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Blessings under fire and chance encounters were the theme of my holiday season. Christmas was spent with her daughter Laura and her family in her wine country, Sonoma, California. The night before Christmas Eve, when I left before dawn, I received an email that my flight from the National Airport in northwest Arkansas to Dallas had been cancelled. American Airlines was directing me to San Jose instead of San Francisco. When I got to the ticket office, I wholeheartedly told the young agent my case.
“This dude used to call Walmart.com,” I calmly explain, reflecting on my sales experience. “So I know my way to San Jose, and I don’t want to go there.”
Knowledge is power. Even though San Francisco International Airport was out of service, I knew of two routes she could take to the small Santa Rosa airport near her daughter’s house, via her agent’s airline.
“STS is the airport code, so book there,” I begged.
When the connection popped up on his screen, his face showed the same wise disbelief he’d seen from agents elsewhere introduced to XNA.
“XNA is where I need to go,” I said. If the airport code starts with an ‘X’, the agent assumes I’m heading to China or an exotic location in the South Seas. But then Northwest Arkansas developed a sort of exotic cache, so the “X” aptly marks our location.
Luckily, we made it to my daughter’s house via San Francisco, five hours ahead of schedule. Bad news: my bag didn’t connect. I was missing for 8 days. I beat it home.
Given the nationwide weather and travel fiasco during these recent holidays, I did well. But then I didn’t get stuck for days with my children far from their grandmother waiting across the river or in the woods.
Weather is far beyond the control of airlines. Luggage handling is not so much. According to a package tracking app, someone at American Airlines in Dallas decided it would be a good idea to send my bag to Los Angeles, and Alaska Airlines took it over the coast to Santa Rosa. The bag languished at LAX for a few days. During that time, I stuffed my daughter’s old suitcase with essentials: unwanted bounties from CVS, Walmart, Men’s Warehouse, and receipts that were withheld for claims. .
To round out the visit, a Christmas present for the family was tickets to the final performance of the San Francisco Ballet’s famous The Nutcracker. Grandpa was then dropped off at the Mark Hopkins Hotel for a night in the big city, while the youngsters crossed the Golden Gate and returned to their sweet lives in the suburbs and vineyards.
We had run out of medicines to carry on board and major supplies were still lost in transit. We found a Walgreens near our hotel the next morning. We found the pharmacy as we periled through the rugged streets around Nob Hill. The panorama of the ethnically diverse, middle-class urban city of San Francisco buzzed before me while I waited for my prescription refill. It was reassuring. It reminded me of the catchphrase from Branson’s comic, Yakov Smirnoff. San Francisco is no waking cesspool, no matter what you hear from Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.
As I stepped out into the sunshine, I noticed a line forming half a block away. It was late breakfast or early lunch at the famous Sears fine food restaurant. It’s the location highlighted in the Maps app when you search for Walgreens. As I approached, I found an amiable family waiting behind a dozen people. They are from out of town too and said this place is on their list each time they visit.
So, whether you’re queuing around the block on Poydras Street in New Orleans for red beans and rice or eating po’boys at Mother’s, the food must be worth the wait.
When asked what Sears is famous for, parents exclaimed, “Swedish pancakes!”
For solo travelers, when the hostess asks, “How many people?” I was immediately led to a chair at the counter.
Pancakes at the top of the menu were served with link sausage and lingonberry jam for an additional charge. Oh my god, you only live once, so I ordered jam for an extra $3.
The sound of the Powell Street cable car was the soundtrack for our return to the hotel. I think our Christmas visit was great, even though our flight was canceled and our package was sent to the wrong address.
If life gives you lemons, order lingons.
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