» Trips & travel

The $100 Hamburger

staci baird — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:04:08 +0000

Jay Baird conducts a pre-flight check of a Piper Cherokee Warrior at San Carlos Airport in San Carlos, Calif.

Private pilot Jay Baird took advantage of the good weather and flew me (his wife) to the Hollister Airport so we could eat a at the Ding A Ling cafe.

It’s sort of an inside joke amongst pilots to call quick trips to small airport cafes flights for the “$100 hamburger.” It refers to the cost of renting a plane for a couple hours. As Baird explains, the “$100 hamburger” is one of the reasons he obtained his private pilot’s license.

Photos taken with a Nikon D90 (which I am still learning how to use), audio captured on a Flip Cam..

Listen to excerpts from my interview with Jay in my previous post, Interview with Private Pilot Jay Baird.

View more photos from the trip in the $100 Hamburger Flickr photo set.

Interview with private pilot Jay Baird

staci baird — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:16:44 +0000

Jay Baird watches as a plane takes off from Hollister Airport in Hollister, Calif.

Jay Baird got his private pilot license in 2004. Since then, he’s flown about 100 hours. Jay is my husband. I think it’s pretty cool being married to a pilot. It means we can wake up on Saturday morning and fly to Hollister for a $100 hamburger. (More on that below.)

I’ve wanted to interview Jay for awhile so I finally took the opportunity (while he was willing to humor me) and asked him a few questions about being a pilot and what it means to him.

In this clip, Jay explains his greatest fear…

I asked the Twitterverse and Facebook what they wanted to know from Jay. Here’s a few of the questions and answers:

Kelsey asks, “Has he ever had to pull down the oxygen masks?”

@jrustigian asks, “Do pilots ever get scared when landing/taking off?”

And here it is, the million dollar question…

“What is with the $100 hamburger?”

I’m working on a photo/audio slideshow which will be posted soon. I’ll add the link when it’s live.

Okinawa is…

staci baird — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:33:04 +0000

I was inspired by the South Park episode we watched last night (I think the episode was called “Planetarium“). So I decided to write some Haiku poems about our trip to Okinawa. Some are better than others. It was more fun that trying to write up a summary of the trip. There is just too much to write about…

Okinawa is
clean and people are polite.
The food is yummy.

Pretty please I need
more steamed buns, beni imo,
creamed puffs, sushi, tea.

Bow your head low, nod,
sorry for the convenience.
Come back again soon.

Light another smoke,
ashtrays in the bathroom stalls,
find vending machine.

Heated seats are nice.
Music and water make noise.
Child seats in the stall.

Sun so red and bright.
Sinking into the ocean.
I stand and watch awed.

Cars are very small,
Packed with people and TVs!
Driving on right side.

Dogs scratching, scratching.
Mopeds are screaming so loud.
Mia wakes early.

Laughing screaming cry,
Happy, smiling bright at night,
Baby Ellerie.

Fancy feet

staci baird — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:31:26 +0000

Today was our last full day in Okinawa. So Mia, Kim and I got Cocok’s toes! Cocok is the name of an “Asian-style salon” in Okinawa. Kim got pink and chocolate with white flowers and tiny gold beads, Mia got Marie cat and I got Maneki Neko 招き猫, which literally means “Beckoning Cat”, but is also known as Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money Cat or Fortune Cat (Wikipedia).

Can you believe the details in this toe art?

More pics of the Cocok’s toes on Flickr.

It’s hard to believe Mia is only three-years old. She acts so grown up… like today, when she got her pedicure. She patiently watched the artist clean her feet, then “read” a fashion magazine while the woman painted Marie on her big toes.

Happy New Year’s from Okinawa!

staci baird — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:11:26 +0000