the flight

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Dear family, friends and others who happen upon this blog, looks like this blog thing works so this is entry #2.

The flights were relatively uneventful but I find that while trying to remember little things to put in a blog, there are many moments that pass right by and would otherwise be forgotten. On the flight from Newark to Miami there was a man who brought his dacshund on the flight. Cute dog and very quiet. As the guy was very engrossed in his reading I did not get to say much about the dog. I learned he was 6 years old and that the airlines have a 20 lbs limit for dogs. I did not get to ask him any important questions like - did he need to put the dog on a diet to make the 20 lb limit and if so, what diet works for dogs? Also as the dog made no noise I wondered if he was drugged. If he was, it worked like a charm. I don't think Monty could stay quiet that long unassisted.

On the flight from Miami to Montevideo they displayed where the plane was. When we were somewhere between Florida and Cuba I thought I saw what looked like depictions of clouds on the screen. Then I looked more closely and what the map was showing was how deep the ocean floor was. I found that to be an odd feature to a flight where we were 30,000+ feet above sea level.

My special meal request worked out fine. My gluten free dinner consisted of salmon filet, rice and some bok choy. Jack asked for chicken but was given beef instead.

Then there was the passenger in front of me. She had this annoying loud dramatic voice. Everytime she said something I just wanted to cringe. At one point I wished DB Cooper was on board and took her with him, only without a parachute. I did manage to get some sleep and we landed about 9-9:30 am local time, which is one hour ahead of NY time.

We picked up a cab and headed toward the Old City in Montevideo. As it turns out the cabbie spoke English pretty well and he has a sister who teaches Spanish who lives in Bloomfield, NJ. Small world. Made it to the apartment and we were met by a porter for the building. The apartment is quite nice.

Uruguayans like Argentinians love to eat meat. We could smell wood burning grills all over the place. We went down to the Port Market (right across the street from the port where the ferries take people back and forth from Buenos Aires) and it seemed that every eatery had a giant grill. We could not resist and we ordered barbecue for 2. I told the waiter that I could not eat wheat so he said that I could eat everything but the chorizos. Nice to know that the staff knows what is in the food they serve. The pile of meat they served was quite funny to see. The prices were not bad either. That pile of meat, a salad, a small bottle of wine and a small bottle of Coke with one dessert came to under 1000 pesos or in current exchange rates under $50.

Needless to say, we took a breather after that lunch before we make any further plans.

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