Copenhagen, Denmark – July 10, 2026

Warning: this blog post took so long because I couldn’t narrow down the pictures. I tried my best, but there are still plenty in this post. You’ve been warned. LOL!

I totally lucked out into my trip to Copenhagen. I have several classmates that have done many TO’s (transoceanic trips) by picking them up on their off days, but I don’t want to do that. My off days are sacred because I get to spend time with Jeff, so there is no way I’m choosing to work when I could be at home instead. I got the Paris trip because someone picked up a domestic trip that I had, leaving space in my schedule. Copenhagen ended up on my schedule in a different way.

I try to stack my trips to minimize my commute, so I do my best to have two, three-day trips in a row. I was finishing up my first trip which had gone a little haywire. Our inbound flight on our last day was delayed, so we had a deadhead from Minneapolis to New York. But weather in New York had us circling near Detroit where we finally diverted due to needing more fuel. This diversion meant that I wasn’t going to have enough legal rest for my second trip which was starting the following day, so it was automatically dropped from my schedule. I ended up deviating from the deadhead and flying straight to Baltimore instead. Yay!

After spending several days in Baltimore, I still had a three day trip that I wanted to make up so my paycheck wouldn’t take a hit. But now that I had open space in my schedule, I could pick up any trip that was available! I decided it was time to try another TO to see if I could figure out whether I liked them or not, so I looked on the swap board and I had many, many choices. After some hemming and hawing and checking the weather in the destination (you can’t take the sailor out of the girl), I picked Copenhagen.

Copenhagen honestly wasn’t even on my radar before this, but I liked that the arrival time was at 6:45 a.m. so it would feel like I had stayed up REALLY late vs. pulling an all-nighter. That was my sole reason for picking it. There are worse reasons for a particular destination.

I was the most junior person on the trip, and positions are signed up for in seniority order. By the time the sign up sheet came to me, all that was left was the galley. I raised my hand and warned everyone that this was only my second TO and I had never worked galley before and was told “No better time than the present to learn!” O.k. They were warned.

There was only one minor catastrophe working the galley on the way over (hey – I warned them), and before I knew it we were landing in Copenhagen. This was actually a very senior trip. I was the most junior flight attendant by ten years. Several of the crew went to Copenhagen regularly, and they were happy to offer suggestions as to what I might enjoy seeing and doing during the layover. I’ve discovered that it’s good to listen to the senior mamas and papas, and once again they didn’t steer me wrong.

Upon their advice, the first thing I did after checking into the hotel was to walk to a neighboring bakery and have some breakfast. Before this trip I was not a fan of rye bread at all, but now I realize it was because I had never eaten rugbrod. This bread was amazing – dense, heavy, dark, mixed with seeds. Paired with some sliced cheese, a soft boiled egg, and yogurt with muesli, along with a chai latte with soy milk, it was an amazing breakfast. I’d go back to Copenhagen simply to have that breakfast again.

I took this picture of my breakfast from the internet. It reminded me of the types of breakfast my mother-in-law (who is from Germany) serves.

After breakfast it was off to the Church of our Saviour. The church was consecrated in 1696, and it offers a great lookout over the city via a staircase up the spire which was added in 1752. To get to the lookout, you had to climb over 400 steps through narrow wooden passageways with the final 150 steps circling the outside of the spire!

The stairs became progressively narrower as you climbed, so that by the top there was only room for one person. People waited patiently for their turn, and were happy to take pictures for people at the top. The views were amazing. Honestly, I wouldn’t have even known about this place if it wasn’t for the senior papa on my trip recommending it.

The church also has a pipe organ from 1698 that I was hoping to see. My dad was a big fan of organs and organ music. But the church itself wasn’t open yet by the time I was finished with the tower, and by the time I came back later in the afternoon it had closed. Oh well. All the more reason to return again!

Still following the suggestion of the senior papa, after I climbed the tower I went back to the hotel and took a nap for two hours, then woke up and got ready to explore for the rest of the day.

One particularly famous area in Copenhagen is the Nyhavn Canal. There are several canal boat tours to choose from, and even though they are touristy, I was a tourist. It was a beautiful day and I thought it would be a great way to get an overview of Copenhagen from the water – and we know that I love boats and the water! The tour didn’t disappoint.

