Baby Songer the Photographer

Fact: My father is Asian. Fact: I'm half-Asian. Fact: Asians love cameras. Well, maybe that last one isn't a "fact," but you know it's pretty true.

Since I'm going to turn 3 next month, my father decided that he'd let me use the family camera to start learning how to take photos while we were in Albuquerque last weekend.

In typical Asian fashion, my father told me to practice first with my Hello Kitty pretend camera for the past several months. Once I mastered that one, then I'd be allowed to try the real thing.

So while we were at the Balloon Fiesta last Saturday, I stole my father let me borrow the camera and I took some photographs. Now, it was a point and click camera, so don't expect me to be the next Ansel Adams, but see for yourself.

Also, if you think they're not good, then that's just because you're too old to appreciate to the artistic stylings of the Generation Z zeitgeist.

Then later that day, we went over to the Acoma Sky City pueblos to see some Native American culture. Here I also stole the camera away was given another chance to hone my photography skills. Included among the photos, is what I call my Parent's Gut and Strangers Feet collections.

  

   

Seriously, I'm a natural...or at least a half-natural.

Cancellations & Delays

Flight #98-99 - United 5200 and 1187
Albuquerque (ABQ) – Newark (EWR)
Monday, October 14, 2014
Depart: 12:30PM / Arrive: 10:54PM
Duration: 8hr 31min (incl. 2 hr layover)
Earned: 1,836 miles
Cost: 30,813 Points + $112 / person
Redemption Value: 1.25 cents / mile
Lifetime Miles: 189,273 miles

We had a very uneventful flight over to Albuquerque on Friday morning, so we were hoping for the same on our return flight on Monday. Unfortunately, things have a way of balancing out, and our Monday was more stressful than we would have liked. Here was our original flight itinerary:

1. United 5200 departing Albuquerque at 12:30PM, arriving Chicago at 4:17PM
2. United 411 departing Chicago at 7:50PM, arriving Newark 10:54PM

It was about 8AM on Monday when we received a text message from United that our 12:30PM flight was now delayed until 1:30PM. Not a big deal since we were going to be stuck in Chicago for a 3.5 hour layover. So this actually allowed us to have an extra hour exploring Albuquerque instead of O'Hare Airport Chili's. So we planned to get to the ABQ Airport and drop off our Avis rental car around 12PM, giving us plenty of time for a 1:30PM departure.

We had free breakfast provided by Holiday Inn and casually packed our things. We thought we'd swing by Target around 10AM to pick up some new Prepaid REDcards, when we received another United text message now stating the flight was now departing at 1PM instead of the rescheduled 1:30PM.

Uh oh. If they could move it up, then we couldn't risk showing up at 12PM, because they could potentially move it up back to the original 12:30PM departure. So we revised our plan and decided to arrive at 11AM to drop off the car and have an 11:30AM sit-down lunch at the ABQ airport after we checked our luggage and got through security.

Lesson #1: Always triple check your flight status
As soon as we placed our order of sliders and cheese fries, my father started checking the flight status for both our flights, even after doing so 2x earlier this morning.

He always triple checks. After all, things change.

He not only checked the flight we're actually flying on, but also the flight before ours (the one that our expected aircraft is currently flying) so he can be sure, because they don't always update all the following flights. There he saw that our plane was coming in from Chicago and now scheduled to land at 12:45PM, which gave him confidence that we'd depart around 1:30PM.

But then when he checked the connecting flight to Newark, his face turned white. United 411 departing Chicago at 7:50PM was just cancelled!

He apologized to my mother and me, leaving us to finish our food while he went to the United gate agent to find another way home.

Lesson #2: Do Both - Call and Go In Person

Long story short, the first gate agent was completely useless (and indifferent). She couldn't find any other flights for us and apologized about us being stranded in Chicago. Predicting this would happen just by looking at how she handled herself (prejudice may be wrong, but it can also be accurate), my father was simultaneously on the phone with United Premier Desk who somehow found 3 seats available on the earlier 6:12PM flight to Newark.

Fortunately, this actually meant we'd get home 1.5 hours earlier than scheduled. Unfortunately, we had a much shorter window to get off our first flight and run to the second flight. We'd arrive in Chicago at 5:17PM, and boarding for the Newark flight would start at 5:42PM. With the short connection time, my father then asked the inept gate agent to reprint his new boarding passes. And for whatever reason, she couldn't print them out. Her co-worker then told her what to do, and voila - 3 new boarding passes.

Lesson #3: Don't Forget Your Bags

And while the first gate agent should have pro-actively asked if my father had checked any luggage as she printed new boarding passes, she didn't.

My father, however, knew to ask  the competent agent if his checked bags would make the new flight. She asked for his baggage claim tickets and had the crew go out and re-tag the bags to be transferred onto the 6:12PM flight.

