It's pretty slow, so I thought I would send you this. Dianne August 1998 Went to Washington State(Wenatchee) with Rick and his family for a softball tournament in August. It took me a long time to decide on which shoes to wear, my Birkenstocks, or tie on shoes that I can run in after the plane crashes. I know I will lose the Birkenstocks on impact under the seat in front of me and I will have to run screaming from the plane barefoot while stepping on twisted metal and burning debris. If I wore my tie ons, I can jump and run. Rick told me not to worry about it cause it won't matter. I said, "I've heard of survivors." I borrowed some luggage, it was a nice hard back Samsonite, that won't dent if it falls out of the plane 20 miles up. The latch doesn't work on one side, but if you cinch it in the middle with a belt, that fixes that. Rick says, "Mom, what are you going to do with that?" I said, " Pack it?" He says, "Are you carrying something really valuable that you don't want broken if the suitcase should fall from 20 miles up?" "Yeah", I said, "My hair curler!" He says," When the luggage hits that ring a round thing at the airport, and you are the only one that has a piece of lime green hard back Samsonite with a belt cinched around the middle, everyone will know it's your first plane ride". He said maybe there will be a Samonsite collector there and will pay a high price for a lime green collectable. Smart Ass! So I opted for for a nice limp piece of nylon called a duffel bag. Worked really well. Had a nice plane ride, nothing like the horror stories I had heard. I love the part where they tell you where the exits and the oxygen masks are and how to use them, as if you could remember this as the plane is going down. They told us " there may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but only 4 ways to exit this plane". and, " in the unlikely event, this flight turns into a cruise, your seat cushions can be used as flotation devices, and you may feel free to keep them, with our compliments. Oh Great!. The kids were really good, both times we left the ground, Jace (18 months old) let loose with his bowels, Must have something to do with air pressure. Taylor (4 years) sat with me on the plane and had the window seat going, and slept all the way. Rick's team unfortunately didn't make the big playoff, so we left Wenatchee and went to Seattle, I got to see the space needle, but they wanted 9 dollars to ride up to the top.. Decided I could see that from the plane. We went to the fish market where they throw the fish, only it was closed on Labor Day. Can you believe that, the only day I'll EVER be in town , and it's closed. We went to the Aquarium instead. Never did get to see where Frazier works. (that's a joke) On the way home Taylor was out of her seatbelt before the plane had retracted it's wheels She informed her Mom (who was 2 rows back) that she had to go to the bathroom. Mom, had Jace, who wasn't too happy that he couldn't get down and run and play, so Grandma got to take her. I'm not too sure she really had to go, or just wanted to see what the bathroom looked like. So while we are still supposed to be buckled up, we had to go from row 11 to row 30 so she could pee. By then, the veins in my neck were sticking out and I had a slight pain in my chest. Those kids make the best stories for me. We arrived back in Sacramento, and guess whose luggage was lost? That's right, MINE. My whole life was in there, my clock, my face, toothbrush, hair curler, my clean underwear, and all my decent clothes. I was crushed! Luckily they were found the next day.