Although the boat was packed with people, everyone wanted to sit at the front so I went straight to the last row where I knew I could turn around and take pictures from the stern without having 60 heads in the way.

The weather this day was perfect – Chamber of Commerce weather as my dad would have called it. Between the sunny, blue skies, warm temperatures, and the fact that it was a Saturday, the locals were out in force enjoying the water – suntanning, swimming, boating. The air was filled with the energy that you only find on a perfect summer day in a city that has long, cold winters. Something that I’m familiar with and will be again soon – but that’s for a blog post in the future.

The landing was chock full of people sunbathing and enjoying the weather.

They call this “The Kissing Bridge” because the two spans retract to let boats through and then push forward, connecting again. I was lucky enough to see it in action.

I was impressed with the Captain’s skills, given that he had to navigate some very narrow tunnels on a rather wide boat.

I loved how detailed this pedestrian bridge was. It’s supposed to resemble ships’ masts on old wooden boats.

This playground had little trampolines built into the ground. So cute!

I’m not sure why the Little Mermaid statue is so popular, but you get the idea of the crowds from this shot. I was content enough to see it from the boat.

There were many sailboats docked along the canals. It made me wish that we could have taken Pegu Club here!

After the boat tour it was time to wander around, shop for some goodies to take home for Jeff and I to share, and check out some more sights:

Frederick’s Church had its groundbreaking in 1749 and was completed in 1894. This Lutheran Church has the largest dome in Scandinavia.

The King’s Garden was very impressive and a popular hang out that day, with the Rosenborg Castle in the back.

Of course, being in Copenhagen there were bicycles everywhere, which as a biking enthusiast was a lot of fun to see:

I also went to TorvehallerneKBH which was a great food market with over 60 stalls. It was the perfect place to grab a bite for dinner:

This was delicious: potato, Danish remoulade, red onion, and fried onion on a piece of that awesome, dense rye bread!

After my snack I was losing steam – no great surprise given that I had only slept for a few hours. So I went back to the hotel via this fantastic street where no cars were permitted:

Honestly, with the sun out until well past 9:00 p.m., I truly had to force myself to go to bed. There was an energy in the air that was impossible to ignore, and I had fallen head over heels in love with Copenhagen. But I knew I’d be back – for work and with Jeff – and I knew I needed to take care of myself, so off to bed I went. Copenhagen – you are magical. I can’t wait to see you again.

Apt words indeed, Hans Christian Andersen.

I’m going to Los Angeles! Oops – spoke too soon. My first reroute, escalation, and deviation. June 27, 2026.

One of the things flight attendants say is to never make plans. In other words, if you have a layover on your schedule, don’t make plans until you land. If you disregard that advice and make plans, you’ll get rerouted. Well, three fellow crew members and I discovered first-hand how true that is when we were flying from JFK to LAX.

I broke the rule because I had made plans to have lunch with family. My crew members broke the rule when they decided they were going to the Central Market in downtown Los Angeles to eat and watch the World Cup. We had about an hour left in the flight when I looked at my phone to confirm our pick up time the next day and said, “That’s weird. Why does it say Austin?” They looked at my phone and said, “Oh! You’ve been rerouted!” Then they looked at their phones. “We’ve all been rerouted!”

We were all on A-days, which is six days out of the month where we are basically on reserve. We can preference trips, but we can be sent anywhere at any time. I had preferenced this trip, but obviously the airline had other ideas. However, while I was disappointed to not be able to see family, I was VERY pleased that I was going with my fellow crew members. It was a widebody with seven crew members, and four of us were juniors and we were getting along great. Lots of joking and singing – it was the best crew I had worked with since I started. And the four of us were all going to Austin now. HOWEVER…

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Charleston – May 29, 2026. Jeff finally gets to come along!

Although Jeff was thwarted in his attempt to come along on my trip to Chicago, we also had Charleston circled on the calendar one week later. It was a 19 hour layover, the hotel was right in the middle of everything, and we figured it would be a good opportunity to have some ribs at our favorite barbecue place – Lewis’ BBQ. Fortunately, this trip worked out!

