Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Boston Finally!

I grew up on Long Island and went to college in upstate New York, but somehow, I never visited the "fair city" of Boston. Well that all changed when I got to attend the Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI) Annual Conference last week.

I had the opportunity to walk a good chunk of the Freedom Trail with a colleague and I took a number of photos (some of which may appear in an upcoming Photoblog post). The skyline and architecture of the city is impressive and the food -- especially the stuffed lobster -- was good.

The most amazing part of my trip was running into my oldest friend who is a pilot for American Airlines. I was unexpectedly on a flight from St. Louis to Boston as my Dallas to Boston flight got canceled. We were on an MD-80 and since I know that my friend flies that aircraft type, I generally peek in the cockpit to see if he is in there. Well getting on to the plane I wasn't paying attention and forgot to look inside the cockpit. However, when I was deplaning I looked inside and guess what? Yes, Harris was the 1st Officer (right-hand seat).

So I ended up chatting with him coming off the airplane and we had dinner one night. I told him which flight I was taking out of Boston and he said that he would try to get that flight. Sure enough he was there. I got to watch him do some of his pre-flight stuff before I took my seat. It was all very cool. Between a good conference, a fun, first visit to Boston, and getting to fly with my friend as one of the pilots, this was one of the best and most memorable business trips that I have taken.

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