service is just that much faster in the bar I guess.  Especially when you are a party of 1.

Wet Naps to clean up after my rib feast

After dinner, I made the short drive back to the hotel and now am watching the Jets game on the iPad.

Luckily I was not stuck in this

Tomorrow is looking to be busy.  My co-worker isn't feeling better so I will handle the flight test and potentially an interior evaluation.  We shall see if I get out of here tomorrow...

It feels like just last week...

Ok, so maybe it wasn't as the title suggests but it was within the last two weeks that I flew down to St. Louis early in the morning, did my interior eval and was done before supper. 

This time, a little different. I'm traveling with a coworker, Rui, who will be conducting the interference testing so it's a little different traveling with someone and not driving and eating by yourself (which is nice). 

Today hasn't been too out of the ordinary, other than being long - waking up at 4:30 sure makes 7pm feel late (well, actually being awake since 4am and lying in bed until 4:30). Our flight out of Winnipeg was routine - de-ice in Winnipeg and then a short hop to Minneapolis. The approach into Minneapolis was bumpy as they were getting some rain. 

Breakfast in Minnie and then off to St. Louis. The flight was choppy and lots of bouncing and sloshing around on approach into St. Louis, more so than I care for. 

Once into St. Louis, we got our rental car and then made our way to the facility. With the rain, we started with the interior evaluation and then moved into the interference testing which required the airplane outside with engines running.

The setting sun

As we were getting ready for the testing, we came to learn that the system we were here to test wasn't configured to run the tests we needed. 

Figuring out a solution

After some quick thinking, Rui came up with a way to stream video through the wifi network that needed to be tested. Rui setup his tablet with an IP camera app and streamed video through the network. I setup my iPad to view the video thus completing the streaming. It worked like a charm, and no interference.

The video feed from the tablet setup on the cockpit side console. 

Cockpit

After testing was finished, we made our way for dinner as we hadn't eaten since breakfast. I drove us to Hard Rock Cafe, a sure hit. We arrived only to find out restaurant was closed - it looked like the place was being renovated with plastic sheets up all over the place and large industrial fans. 

Instead, we made our way to the Shlafly Brewhouse for a beer and dinner. AA had an excellent shepards pie (probably because he was hungry) while Rui had steak and fries. 

After dinner, it was a short 25 mins drive to the hotel by the airport and time to relax. At 9pm, I'm certainly losing steam and the eyes are getting heavy. Maybe I will finish watching the Blues game and talk to Lola, if I can stay awake watching the game...