I was flying from LaGuardia to Atlanta and then to Charleston. The loads weren’t looking good for Jeff to fly the Atlanta to Charleston leg with me, so he flew from Baltimore to Atlanta, caught the earlier Charleston flight, then just waited for an hour until I arrived.

We had been to Charleston many times when we spent a year living in Beaufort, SC, but one thing we hadn’t done was visit Fort Sumter. I had been interested in going there since reading “The Demon of Unrest” by Erik Larson. We had been by it several times on our boat as we headed north and south, but the only access to the Fort was via a tour boat (like going to the Statue of Liberty). It was a bit pricy, but in the spirit of carpe diem we decided to use this layover to finally visit.

Since we were the last boat of the day, we were able to watch the flag being lowered which was cool.

Honestly, I don’t think the price was worth it. Yes, the ride to the fort was nice, but taking a boat ride in Charleston Harbor was nothing new for us. And the way the visit was set up, we were only allowed to spend one hour at the fort before we had to leave on the same boat we arrived with. An hour really wasn’t enough to thoroughly explore the area and the museum. For what we got, I think $43/per person was a bit pricey. Perhaps we’re spoiled by Fort McHenry here in Baltimore. We get in for free thanks to Jeff’s National Parks pass and you can stay from open to close if you’d like. Oh well. As my old boss used to say, sometimes you come up with snake eyes.

While Fort Sumter was a bit of a disappointment, Lewis’ BBQ – as expected – did NOT disappoint. Damn that’s good BBQ. And with this job, we can honestly just fly down there to get BBQ whenever we’d like in the future! In fact, I flew with a flight attendant last month who told me she and her husband fly to Buenos Aires every few months for steak night. They take the overnight flight to Buenos Aires (usually getting first class with the lie flat seats so they just sleep on the plane), enjoy a steak dinner in Buenos Aires, then take the overnight flight back. No hotel room needed! Is this a great job or what?!

32 hours in Chicago – May 21, 2026

I’ve always really liked Chicago. When I drove across the country to move to Connecticut back in 1989, I stopped there for three days and told my dad that if Connecticut didn’t work out, I was going to give Chicago a try. I STILL think about moving there every once in a while, and then I remember the winters they have! LOL!

So imagine my delight when my schedule came out for May and I had a trip to Chicago with a 32 hour layover! Jeff was planning to join me, and the hotel was rumored to be excellent, so I was VERY excited.

The morning before the trip there were plenty of seats and Jeff and I were psyched for a mini-getaway. But then the East Coast was hit with major thunderstorms that evening resulting in many cancellations. So much for any empty seats for Jeff. Sigh. Oh well. There would be other opportunities for the two of us to go. In the meantime, my trip was still on!

The hotel was every bit as nice as people said, with plenty of old-fashioned touches from when it was built. It was also conveniently located in the heart of downtown, with my first destination – the Art Institute of Chicago – only a few blocks away.

I’m not a huge art museum person, but I’m trying to develop more of an appreciation for it. This was a great museum to work on that. I downloaded their app and decided to take the “Ferris Bueller” tour.

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Pittsburgh, PA – May 17, 2026. What a pleasant surprise!

I ended up in Pittsburgh by accident. I was on A-days and had preferenced a TO, and when the automated call from crew scheduling came, it started by saying I had been awarded my preference. I was super excited, and then it said I was going to Pittsburgh. What?? Plus, the three-day trip was going to start late and end late each day. WHAT??? I didn’t preference anything of the sort! I am a morning person, and absolutely do not like days that end close to midnight, regardless of the fact that they don’t start until the afternoon. Give me a 3:30 a.m. wake up call and checking into the hotel before dinner any day.

Well, I still have no idea what kind of computer glitch happened, but the trip actually ended up being a lot of fun! I still didn’t like the late report and late release, but I never would have thought that Pittsburgh would be such a cool city if I hadn’t had this trip. Now it’s on Jeff’s and my ever growing list for a weekend getaway.

We arrived late in the evening but our pickup wasn’t until about 4:00 the next day which gave me time to check it out a bit. After Googling “top things to do in Pittsburgh” (and reminding myself I couldn’t do everything so I needed to limit myself to one or two things), I settled on the Duquesne Incline and the Strip District.

