Well well well. Long time no post, eh? As you can see, right after my amazing 30-day writing challenge, work ate my brain and I wasn’t around here as much as I would have liked. Fear not, folks, I’m back! I’m currently seated in seat 1D of my Alaska Airlines flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles, and since I’m too buzzed to sleep, I figured I may as well make productive use of my time, right? Thank you Gogo Inflight Internet!

This trip is an exciting one for many, many reasons. On this ten day vacation, I am – fortunately – visiting two of the United States’ best-known cities: Los Angeles and New York. On it, I’ll be seeing sights, staying at some of the most beautiful, historically vibrant hotels, eating some mind-blowing food, and (hopefully) meeting amazing people. I shan’t spoil the itinerary too too much for you, since I’ll be wanting to leave that for my future blog posts, but rest assured that this trip is going to be a fantastic one. Best of all, I’ll be on this journey with Karrie, one of my best friends in the whole universe and an amazing travel companion! Our itinerary is jam-packed so there shan’t ever be a dull moment.

My brother and mom so kindly dropped me off at the airport pre-buttcrack of dawn… I was at YVR at 3:30AM. It was, in fact, so early, that the kiosks weren’t even open yet! Imagine that. Because there were dozens of passengers there, early like me, the longest wait was during security, as the crush of humanity pressed towards the two lineups through the metal detectors. I looked longingly on at the other eight that were not in use and I sighed. I know, I know, you can’t have them all open because staffing costs money, yada yada yada… but it hurt to have to look at it and imagine how much faster the lines could go.

After purchasing my flight through Expedia, I was delightfully surprised to discover that I had the option to upgrade to First Class. Given that the flight is barely three hours long, it’s not like I’m in a fancy flat-bed pod or suite (One day, Singapore Airlines. One day.), but the little perks you receive make it well worth the upgrade. On our plane, there are only sixteen seats in First Class, with its own loo and curtained off section away from the rest of the cabin. I selected seat 1D (BABY YOU LIGHT UP MY WORLD LIKE NOBODY E— I mean… I just… I…), and was the second person on the plane (after amazing actor Colin Ferguson, who is currently seated a few rows behind me).

Our flight attendant Linda is fantastic, attentive without being in-your-face, and everyone has smiles on their faces. The seats are huge, comfortable, and have a decent recline, and I even partook in a turkey breakfast burrito (see below)… served on proper china and eaten with proper silverware! Bless.

What I think is, perhaps, the best perk of the upgrade is that you can have up to two checked in luggage for free. I can’t quite imagine why you’d need two on a short-haul flight like this, but hey, if one can take advantage of this perk, then why the heck not, right? All in all, definitely worth it. Especially since I’ll be the first person to deplane off this baby.

I’ll be instagramming and tweeting far more often throughout the day than blogging (obviously…), so be sure to follow my trip:

JEN ON INSTAGRAM

JEN ON TWITTER

Also check out Karrie’s and my hashtag for the trip, #JKTravel2015, and my own instagram hashtag for all my travel, #shortcrustwanderlust.

I’ll be writing regularly throughout the trip so expect posts featuring hotels, restaurants, and sights in the days to come. Happy reading, folks, and thank you for following my journey. 🙂

xo,
Jen

insta | tweet | #shortcrustwanderlust