So, just last week I went on my first ever business trip.
It was interesting for lots of reasons, but I will just pick a few to blog about.
First up, something I sort of knew, but never really took much time to think about, and that is the flight paths are very different compared to Australia.
We are used to flying from where we are to where we want to go (Ok, with the exception of rural towns like Ballarat). For example, we would fly from Melbourne direct to Perth, Darwin or Brisbane.
Over here, that’s hard to do. Things are set up like ‘hubs’. So you fly to a hub, change planes and then go on to your destination. Some flights go direct, many don’t, and largely it is a matter of where you are and where you need to go.
Here is a map of one airline to give a feel for what I mean.
You can see what I mean here, you just can’t fly from anywhere to anywhere.
Of course the other airlines have different routes, but they still do the hub thing.
So, we flew from San Diego to New York, then from there to Boston.
We did this both ways. Long flight over. The flight from JFK to Boston was only about 35 minutes. I think we spent longer taxing than flying.
Once you get there, Boston is a beautiful city. What impressed me was the history and the age of a lot of the buildings. 1800’s stuff all over the place. Its so alive and beautifully lit at night…… Its a 365 Project photographers paradise.
Of course it helped that we were there in a window of weather that was perfect. A week before and there was snow everywhere, a few days latter and there was major flooding and driving rain. While we were there, it was clear skies and warm temperatures.
It was a busy few days. Its a long way, so you have to make the most of your time.
We got the job done and the computer swapped out. We also had time for a few meetings.
The flight over was interesting because at one stage we flew for just over an hour over snow covered fields and towns. I have never seen so much snow in my entire life. Its amazing to think of all those people living and working with the snow.
It was a good chance to see some other parts of the country. Not sure when the chance will arise again, but if it does, I will take it.
