Ann Mann drove us to SeaTac airport at 2 pm to catch a 6 PM flight to Chicago which arrives at midnight. We left early so she would miss rush hour traffic on the way home.

We arrived at the airport more than three hours before our flight departed. It took us less than 10 minutes to get through security after checking in at the curb. We headed straight for Alaska airlines first-class lounge and spent the next 3 hours relaxing but bored out of our skulls. At one point, Mary went for a 40 walk while I guarded the carry on luggage.

As i sit here looking around? I notice that the first class Lounge is starting to look like the Greyhound Bus Station. T-shirts, flip flops, one guy looks like he's wearing swim trunks with his flip flops. Within 20 feet of us there must be four people yelling into their cell phones. We've only been here for 20 minutes and we already know too much about their private lives, certainly more than we want to know!

One lady is coughing up a storm, you know the cough, the one that sounds like in came from the bottom of a bass drum. Sounds like the flu -and looks like the flu with all her sweating. God, I hope she isn't going to Chicago. Oh no, She is asking for chicken soup. We're all dead!

OMG, a baby just started crying. I mean screaming .......in the first class lounge! I know, I couldn't believe it either! I remember reading that when asked if he liked children after complaining to a reporter about a nearby screaming child, WC Fields said, "Only if they are cooked properly." I am ready to cook and eat this one. God, what a sound.

We have first class seats on Alaska airlines from Seattle to Chicago. Always a pleasure to fly in First Class. Dinner and free drinks. Our entire flight from Seattle to Istanbul and back is either first class or business class. Before you get all excited about the cost, we used Alaska Airlines miles to purchase this trip for both of us. Total cost including two full fare 1st class tickets from Washington DC to Seattle was $1300, plus 200,000 miles.

I just went to the lounge galley. They will be serving Louisiana red bean and rice Cajun style soup in fifteen minutes. Someone isn't thinking. Serve spicy bean soup and then shovel the diners into locked, airless, cigar shaped tubes for 4-5 hours? Whew!

We made it into our seats without incident, ordered a double, and settled back for the four hour trip to Chicago.