Today was a nice day. One of those days that almost cancel out the ones where you are tearing your hair out and wonder why you didn’t take up some other profession. The weather wasn’t great, but the overall experience was really enjoyable.

I woke up at 3 am with a wake-up call scheduled at 4:25. Oh well, I felt rested so I stayed in bed and read until the phone rang. The ride to the airport was made in record time, even with light rain falling, one of the few benefits of a departure before rush hour. Unfortunately, we made our trek through the terminal before the Starbuck’s opening bell. Can’t have everything, I guess.

I even managed to complete the walk-around between periods of showers and stayed relatively dry. Simple pleasures. The whole departure process went smoothly and we broke out on top at about 7000′. Very Bright!

Then the forecast turbulence seemed to disappear before we reached the predicted area. Fine dining on a breakfast crew meal and airplane coffee at 37,000′ with a nice view of the cloud tops. Some sort of egg meal, I think. It’s not always as easy to identify as you would like.

The scheduled flight time was just under 2 hours. A short hop, but 305 people wanted to make the trip and we were going that way anyway…..

OK, destination weather in hand… 500′ Broken, 4500 meters in rain showers and mist. Approach briefing completed and the descent started. We watched the autopilot fly a nice approach and saw the rabbit at about 600′. The CA clicked off the autopilot and autothrottles and rolled it onto the runway. (Aren’t wet runway landings nice?). Oh, excuse me….. Nice Landing, Captain!!

We cleared customs, rode 45 minutes to the hotel and let the layover begin. Mission accomplished with hardly a glitch in the system. Oh, that they all went so smoothly!