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Bozeman, Montana – May 9, 2026

I had never been to Bozeman – or anywhere in Montana – before this trip. I will absolutely be back.

Having done my research, I decided to go for a short hike. Arriving at the hotel around 1:00 p.m. gave me plenty of time. I chose the College “M” trail, a hike with a few different options to the top (I picked the “easy” option) and sweeping views. It was only around 3 miles round trip with 750 feet of elevation gain, and it was busy enough that I didn’t have to worry about bears.

It was a gorgeous day with temperatures in the high 60’s – perfect for a hike. A quick $10 Uber ride took me to the trailhead and I set off. The reviews didn’t disappoint. While it was a bit of an aerobic workout going uphill given that I was already at 4,800 feet, the views were a splendid distraction. I took my time, FaceTimed Jeff several times so he could see the views, and had a nice break at the top before going back down again.

Between cruising on our boat and now living in Baltimore, I haven’t had much mountain scenery for the past eight years. I wouldn’t want to live in them, but visiting sure is easy on the eyes!

After another $10 Uber ride back to the hotel, I explored downtown a bit. I bought chocolates at La Chatelain Chocolat to bring home (they were amazing), and also bought Jeff some local coffee beans at Ghost Town Coffee Roasters.

I actually got lucky with the chocolate. Typically they would have been closed by the time I arrived, but since it was graduation weekend and downtown was busy, they had decided to stay open for a few extra hours. They were happy with the extra purchase, and I was happy that I was able to buy some chocolate!

I didn’t realize that Bozeman is only a few hours drive from Yellowstone National Park. That has been on our bucket list for awhile, and with Bozeman being so cute, we’ve decided that we’ll try to go there this fall once the tourist season has died down – but before the snow has started to fall! We can spend some time exploring Bozeman AND go to Yellowstone.

We had a 4:15 a.m. pickup time from the hotel the next day, but it was well worth it for such a fun layover. And as an added bonus, the Captain made an announcement to let us all know when we were flying over Mount Adams and Mount Rainier on our way to Seattle, so I was able to get a great picture!

It was a great trip, and one I would definitely do again.

Everyone said I’d find out what kind of flying I like the best. San Francisco – May 2, 2026.

During training and after, our instructors and senior crew members would tell us that we’d figure out what kind of flying we like. It didn’t really make sense to me. A plane is a plane, and a trip is basically a trip, right? Well, when I worked my first transcon (transcontinental) on a wide body, I understood. All of a sudden, I realized what kind of flying I liked. Give me a coast-to-coast trip on a wide body aircraft any day. One boarding, one deplaning, plenty of time for service, and a good layover. They aren’t worth much in terms of credit hours, but I like them a lot anyway.

I picked up my first widebody transcon on my A days when I preferenced it, and it was awarded to me. A-days are six days a month when we are on call – either two sets of 3 days, or one set of 6 days. You can be sent anywhere at any time, but you can preference available trips. They are awarded by seniority, but I’ve found that if it’s a domestic trip, I tend to be successful. A TO? Forget it. I’m way too junior for that. But I like to preference a domestic so that I can have some control over my schedule on A days.

So when I looked at open time the night before my A days started, there was a nice looking trip to San Francisco that I preferenced and was awarded. I hadn’t been to San Francisco in over 35 years, and now I was going to get a 20 hour layover downtown. I was psyched!

On top of the destination, I liked this trip because it released at 10:35 p.m. on my second A-day. That meant I couldn’t get used before 10:35 a.m. on my third day. I had the choice of either trying to drop my third A-day without pay, or roll the dice and hope I didn’t get a call for my third day. If I didn’t get used, then I could get released at 5:00 p.m. and fly home to Baltimore while still getting paid for having been on reserve for the third day. These are things I hadn’t even thought about when I initially started six weeks prior, but I was slowly gaining more experience in how to make my schedule work for me whenever I could despite being so junior.

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The best birthday present – Paris! April 27, 2026.

