Category: Fun (Page 1 of 2)

As has become custom with my flying club (Club Cherokee), the Thurdsay nearest the longest day of the year was once again time for the annual Thursday Flyers trip to East Gull Lake airport.  Since I’m bumping up on accruing the maximum vacation I can bank and I haven’t been flying as much as I’d like, I decided to leave work a little early and participate in this year’s trip.  I have gone a couple of times in the past and really enjoyed it.

I took the whole afternoon off.  I wasn’t current to carry passengers and needed to get a couple of take-offs and landings in if I hoped to actually pilot on the trip.  So I got to the airport around 3:00 where I found a couple members already there.  Although it was a bit warm on the ground, I decided I should go ahead and take the plane out for a couple of times around the pattern.

They had already started some construction at the airport, and the winds were moving around enough that I got a little excitement during my practice.  I even got some additional excitement when suddenly the pattern got a little busy, tower changed the landing runways, and another aircraft entering the airport didn’t quite follow their directions.  But it’s always nice to know that I can handle improvising with the tower controllers when something like that happens.

Finally it was time to head back in.  By the time I got back to the hangar, all the other aircraft were out and much of the gang had arrived.  It turned out that the aircraft I was using wasn’t going on the trip…so I turned around and moved it to the back of the line.  After finding another plane and a partner, it was decided that I’d fly out, and he’d fly back.

We couldn’t have asked for a nicer night for flying.  The wind already seemed to be waning and the air was much smoother than it can be during the summer days.  The trip up went fairly quickly.  Although we were the first to taxi out, we were in the Warrior, so we weren’t the first to arrive! (However we weren’t the last!)  And although the approach can be tricky and it had been quite a while since I’d done a soft field landing, things went really smoothly. (And thank goodness, because everyone already there was watching!).

We shuttled over to Cragun’s for a nice dinner and chance to all visit with one another.  We had a new member along and it was great to meet him as well as catch up on some pilot stories from many of the other members.  Then it was time to head back to the strip and get ready to make the trip home.  This time it was my buddy’s turn to fly, so I got to look around.  We were off the ground well before sunset, but it seemed just after a front was passing through.  Off to one side we saw a great rainbow, and to the other, well…it’s views like this that make it all seem worthwhile:

We were so excited for the date to come, and Wednesday it finally did.  We had a wonderful dinner at the Capital Grille followed by our first live show by comic Kathy Griffin!

After work we stopped out for dinner at the Capital Grille.  Neither of us had been there for dinner before (Jeff had had lunch there once before).  We were seated promptly and introduced to our waiter, Michael.  We started with an incredible bottle of Bordeaux, Chateau de Pez.  It was the first time I’ve had a bottle of wine decanted at the table…it was a treat!  The boquet really opened up, and the flavor was incredible.  Then, I had the Lobster Bisque.  It was thicker in consistency than I was expecting, but had a great flavor and quite a bit of lobster meat.  We followed up with a Delmonico and a Steak au Poivre and a fresh-cut-from-the-cob sweet corn side dish.  All were excellent!  And Michael did a fantastic job.

We left dinner just in time to get into our seats before the show started.  Kathy came out right on time and gave a great show.  She was funny as usual, with new material.  What I think I liked most was how “natural” she seemed to be up there.  It was almost like being at a party where there was a funny guest who loves to tell stories.  She’s really comfortable on stage, and she’s doing what she seems to be meant to do.  Her tour is pretty big…so go see her if you can!

The rain has finally stopped here in SLC, and the winds from the south have brough with them respectable temps!  Tonight I finally got out on my inline skates for the first time this season.  Actually, it’s been since the summer of ’04 that I actually last used them.

After leaving work “early” (6:00), I changed clothes and headed to Liberty Park.  I managed to eek out 10 1.25 mile laps in an hour and a quarter.  Not too bad I guess!  It surely felt good to get some cardio-vascular exercise!

p.s.  Stouffer’s Corner Bistro Chicken Carbonara is really good!