Planes planes and three more planes

Travel to Australia aside, I have never been in the air as long as I was yesterday. More air time than traveling to England, my friends. My awesome cube-mate, Carrie, and I flew from Dallas to Kansas City to Milwaukee. Here's the story of Milwaukee from the write-up..

Here at Southwest, we do things a little differently. And we are SO okay with it. This past weekend was filled with inaugural flights and new adventures and included a little celebrating. When our Los Angeles bound Milwaukee passengers woke up this morning, they had no idea what they were in for. They were each greeted on the plane with a glammed-out necklace and a “Welcome to the first non-stop flight from Milwaukee to LA!”  Streamers and stars lined the plane, giving a Hollywood feel. 

We were thrilled with the pleasantly surprised look on everyone’s faces and most gladly participated, wearing their necklace on our journey. Flight attendants did not fail to make sure everyone knew how special they were being on this kick-off flight. 

Four hour flights can feel so long sometimes, but we helped pass the time with sunglasses, movie trivia, and, of course, lots of Southwest style prizes. By pushing their call buttons, passengers became contestants, winning inflatable planes, bag tags, and movie award replicas. The response and participation made the experience fun and gave our flyers a little taste of Hollywood. It may have been a little unconventional as far as airlines go, but that’s the way we like it.

Welcome to Hollywood.

6 am to 11:30 pm. That's a lot of airport and flying time! Especially the flying time since we didn't change planes all the way from Dallas to Kansas City to Milwaukee to LAX..woo! Travel time according to Southwest = 12 hours and 40 minutes. Plus a delay. But it was so worth it and an amazing way to spend our last full day as interns.

Today at work we had to turn in our cards and our time sheets and say goodbye to our wonderful summer at Southwest Airlines. I still can't believe it's over. I'm going to miss everyone I got to work with. Hoping I get better at keeping in touch to keep those friendships going.

The only things I ate today were airplane snacks and California Pizza Kitchen - I love CPK.
Yes, it's airport food, but doesn't this look delicious?

And you know you have good flight attendants when they give you the whole can.

Then your DP doesn't get all watered-down :)

Happy Left Handed Day. I'm enjoying my time as a righty.

Job search intensifies. Now.

Luv, Lindsay

Texas Fight joins Texas Flight!

While today is National Hot Dog Day, I had another celebration to participate in:

Yesterday Southwest Airlines announced its 5-year sponsorship of UT Athletics! So for at least the next 5 years, Southwest will be the Official Airline Sponsor of the Longhorns. It was quite an exciting event. Now, it meant that I once again had to be at work very early (before 5am to catch a flight to Austin) but it was definitely a party.

Do you remember when I was talking about having to work on something that was a secret and I would tell you later? Well, this sign was it. Yes, everyone. I created this beautiful sign! 

No, really. I did. Here's my proof from the floor of the marketing lobby:

I'll have to post the sign I put above it when it was drying..

Gary Kelly (CEO of Southwest) was there along with the director of UT Athletics, Deloss Dodds and other important people. I actually got to meet Gary as well as David Ridley, the CMO. 

We passed out lots of lanyards..I was the lucky one who got to carry them on the plane.

The reason I created the big banner in the first place was so that everyone could break through it during the announcement. And that is what happened. It was pretty sad having to run and break through my hard work (that thing took forever!) but it was worth it. We had cheerleaders, Hook'em (the Longhorns' mascot), and the UT Alumni band.

David Ridley, CMO.

Gary Kelly, CEO

Deloss Dodds, UT Athletics

Hook'em!

This is my sign after the event..pretty sad looking.

Sometimes Southwest has in-flight concerts. How cool is that? Granger Smith (country artist who I hadn't heard of before) played on my flight home.

It was a fun day. And I ate about a million breakfast tacos. But it definitely wore me out!!

Congratulations, UT and Southwest! It's going to be a good 5 years.

Luv, Lindsay

Parents!

Happy Parents' Day!

'Nough said.

Nap time.

Luv, Lindsay

i'm in love.

Happy Birthday to my sweetheart..He's a whopping 24 years old today!

I love this guy so very much.

He puts up with me when I decide to be crazy and holds me whenever I want him to (almost).

He got some golf shoes for his birthday and a glow-in-the-dark puzzle for his birthday.

He got to play his favorite sport, basketball, with some friends and go out for lunch today. Then it was us time! We went to Medieval Times for an awesome Knight-filled evening. I thought it was appropriate. And last night we saw The Dark Knight Rises so our whole weekend was just all about the Knights! Gotta love it.

