# I’m blaming Obama!



## Andy (Aug 25, 2002)

As you know I was speaking at a conference on Forums in San Francisco Wednesday and my wife and I had a flight back to LA on Thursday. The conference was in the downtown SF Goggle building and we had lunch in the cafeteria!!

Also had a greet meeting with some SF Forum Members. 

(Look for some photos of the meeting and the conference in a few days at that link)

On with my story! I always get to the airport early and after security went to the gate. 

Our 1:10 flight had been weather delayed until 3:30! San Francisco, where it rains more than in Seattle, didn't design their runways for rain! ?

We found a nice spot for lunch and periodically checked back at the gate. The delay went from 3:30 (actually 1:10) to 4:30. I checked to see if there was an earlier flight. There was! -- an 11 AM flight that was leaving at 3 PM.

I also asked the gate personnel if I got drunk and came back and yelled at them would I get on TV (this is for you fans of the TV series Airline). :icon_smile_big: They said no!

They put us on standby for the "earlier" flight. After an hour of standing in line and making sure we were on the standby list, I was told yes we were on the list at number 16 but they would have maybe four available seats!

Back to alternate plan A, wait for the 4:30 (hopefully). Near 4:45 we boarded!! 

Took a while to load, then taxi out to the runway, which was full of a long queue of airplanes waiting to take off. After 30 minutes in line, the Captain announced: "The good news is that we're now second in line. The bad news is that we're going to have a 30 minute delay because President Obama is landing"

So we waited on the tarmac; the President arrived and then we watched the flock of helicopters take him to his meeting with all the top computer folks.
San Francisco, CA Feb. 18. President including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Steve Jobs, Oracle's Larry Ellison, Netflix's Reed Hastings, Yahoo's Carol Bartz, Cisco's John Chambers and Twitter's Dick Costolo.​We did get home, only 5 hours later than expected.

One unique experience: our travel agent [email protected] e-mailed me our boarding passes! When has a travel agent ever done that!!


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

What do you think living in DC is like?? :rolleyes2:


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## mstonid (Jul 25, 2010)

*Could Have, Should Have*

You could have played a round of golf during the time you had to wait. Well, at least 9 holes.

You should have stayed in L.A. and played golf with me and Frank...Hahahaha.

Glad you made it back safe and sound.:icon_smile:


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## Apatheticviews (Mar 21, 2010)

WouldaShoulda said:


> What do you think living in DC is like?? :rolleyes2:


Believe it or not, DC isn't too bad. The president flies from the White house (in Marine 1) to Andrews AFB where he uses a military runway for take offs and landings. Being on a military installation (Belvoir, Quantico, Andrews, etc) while he's on deck is more of an issue, since they restrict base access while he's in the immediate area.

Having lived in the DC area for more than 10 years (averaging 4-5 flights out a year), using DCA, BWI, and Dulles for flights, I can count the number of delayed takeoffs (more than 30 minutes) I've had on one hand.

This of course is just anecdotal, since I know people who seem to be delayed on every flight they take. When I was living in San Diego, I raked in about half a dozen free round trip tickets from delayed/cancelled/overbooked flights, so DCA just seems more efficient compared to there, but I wasn't traveling as much then either.


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## Auggie Brine (Feb 23, 2010)

Everyone's in such a hurry! Think wagon trains and the Donner Party. Until we can call Scotty (beam me up) we're all stuck in the same boat (err, airship).

Cheers,
Auggie


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

Apatheticviews said:


> Believe it or not, DC isn't too bad. The president flies from the White house (in Marine 1) to Andrews AFB where he uses a military runway for take offs and landings. Being on a military installation (Belvoir, Quantico, Andrews, etc) while he's on deck is more of an issue, since they restrict base access while he's in the immediate area.


I was thinking about motorcade delays to and from work. I should have been more specific!!


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## JJR512 (May 18, 2010)

To be fair to Obama, you can't blame him for being five hours late. Only for the last 30 minutes of that.


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## Wisco (Dec 3, 2009)

Apatheticviews said:


> Believe it or not, DC isn't too bad. The president flies from the White house (in Marine 1) to Andrews AFB where he uses a military runway for take offs and landings. Being on a military installation (Belvoir, Quantico, Andrews, etc) while he's on deck is more of an issue, since they restrict base access while he's in the immediate area.
> 
> Having lived in the DC area for more than 10 years (averaging 4-5 flights out a year), using DCA, BWI, and Dulles for flights, I can count the number of delayed takeoffs (more than 30 minutes) I've had on one hand.
> 
> This of course is just anecdotal, since I know people who seem to be delayed on every flight they take. When I was living in San Diego, I raked in about half a dozen free round trip tickets from delayed/cancelled/overbooked flights, so DCA just seems more efficient compared to there, but I wasn't traveling as much then either.


In my frequent business trips to DC, I seem to always run into rolling road closures as some dignitary is rapidly moving along in their motorcade. I think I once was held up by President Bush the 2nd as the delays were long and there were a lot of vehicle in the caravan. Kind of fun to watch from the back seat of a taxi stopped in traffic!


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## Apatheticviews (Mar 21, 2010)

WouldaShoulda said:


> I was thinking about motorcade delays to and from work. I should have been more specific!!


Oh yah. Traffic here sucks. Whenever anyone visits and ask how traffic is, I point out "It's DC. It sucks."


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## JJR512 (May 18, 2010)

Wisco said:


> In my frequent business trips to DC, I seem to always run into rolling road closures as some dignitary is rapidly moving along in their motorcade. I think I once was held up by President Bush the 2nd as the delays were long and there were a lot of vehicle in the caravan. Kind of fun to watch from the back seat of a taxi stopped in traffic!


What would amuse me is to see one dignitary's motorcade get help up by another dignitary's motorcade.


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## LeggeJP1 (Dec 3, 2010)

Wait, people actually drive in DC?

I've lived here my whole life...and have drove into the city once. Never again after that. Anywhere that I've worked in the city, I always took the metro, even if it meant a ten or twenty block walk. Still much faster and less stress than driving in, for sure.

Of course, even the metro gets delays sometimes. But my average commute to Foggy Bottom from the top of the red line was 45 minutes. Driving it would've been two hours.


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