I packed up, said goodbye to Grace, and left the apartment at 10:30am. I drove to campus and got a ride to the airport.

Our JetBlue flight was departing at 1:50pm, but we arrived at the airport at 11:45am. I quickly checked in, checked my bag, and cleared TSA Precheck security. My ticket was booked for Katie Genter instead of Kathryn Genter, but the TSA agent let it slide (after clearly noticing).

I bought a migas con queso plate at Maudie’s and then found a seat between gates 23 and 25 where I could charge my electronics and work.

I wandered back to the gate at 1:05pm, shortly before boarding was scheduled to begin at 1:15pm. I found my team, and we started boarding shortly after.

I hadn’t flown JetBlue in a long time. My 13A seat had good pitch and decent width. I was seated with Kelly and Amy (two of the smaller women on our team), and we all found the row to be rather spacious. We also had two people on our team who had never flown before, which was fun!

I enjoyed the free wifi on the JetBlue flight. It went down a few times, but was generally pretty good.

The Long Beach airport was largely outdoors and had no gates.  The check-in area was strangely shaped to look like a ship.

After collecting our bags we got two minivans and drove to the LaQuinta John Wayne.  I ended up sharing a room with Sara and Devon, two of my fellow UT Outdoor Adventure trip guides who also happen to be dating.  I got my own bed and the room was quiet, so it worked out for the best.

We checked in to the hotel and headed to Huntington Beach for a few hours.

After the beach, we all were hungry and wanted a quick meal. We opted for the Hooters next to the hotel for ease, but the meal was disastrous. It took 30 minutes to be seated, 40 more minutes to get drinks, and 45 more minutes to get food.  Needless to say, it was an experience that makes me never want to go to Hooters again (and certainly not this location).