If You Want To Feel Blue, Fly With jetBlue

Last weekend we flew down to Sacramento, CA, to attend our friends’, Ryan and Talia, wedding. Once there, we had a really great time. The wedding was absolutely beautiful, filled with so much love and so many personal touches. We got to help set up the reception area and spend a lot of time with Ryan and his family.

Getting in and out of Sacramento, however, turned out to be a bit of a challenge.

First of all, we never got to fly into Sacramento, even though we were supposed to… All jetBlue flights to JFK on Friday afternoon were delayed, making us miss our connection. Our choices were to delay our trip till Saturday, or to fly directly into San Francisco or into Oakland. We chose Oakland, as it made for a shorter drive.

Did I mention that the flight to Oakland was also delayed?

Living in America I always tend to think that anything is possible if you are willing to pay. Not so fast. We spent HOURS going through endless permutations of rental car companies and pick up times--to no avail. All car rental offices at the Oakland airport are simply closed by 1am.

At some point, it dawned on us that getting on the road at what would feel like 5am without having slept is probably not such a great idea. So we booked a hotel room. And oh boy, were we glad we did! After spending over 7 hours in the Logan airport, we finally landed in Oakland at 1:30am PT.

We gave up on renting a car entirely, when Ryan arranged for us to get a ride with his friends, who were driving up to the wedding from the Bay Area on Saturday afternoon. We could not be more thankful!

Our luck did not improve on our way home. Our flight to Long Beach, CA, scheduled to leave at 7pm PT, was sufficiently delayed to make us miss our connecting flight to Boston. And then we were offered a direct flight to Boston from none other than Oakland…

Instead, we chose to spend over 6 hours at the Sacramento airport, and take the midnight flight to JFK. We were now scheduled to arrive in Boston a little after 10am ET—only about 5 hours later than planned.

After yet another delay due to fog, our flight from JFK finally landed in Boston around 10:40am ET. Having already missed my 10am meeting at work, I decided to forego the circa $70 cab ride to Natick, and instead borrow my parents’ car, parked along the Silver line bus route along the Boston Waterfront. What could possibly go wrong now?

Lo and behold, the bus broke down about 2 minutes after I got on it. Within minutes, another bus came and picked up the stranded passengers. I was so impressed… until this same bus drove right through my stop! It turned out this particular bus was an express to South Station, but the driver was so flabbergasted about rescuing people from the broken down bus, that she forgot to announce that she was running express. Another bus ride and one thankfully uneventful drive later, I finally made it into work around noon.