Are You Going to San Francisco...Pt. 1

This weekend we headed west to San Francisco to celebrate the marriage of my high school best friend, Justine, to her wonderful, now husband, Dave. It was a weekend of firsts - the first time for J to visit San Fran, the first time we left Peanut overnight, the first time to fly Virgin America, the first time to eat meat in a cone (pictures to come), the first time to visit the store "Edition" (Banana Republic's exclusive accessory store that only exists in San Francisco), the first time to eat in a strictly vegetarian restaurant, the first time to blog on a plane...it was a whirlwind 3 days, but 3 wonderful days, nonetheless.

We flew out on Friday morning at 8:00, which was great because that meant we arrived in the Bay Area around 10 AM, which gave us the entire day to bum around and see the sights. However, that also meant that we had to wake up at 4:30 after going to sleep at midnight. Needless to say we were both a little tired. Nothing like starting off a day of firsts on about 4 hours of sleep.
As I mentioned, we had never flown Virgin America before, and it is definitely an experience. Case and point: when we arrived at the airport and went in to check our bags, we were greeted by a Michael Jackson song blaring from speakers on the floor...nothing gets you going before 7 AM like hearing the "King of Pop."

Admittedly, I was kind of excited to see what all the fuss was about, and as we boarded the airplane, it was easy to see that this is definitely a different type of airline.
This is exactly what the plane looks like - not your everyday, American Airlines sort of feel. There's music playing, mood lighting, individual screens on the back of every seat. Kind of fun. Our first interaction was with a male flight attendant (who we later found out was named Justin). J asked Justin where he could hang his suit and my bridesmaid dress. Justin informed us that they didn't have anywhere to hang our things (seriously? I've never been on an airline that didn't have a place to hang jackets!) My response was to coyly/kiddingly say, "What if my bridesmaid dress gets wrinkled?," to which he responded, "Always a bridesmaid, never the bride?" (very smugly, I might add). Thankfully, even with only 4 hours of sleep, I had my wits about me and without skipping a beat, held up my left hand and said, "6 years of being the bride, thank you very much." (Strike 1 for Justin).

We make our way back to our seats, which happen to be in the 2nd to last row. No biggie. We had the entire row to ourselves, which was nice. Now to figure out what to do with our clothes. I decide to ask the nice flight attendant in the back of the plane for help. While I can't recall specifics of that conversation, I do know it felt like I was talking to someone playing a ditsy blonde flight attendant in a movie or TV show. While very pleasant, she wasn't super helpful (Strike 1 for flight attendant in the back)...beginning to wonder about the hiring practices at Virgin Airlines after these first two interactions.

Then Justin came on the overhead speaker and introduced himself as the head flight attendant (strike 2 for Justin) and the remainder of the in-flight crew as Haley (aka flight attendant in the back) and Lindsey. Lindsey looked about 21 years old and her perfume gave me a headache (Strike 1). She did offer me a beverage (+1 for Lindsey). So far Lindsey is the only attendant not in negative territory....don't worry, her time will come.

As we were taking off, I turned to J and told him that I really wasn't feeling like Justin, Haley, and Lindsey were people I could trust to save my life in the rare circumstance that we had to use those slides to exit the plane. He agreed.

For your entertainment, check out 45 seconds into their safety video. We thought it was worth a giggle when we saw it the first time (1st Class gets a live demonstration AND the video...the peons have to watch their tiny TVs).

Ironically, while searching for an image of the cabin aboard Virgin American to put on the blog, I came across the following image:
Turns out that there was a TV docu-series that aired last year called "Fly Girls" that followed 5 Virgin American flight attendants. It is important to note that the young ladies above are named Farrah, Nikole, Tasha, Louise and Mandy. I think that Justin, Haley, and Lindsey would fit in with this group nicely.

Maybe 45 minutes before we landed, I did happen to turn around and see Justin and Haley hugging each other in the back of the plane (Strike 3 and 2 respectively)....having never seen an episode, so I'm purely theorizing, I'm guessing this is what "The Hills" would be like if they were all flight attendants. To cap it all off, Lindsey apparently couldn't handle the rigors of her job and took up the empty row behind us watching TV and eating a snack (strike 1 - back to negative). Add that to the fact that when she sat down directly behind me and released the tray table, she woke me up (strike 2...she's in a free fall, folks). Come to think of it, they do mention in their pre-flight script that they'll do their best to stay out of our way during the flight. Maybe taking this one a little too literally, Lindsey.

Thankfully, we never had to test the theory with the exit slides and whether or not Justin, Haley, and Lindsey would have been able to earn their keep, as the flight was completely uneventful. And I have to admit, having the ability to watch TV while flying definitely made the trip seem shorter (heaven forbid I read a book) (and as J points out, great for a Sunday afternoon flight with football games on for the way back). Also, they were extremely punctual both in boarding, take off, and landing...so kudos there. Would we fly them again? Probably yes, but hopefully the details of our first flight at least made for an entertaining post. (It should be noted that the flight attendants of our next flight were named Veronica and Stephanie...at least they're consistent?) :)

(This post was a joint effort...looks like J may become a regular.) :)