Wednesday has rolled around once more and we have made it safely back home. We didn’t doubt that it would happen…I’m just noting it here. And I’m trying to get my mind in gear. After a long travel day, I find it difficult to focus on any one thing.
I suppose I could start this narrative by relating to you the odd things that happened on our trip home, starting with our voyage across the waters of Puget Sound, making our way from Vashon Island to West Seattle. We began at an early hour (6:00) and found very few cars in line to board the 6:40 ferry. That made our wait quite pleasant as we were parked on the pier and could watch the marine traffic in the Sound while enjoying the early morning sunshine.
The double decked ferry pulled out on time and we headed over to the Fauntleroy landing, about a 15 minute trip. But then, about half way across…we were startled to see a Coast Guard patrol boat take up a position close on our starboard side. In a few minutes, Denise came down from the upper deck and said there was a similar boat on our port side. Both craft were armed with a .50 caliber machine gun, though no one was manning those guns. I guess we didn’t look dangerous. They did have flashing blue lights though and we noted that the ferry was slowing. And about 100 yards from the shore, the ferry came to a halt. There was no explanation from the crew and the other passengers seemed quite blasé about the events. We sat for a few minutes and then, slowly, the patrol boats drifted away from us. With a rumble, the ferry engines came back to life and within minutes the ferry was bumping up against the dock. What was that all about? A training exercise? Or had the ferry exceeded the speed limit and been “pulled over”?
Since traffic was light, it didn’t take us long to arrive at the airport and check in at Southwest. We had already secured our boarding passes the night before by using BoardFirst but we had to “check” our luggage. Now I’m not a technophobe or a Luddite, but I fail to see any advantage in having two clerks watch (and occasionally offer advise!...“Yeah, we changed that. Try it again.”) while I struggled with the intricacies of that particular electronic check-in kiosk. Very frustrating! Especially since I had used both Continentals and Alaska airlines kiosks the week before. Three different kiosks and three different methods of doing the same thing.
With my boarding pass in hand and the luggage finally on its way, it was time to face the security line. During the past few weeks I have gone through this procedure about 5 times and this would be the 6th and final time for quite awhile. And I had already noted that the TSA agents had never looked at me and made a comparison of that image with the one on my driver’s license. They had only verified that the names on the two documents matched. Did it matter? Well, I have been questioned in the past by clerks in markets when, verifying my identity, they noted that I no longer had a ponytail or goatee. In fact, with my hair as short as it is, I could almost be described as bald.
And once again I wasn’t disappointed in the security procedures. The TSA agent never looked up at me and simply stamped an “OK” on the boarding pass. Then I heard from Denise who had gone through the line ahead of me. She had handed the agent her boarding pass and license, with the image on the reverse side. The agent didn’t even bother to turn it over to compare names, let alone images! We are definitely in good hands…
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