There is a Knight in the background, if you couldn't see it.

My big head wouldn't fit in the crown..

My Knight in Shining Armor. 

I love my last name.

We were on the red team.

So we cheered for the Red Knight.

Best one!

The horses were so pretty!

Yeah Red Knight!

The King and the Princess

  

The food was really really good

But you had to eat it all with your hands!

No utensils here.

They had different competitions from jousting to sword fighting.

The Red Knight threw me a flower!

Awww.

The Red Knight won the tournament, of course!

 It was such a fun evening!

I love you so much, sweety! You make me so very happy and do so much for me!

I hope you had a fun birthday and can't wait for the many more we will celebrate together!

Luv, Lindsay

#swalife

Can someone say epic weekend? I sure can. And Southwest made it all possible.

Theme of the trip? #swalife

Laura, Shana, Danelle, and I met up on Friday afternoon and rode down to Houston with Louise, who was so gracious to take us. I know it's weird to hear that we drove to Houston to catch a flight, but it was our only way to guarantee we could make it out of Dallas and on our way East. After some stressful work and travel related delays, we were on our way.

We stopped for some gas and Frosties. The three in the back (Laura, Shana, and I) all fell asleep for a good part of the ride. We knew we had a long weekend ahead! Danelle is used to no sleep so she was fine. ;)

We made it to the airport in plenty of time (thanks, Louise!) and had a bite of dinner before boarding our plane. Lucky for us, it was not a full flight and we each got our own row..except Laura who got stuck sitting by a man who wanted to give us a ride home and a place to stay...can someone say creepy? Unfortunately we were not able to get the sleep we had planned on getting because there was a 2-year-old child crying..for at least 2 hours of our 3 hour flight. There were definitely some not-so-nice things going through my head. But a funny flight attendant lightened the mood. It's amazing how a flight attendant can totally make my day! (Well, night in this case)

But I was so excited because..

We ended up in PHILLY! Wooo!

Our flight landed around 12:30 am.

Danelle went to school in Philly so she had the hook-ups and was our amazing tour guide. 

thing-i-learned #1: In Philly, you can park as close as you want to people and no one cares. You can also bump people's cars as you get out of a parallel parking spot and it's totally normal. What? Yeah, I don't think I could handle that.

After spending the night at some of Danelle's friends' house and sleeping for a few hours, we were up and on our way. Bad news? It was pouring rain. So glad I brought a jacket! The best way to travel is with people who are really familiar with the area because then you get to go to all of the best-kept-secret type places.

Apple cinnamon french toast, blueberry pancakes, breakfast sandwich, and apple dumpling. The Amish definitely know how to make breakfast!

Freshly squeezed orange juice was a great finish. And I usually don't even like orange juice that much. 

I went back and forth debating whether or not I was going to bring my jacket. So grateful I did! It ended up raining all morning in Philadelphia and it saved my hair a little.

We had to do the obvious tourist stuff. Independence Hall, Liberty Bell..it was so cool to see everything live! I was definitely quoting National Treasure lines in my head during a lot of it.

Funny story behind this very lovely photo-bombed picture. We wanted a picture with our tickets for Independence Hall so took it ourselves. Later when we were in the actual line, we realized we were standing in front of a man with a BYU shirt. Go Cougars! So we started talking to him about BYU and then he admitted to us that he had done the bunny ears in our picture - and we didn't even know at the time, we hadn't viewed the pic yet. And he had no idea we were Utah girls as well. Who would've thought?

Waiting in the rain. 

The stories and everything from the tour were so cool. I love hearing American Revolution stories. Our tour guide was cool - but I'm pretty sure you could hear him and understand every word perfectly from a mile away.

Because Danelle and Emilee had already seen all of this a million times, they went to find some nail polish remover. We had some picture fun while we waited.

Yes, we are this cool. 

Peace!

 American Flag in the back..lovely picture taken by the one and only Laura!

We ate lunch at a Jewish Deli. No, we didn't do the Philly Cheesestake thing..they aren't my favorite. This was definitely the best choice.

Homemade pickles and "health salad" 

 Famous Chicken Soup! Apparently it was on the Food Network..

 Biggest sandwich I have ever seen in my life.

 Famous 4th Street! Yummy food.

After our lunch we headed off to New York. We are so grateful for the buddy passes that brought Shana and Danelle with us and that we got to meet Emilee! It also helped having a driver :) You girls rock.

Stay tuned for the rest of our weekend adventure!

And a video while you wait for part 2 :)

Luv, Lindsay

Find part 2 here!