Trips are awarded by seniority, so, being a junior flight attendant, typically the only way I’m going to be able to get a transoceanic (TO) trip is by trading with someone else or picking it up when I can. (Flight attendants who are designated as being able to speak another language fluently get TO’s regularly regardless of their seniority.) I won’t pick up trips on my days off – those are sacred – so that leaves trading trips with someone else, or having the ability to pick up a TO if someone else just takes one of my trips that I’ve put up on the drop/swap board.

Trading trips is typically a no-go for me, because seniors who want to trade TO’s will typically only trade for either another TO or if you’ll take two of their trips in exchange for giving them one of yours. I’m not about to work MORE just so I can get a TO. So, despite my fellow classmates going on TO’s because they are working almost every day that they are legally allowed to, I continued to impatiently wait for lighting to strike while enjoying my days off with Jeff.

I’ll put trips that I’m ambivalent about up on the drop board, but they aren’t particularly attractive to most flight attendants because they are junior trips. In other words, if I’m not crazy about the trip, most everyone else isn’t either for the same reason. If it’s up for drop, no one is going to take it unless they have room in their schedule and they have a desire for that particular trip.

So it’s with that background knowledge that I found myself in my crash pad late in the afternoon, the day before a trip with layovers in Hartford and Norfolk. I certainly didn’t mind going on that trip. I had plans to have dinner with friends in Hartford and I really like Norfolk. But I had put it on the drop board just in case someone wanted it so I could try to pick up a “better” trip. Better could mean higher credit, more appealing layovers, or – dare to dream – a TO.

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Boise, ID – April 23, 2026

I was a poli sci major at UConn for my undergraduate degree and spent time working as a legislative aide at the State Capitol in Hartford, in additional to running two political campaigns. I eventually went to law school and spent the majority of my career working in local government. I’m understandably a bit of a government nerd, so it should come as no surprise that I decided one of the many fun things I could do with this job was to tour all 50 State Capitols. Previously I had toured the Capitols in Hartford, Connecticut (obviously) and Annapolis, Maryland (also obviously). Only 48 to go!

Number three was Boise, Idaho where I had a 15 hour layover. We arrived at the hotel around 3:00 which gave me just enough time to walk over and check it out. They weren’t offering guided tours, but there was an interesting exhibit in the lower level about the history of Idaho and it’s Capitol, and I was able to walk around on the different floors. Unfortunately, the legislative chambers were locked up, but I’m sure I’ll have another layover there in the future and I can try again.

Construction began on the Capitol in 1905, fifteen years after Idaho became a state, and it was completed in 1920.

As you can tell, it was a beautiful day. My dad would have called it “Chamber of Commerce weather.”

Four types of marble were used in the construction: red from Georgia, gray from Alaska, green from Vermont, and black from Italy.

This statue of Washington, covered in gold leaf, was carved in 1869 out of white pine, Idaho’s state tree. The artist, Charles Ostner, spent four years carving it by candlelight after working during the day as a miner.

Obligatory dome pictures:

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My first flight – March 19, 2026.

I was really nervous leading into my first flight. I had a day off between orientation and what had been scheduled as my first flight – a 3 day trip with a classmate as of one of my fellow crew members – so I decided to rip off the bandaid and I picked up a turn to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic on my day off.

A turn is when you fly out to a destination, the passengers leave, new passengers get on, and you fly back to your base. No time to sightsee, but turns have their advantages. For example, if you just want to pick up some extra money on your day off, or if you live in your base so you can be home each night like a traditional job.

I couldn’t have asked for a better trip for my first flight. My fellow crew members were AWESOME. Of course I told them it was my very first flight and they were SO enthusiastic. They showed me the ropes, gave me great advice, and the pilot took a group photo of us at the end. We even had a bit of extra time when we landed in Punta Cana, so one of my fellow flight attendants took me to the duty free shop where I bought some Bombay Sapphire for Jeff. Between the duty free discount and the crew discount, it was quite a deal!

Sunset somewhere between Punta Cana and New York City.

By the time I got back to my crash pad I was tired, but I had done it! My first flight was under my belt, and with my first three-day trip the next day, I knew I’d sleep better for having worked the turn vs. tossing and turning with nerves in anticipation of what was supposed to be my first flight. One trip down, hopefully many years of trips to go!