I’m going to write about my trip to Portland in tomorrow’s post, but I wanted to share my travel experience first. I had a few parts to my trip going to and from Portland. The easy part was driving to LAX and parking my car. I use the same parking lot whenever I park there. It’s not the cheapest one, but it feels safe and is easy to get to. So I just use that. I’m a bit annoyed that I realized I lost all my loyalty points because I hadn’t flown in a while because I wanted to use those for my parking. But that was a minor inconvenience to deal with and at least this was a relatively simple part of my trip.
I had been very nervous about flying for a while leading up to my trip. I don’t love flying and have had panic attacks on planes before. I also didn’t like the idea of being in such a small space with a lot of people who might not be wearing masks. I knew I’d wear a mask for the entire flight, but that might not be enough for me. I also knew both my flights were sold out, so it would be a full flight with people all around me. And I also was nervous about just being in a plane seat. Plane seats are tiny for everyone. I’ve never needed to have a seatbelt extender or an extra seat, but it’s still something I’m afraid will happen. I have flown at heavier weights than I am now, so there was no reason why I would need something different this time. But I was still scared something would happen.
My flight to Portland wasn’t too bad. The people seated next to me weren’t wearing masks, but they were sleeping through the entire flight and turned away from me. So at least they weren’t always breathing in my face. And I fit into my seat just fine. I know that’s not something everyone worries about going on to a plane, but until I was seated and had the seatbelt on me, I was scared something would be different and I didn’t want to know what that could mean. I did have some moments when I thought I might have a panic attack, but it never got that bad. I was anxious the entire flight, but that’s normal so I’m not bothered by that.
My flight home was decent as well. It was a newer plane, so the seats were a little nicer. And for this flight, I had a pretty view during takeoff.
For both flights, I just tried to stay distracted the entire time so I didn’t feel too anxious. I spent most of my time reading and that helped to pass the time without me constantly looking at my watch or trying to figure out how much longer I had left. And since I didn’t check bags, I didn’t have any fears about losing my luggage or anything like that.
And I got to and from the Portland airport via light rail. The train that has a stop right outside the airport also had a stop near where I was staying with my family. It saved my parents from having to drive to the airport to get me so they could enjoy more of their time and not have to be in traffic. It was about an hour each way for me, and just like on the plane, I spent most of my time reading. It was interesting to see the different parts of Portland on the train since it did go through a lot of the downtown area. And fortunately, it never was too crowded on the train for either trip. There were a few moments on the ride back to the airport at the end of the trip when there were a few people who were making me nervous and hanging out very close to my suitcase when there were a lot of other open spaces on the train. But everything was fine and I was probably just a bit paranoid.
Considering that this was the first time I had done any sort of traveling other than driving to Santa Barbara since Thanksgiving 2019, I’m pretty happy with how things went. I still have the same fears that I had before the pandemic, and I expected that to be the case. But at least nothing was that much worse than before and I was able to make the traveling experience as smooth as possible for myself. And the travel was just a few hours each way bookending my trip so most of my weekend was spent enjoying myself with my family and not focused on traveling.
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