Daughter #3 works two jobs. She writes legal articles for the web for a group of lawyers (daughter #3 is a lawyer). She also works +30 hours a week for American Airlines. She is mostly a gate agent, but can do just about everything but fly the planes. For instance, she has deiced planes from the lift in winter.
American employees can fly free, or next to free on a standby basis if there are unsold seats on the plane. Immediate family (inc. spouse, children and parents) fly at a very nominal cost. They have reciprocal agreements with some other airlines. This year, Michelle has taken me to Portland, Maine, Boston, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Juneau, Alaska.
She and her husband just got back from a few days in Warsaw, Poland. My wife’s part-Polish. Her great grandparents were from Poznan in western Poland. I really should have had her write this article, but I’ll tell you a little about what she told Gayle and me about the trip.
Daughter #3 took most of the pictures in this thread. Pretty cool shot above of the rainbow coming down into the church. The two of them went to church Sunday AM. The church was big, beautiful and packed. Nearly every seat was taken. While it was a very old church, it did have two video screens with the words that were being sung. She said the choir was awesome. She should know…she was in the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Choir for two summers and she sang in the Michigan State Choir at Interlochen.
This is the Palace of Culture and Science. It’s the 2nd tallest building in Warsaw and 6th tallest in the European Union. It has 42 floors and 3,288 rooms. There are two museums in the building and an 8-screen cinema, where Michelle and Dan saw “Top Gun, Maverick (subtitles in Polish).
This is the Świętokrzyski Bridge or Holy Cross Bridge over the Vistula River. This is a relatively new bridge. It opened in 2000. It carries an average of 23,418 vehicles per day and has a bicycle path in each direction. The bridge is 1,572 feet long, has 48 cables and a 295-foot single tower on the east side of the bridge. The Vistula River is the longest river in Poland and the 9th longest in Europe.
My wife really likes Polish pottery. We’ve picked up a piece here and a piece there, most recently at the Polish Festival in Grand Rapids. It is available here in West Michigan. Well, daughter #3 was in Poland, so she and her husband took a train out of Warsaw to the Polish pottery factory outlet store. They picked up this plate for us.
They flew back to G.R. via London. Michelle sat next to a man from Wales that was part of a team that was providing security for NBC reporters and staff covering the war in Ukraine. I’ve met several fascinating people on planes this year.
