Two Pilots & an LSW: Notes

Steve kept saying that Kaylee's friends could come along any time, because they liked the same foods he did. Shrimp, crab legs, calamari, spicy gumbo, they were all over that stuff, more than Kaylee was, so Steve was pleased to have them along helping him eat things. lol They were good kids. I don't know how many people would want to have three 15 year old girls on a trip, but we did just fine. :)

I forgot about a story on the trip home. Because we had head winds and a long trip, I needed full fuel, and to use most of it except an hour reserve. To do that I needed to drain the aux tanks as low as possible. So Steve was over there napping, and the right aux tank was showing 2 gallons and the left 4, so I turned the right engine fuel pump on low, and had my hand down on the right selector, waiting for it to get close to zero, so I was ready to switch. I'm sitting there waiting, and suddenly the engine stumbles. I immediately switch it to the main tank, but the engine dies completely. Hmm. I wait for a second for it to kick back on, but it doesn't, so I look back up at the fuel flows again, and the right engine is running just fine--the left has shut down. Huh. Fine. I switch on the pump and switch the left tank to the left main, and it takes a few moments, but it fires back up and smooths out eventually and we're still on our way. For some reason it had run out of fuel before it got to "zero", which is unusual. Meanwhile Steve had woken up with the engine quitting, not knowing what was going on, and said his heart rate was up a little bit. I told him to go back to sleep but he informed me that he was all out of sleep now. ;) If you put it on paper, it sounds bad. The "critical engine" quit while we were pretty heavily loaded. But...the autopilot was on and it and the yaw damper and the auto trim connected to it handled it so well you couldn't tell by feel which engine had even quit. The plane was fine, airspeed stabilized well above where it needed to, it was just a non-event. Today I asked Kaylee if she knew what had happened, and she said "I figured you were switching tanks and the engine just stumbled, that's all." She wasn't concerned in the slightest and her friends didn't have a clue anything had even happened. The biggest casualty was Steve's seat. :D It's payback for that time he ran the Cherokee Six tank dry and left it there for awhile at night over Lake Michigan with me half dozing in the back with no headset not knowing what was going on, and that airplane only HAD one engine. So on second thought we're still not even. ;)

Kaylee was not pleased to be back at school today, but a few things did please her. She ended up with an A+ on two Biology exams, giving her A+s in four of her classes total right now. And she was given an expanded or additional role in the musical. Mrs. E picked her and another girl to add to what she is doing, and a couple of people said "Welcome to Varsity Starlets". Kaylee laughed and said there's no such thing, but like in anything, the teacher has what you'd call "go-to" people, and they jokingly call those "Varsity Starlets", and added Kaylee to the list. As a Freshman she feels pretty honored by that. :)

So, I have too many photos that I like. I took like 140, so here are about a third of them.

On the way there, Kaylee's friends gave her some gifts, including this tiara. ;)

M, Kay and C on the way to Florida

Kaylee wanted me to wear the tiara for awhile, so I did. See her creepy face in the background? ;)

After we checked into the hotel, first stop was CRAB legs

All of us ordered King Crab. We needed a loan, but it was good.

Four of us girls ate on this chocolate dessert and still had enough for two more nights. Unreal.

The view from our 16th story balcony.

More view from our balcony. Love the sun on water.

The balcony from our room to the rest of the hotel had this view up the coastline.

This was the walkway to get to our room. 16 floors up, Steve hated it. ;)

The elevator had a glass back, so everybody faced the back and watched the scenery go by as you rose or descended.

This looks like snow. It's sand. Pure white sand.

The girls were freezing on this beach, with winds whipping, but they had to go play anyway.

More cold girls

I just liked how that looked. :) Kaylee and C on the beach.

Frolicking in the waves

The girls thought this looked like something out of "Hunger Games". I thought it looked creepier, and when I got a close-up of the door, I started laughing. Perfect.

Anybody who has seen the show "Walking Dead" will recognize the writing on the door.

What can I say, I am easily amused.

Lighting from different times of day.

This is a small portion of our wrap-around deck in our suite. Our personal room and lounge chair isn't shown here, and you can't see that it goes around a corner to the left and has a table, chairs, and more room. Beautiful.

Sun going down on the beach.

Friends taking photos of the sunset

I had the flash on here but it wasn't powerful enough to overcome the sun.

A little better...

Our view looking straight down from our balcony. I don't think Steve looked at this view. ;)

Sun's getting lower.

Goofy selfie stick photos

Friends.

Just watching the lights pop and the sun go down.

Night has fallen.

One seriously full moon over the water

Morning and night.

Palm trees and sunshine!

Going to the beach in front of our hotel. Warmer day, no wind, much nicer!

See the top floor? We're one below that, and the set of three windows you see on the right of the building on the second to top floor was all our suite.