AUS-HOU-LGA

And we’re off!
It was an early morning for us – especially after staying up until 1 am packing and getting the house ready for us to be gone.
JT worked until 6 pm yesterday: not bad for the tax deadline day! Katie spent the day doing laundry, finishing the remaining items on her academic todo list (for before the trip – still plenty to do post-trip!), and doing final trip prep.
Our alarms went off at 3:50 am, we left the house at 4:40 am, and got to JT’s office a little before 5:00. One of the security guards at JT’s building (buddies with JT) came down to advise us to park in a different spot, as they were going to do cleaning down there and he didn’t want our car to get dirty – or possibly scratched. Then he carried our bags up to the bus stop for us!
The bus stopped by JT’s office a little after it’s scheduled 5:05 time, but we easily got down to the airport by 5:30, more than an hour before our 6:35 am flight to Houston Hobby (HOU).
After checking our bags at the Southwest counter, we quickly cleared security (TSA Pre FTW!), filled our Nalgene-style water bottles and headed over to Maudie’s for JT to get some last minute TexMex before leaving Austin ($2.98 for a breakfast tacos).
Ahh, TexMex… How we will miss you!

Southwest Flight 901 – Austin to Houston
Austin–Bergstrom International (AUS): Gate 11; Runway 17L; Scheduled: 6:35a; Actual: 6:46a
William P. Hobby (HOU): Gate 27; Runway 12R; Scheduled: 7:25a; Actual: 7:20a
Flight Time: 0h 34m; Actual miles: 177
Registration: N296WN; Boeing 737-7H4; First Flight: Oct 10, 2007; 140 seats (140 coach)

Seats: traveled as 9E and 9F, coach

JT boarded first at A30 and Katie joined him as B5. We grabbed seats on the right side of the plane in row 9 (E and F)

Sunrise on the way to Houston

We got to Houston on time and took some time to stretch our legs by walking from one end of the terminal to the other and back. Since the seats at our gate were full, we sat at a nearby gate to await our flight. Katie read from her Kindle while JT found an empty one of those Southwest comfortable leather seats with a power plug, plugged in his already-dying phone… and he promptly fell asleep! Thankfully the gate he was at started to board before our (delayed) flight started to board. The announcements from our gate were not broadcasting outside of our gate, so we could have easily missed the flight if Katie had also failed to notice our flight was boarding.
Southwest Flight 299 – Houston to NYC
William P. Hobby (HOU): Gate 20; Runway 17; Scheduled: 8:30a; Actual: 9:37a
LaGuardia (LGA): Gate B8; Runway 22; Scheduled: 1:00p; Actual: 1:32p
Flight Time: 2h 55m; Actual miles: 1,692
Registration: N7736A (previously N308AT); Boeing 737-7BD; First Flight: Nov 21, 2006; 143 seats (143 coach)
Seats: traveled as 7E and 7F, coach

Our 8:30 am scheduled departure flight finally started boarding a little after 9. In another “very full” flight, we ended up with another middle/window combo on the right side of the plane in row 7. We each enjoyed 2 Bailey’s drinks (thanks Dad!) on the flight up.
Our approach to LGA was incredible! We flew right over the west side of Manhattan, which gave us stunning views of the city and Central Park.

Madison Square Garden and the rest of midtown Manhattan

We landed a little after 1:30 and unloaded into a packed and very well-worn LaGuardia airport terminal.
Gotta get our luggage and board the bus… but first, let me take a selfie 😉

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