I’ve been doing some mighty fancy things these last couple of days, and living quite incredibly extravagantly which I can afford to do maybe once every other year or so. First there was tea at the Plaza and then there was today, when I had my first experience flying business class across the country (thanks to my mom’s air miles, it was only $75).

And thus I present the first in the travel tales posts for my west coast adventure. It is a busy and a long one, but we’ll take it day by day and see what happens. Picture of the day will still be happening everyday, and I will strive to provide a good overview of what we’re doing and provide pictures as well.

But back to day one, which really technically shouldn’t count as a day as I’ve been traveling for the past twelve hours, but the airplane experience was so amazing I felt it needed to be recorded for posterity.

Things did not start out so well. When we arrived at the gate, we found out that our airplane was delayed. How long was unclear, but this made us nervous for the connecting flight we would need to get onto once we hit LAX. It turned out there was no need to worry. The layover was long enough, so even with an hour and a half delay on the first flight, everything was fine.

In fact, everything was fine once we got on the plane and discovered the legroom in business class. Two people could stand in front of my seat – AND the seats not only reclined, but had a footrest. As we waited for the plane to leave the gate, the flight attendants came around with complimentary champagne, and gave us menus for the multi-course lunch we would be having.

Once we took off, the amazing service only continued. The flight attendants used our names, and brought anything we could have wanted, including hot towels and personal entertainment tablets with tons of movies and tv shows to watch during the flight (I went with Hunger Games, which I liked just as much the second time as I did the first time I saw it).

Lunch was served, and it was much better than your typical plane fare, and it included ice cream for dessert. Later in the flight, we also got cookies, as the pre-arrival snack, as well as sparkling water.

It was almost a shame to leave the plane; we were being treated so well! But the flight ended eventually, and we had to catch our connecting flight that would land us in our final destination, Seattle. Though we were on first class on the second flight as well, it wasn’t nearly as exciting as the first. Because the flight was so short, there was no in flight entertainment, so I spent much of the time watching Los Angeles from up above pass us by and catching up on my reading.

I fear economy is now ruined forever. No, wait. Scratch that. It IS ruined forever. But alas, I will have to take it most of the time anyway.

And that’s my rant for the evening. It’s 11:45 Seattle time, but 2:45 east coast time, and I’m sleepy!