Flight from San Francisco

Thanks to my friend Kevin Maynor, I began my five year tenure with the Office of Sponsored Research at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in April of 2008.

Early in that period, Kevin and I (plus his wife Connie and  Cristina) made a business trip (Maximus convention) to Lake Tahoe, California.  We flew to San Francisco and then drove the rest of the way.  I still have the black Maximus windbreaker we received as a gift.  

After the convention, the four of us returned to San Francisco for a day of site seeing.  We stayed at the York Hotel which was the Hotel Empire in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Vertigo (1958).  It has since been renamed the Hotel Vertigo.  We visited Marina Green Park with its incredible view of the majestic Golden Gate Bridge and ate dinner at the Crab House at Pier 39.     

On our way home, we four took a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina.  We had prearranged seat assignments that put me sitting next to Cristina on the almost 5 hour flight.  

However, when we arrived at the gate, we were given boarding passes with seat assignments that were not next to each other.  I was furious.  I fought with the airline personnel, but to no avail.  

Cristina was given a middle seat three rows behind me (I had an  aisle seat) on the right side of the plane (looking forward).  I asked the man sitting by the window next to Cristina to change seats with me, but he refused.  He liked window seats, as did I.  

In my assigned row, to my right, were two young women who were travelling together.  I asked if they were willing to move so I would have the window seat.  They agreed.  

Again I asked the man sitting next to Cristina if he would exchange his window seat for mine.  He laughed and agreed.  So Cristina and I were together for the entire flight from San Francisco.