Lesson #4: Prioritize

Now we usually travel with my umbrella stroller which we use through the airport and gate check on the jetbridge. After we land at our destination, it usually comes out on the jetbridge as soon as we get off the plane. However, we've been on many flights where the stroller comes out very late or not at all (ending up in the baggage claim).

Since we knew we didn't have that much time to make our next flight, my mother made the executive decision to just leave the stroller when it didn't come out in a reasonable amount of time.

Had we missed our flight, we'd be out at least $200 for a hotel in Chicago since all the other flights were full. Not worth risking over a $50 stroller. As it turned out, it never came to the jetbridge in Chicago as the crew put it with the regular checked bags so it did show up at the baggage claim in Newark. Good choice, Mom!

Lesson #5: Never Get Complacent
We ended up making the 6:12PM flight, though it did sit on the tarmac for about another 90 minutes. By the time we finally arrived in Newark, it was just before 11PM - around the same time as our originally scheduled flight that was cancelled.

We usually book a car back to Manhattan using Dial 7 or Carmel - which would run between $70-75 including tip and tolls. However, my father had a $10 credit on Uber and heard they had a flat UberX fare of $68 from Newark Airport to Manhattan.

While he was very comfortable with Dial7/Carmel, he didn't love (a) their run down cars, (b) drivers who would take 15 minutes to get there or (c) the hassle of the payment process at the end. With UberX, he had his $10 statement credit, a very clean almost new car and paperless payment.

So he tried it out and UberX came through with flying colors, though he did have to get a second UberX driver after the first one asked us to inconveniently meet him upstairs at Departures.

Conclusion
Despite all the stressful changes and curveballs, we made it home safe and sound at the same time we were originally scheduled to. I suppose that doesn't sound like a big accomplishment, but there were a lot of passengers who got stranded in Albuquerque and Chicago that evening with little (if any) compensation from the airlines.

Santa Fe Daytrip

While we enjoyed Albuquerque, we also did want to check out the famous New Mexico town of Santa Fe whose name was appropriated by delis all over the US for any sandwiches with avocado and pepper jack cheese in them. 

Fortunately, the capital city of New Mexico was very easy to drive to. It was only about 75 minutes northeast of ABQ, though I will say the long stretch of Route 25 can get exceptionally windy, so please drive carefully so you don't get pushed into other lanes.

And note: when you see signs for Las Vegas being only another 50 miles away, don't get confused with the Sin City. The New Mexico version of Las Vegas isn't anything like Nevada's.

We don't have much to say about Santa Fe that you can't just read on Wikipedia, so we'll just show you some of our favorite photos of our Sunday afternoon there.

Breaking Bad in ABQ

One of my parents' favorite television shows was called Breaking Bad. I'm too young to watch serious shows like that, but they were addicted (like much of America).

With the story based in Albuquerque, we couldn't visit the town and not go check out the actual sites that they used in the show.

Fortunately, the sites are all well documented on various websites including this one. We didn't have time to visit all the sites (such as the park where Mike takes his granddaughter), but we did try to check out the major ones, including Walt's house, the Car Wash, Hank's house, and Los Pollos Hermanos.

But sometimes, you don't have to go all the way to New Mexico to get your Breaking Bad fix. Sometimes, Breaking Bad comes to you.

Walking to the Balloon Fiesta

Since our hotel was "just" 1.1 miles from the Balloon Fiesta Park, my father forced us we took advantage of the leisurely stroll each of the 3 times we went to the Park.

After arriving into Albuquerque on Friday afternoon, we rested up at the hotel and made our first trip to the Fiesta that night around 5PM. The schedule said 5:45PM is when the "Glow" started, so we figured we'd walk over to see it.

Google Maps says it would take about 20 minutes, but since I was in a stroller, it took us a good 30 minutes to make our way over. Also note, that once you get to the entrance along Alameda Boulevard, you still have to walk up and into the middle of the park.

The walk is very safe and well lit. As you can see, there's a paved sidewalk the entire way. Oddly enough, there were VERY few people walking there. I'm talking like maybe 5-7 other people total for the 3 times we walked over Fri night, Sat morning and Sat night. I guess people really liked driving in their own cars.

However, at the intersections, you will see a lot more policemen standing around helping guide traffic. And if you're walking before sunrise, they have a lot of construction lights to make sure everyone can see where they're walking. I knew how far away we were from the hotel by counting how many police-staffed intersections we passed. There were 3 on the way to/from Fiesta Park.

Then when you reach the park's southern end, you turn right on Balloon Museum Drive. But again, there's a paved sidewalk. At this point, however, you may get lucky and find a Fiesta worker in a golf cart who takes pity on you and offers you a lift. It's definitely not guaranteed, nor expected, but we did get a free golf cart ride 2 of the 3 times we went.