On gratitude, widebodies, and my new buddy Archie

Airport: OAK
Location: San Leandro Marina
Time: 0830-0930
Registrations collected: 15
For a total of: 272
Airlines: 6

A beautiful morning! I went to OAK to see the Hawaiian 763 that leaves every morning at 8:40, but ended up staying for quite some time and watching a number of the morning rush jets move in and out. I broke my Oakland records (15 registrations and 6 airlines), saw another wide body on 29, and added Hawaiian to my growing list of airlines spotted. Not bad. Oh, and I also met a new "friend," Archie. Archie parked his motorcycle a few spots down from my car (never mind the fact that there were hundreds of empty spots in the lot) and immediately struck up a conversation, asking about my car, giving the details of his motorcycle engine, asking me what a 737 was - and then it started getting weird...

"Sophia what's the name of that propeller plane, the kind that takes you from places like Cheyenne to places like Oklahoma City?" "It was Southwest, I'm positive." "You don't know?"

"Sophia do you smoke pot or drink or anything?" "Nothing?" "Not even a little?"

"You know, Sophia, when I got picked up in San Jose last year, the jail's exercise yard was on the 8th floor roof and we could watch all the planes at the airport down there." "You ever been down there Sophia?" "Oh I bet you'd'a liked that roof."

Aside from Archie, I had a very peaceful morning. I still don't understand what it is, but everything just feels right with the world when I'm at the airport. All the chaos and unmanageability fades to the back and I suddenly love my life more than I ever thought possible.

Beauties

For the past few days I've been leaving school - which is high in the hills over OAK - at around 7:30 and noticing a FedEx departure while walking to my car. This evening I decided to head down there and see it for myself.

I settled in at the marina, re-parked my car a few times to get the angle just right, and zipped up my hoodie. It was very windy - ATIS reported 21 knots but it felt stronger than that - and surprisingly cold. After a few Southwest 737 arrivals, I looked left and saw something BIG on approach. A UPS MD-11! It kicked up lots of smoke on touchdown and was absolutely gorgeous. And then, right as planned, 2 FedEx MD-10s peeked out from behind the hangars and headed out for departure; they rumbled down the runway at 7:25 and 7:27. Immediately after that was a UPS 767 departure. Considering I've seen at least a few hundred aircraft fly in and out of OAK, none of which have been bigger than a 737 or A320, this was a great treat. These are the aircraft that make me want to use the words "giant" and "bird" and "beauty" like I read in all the forums, but I won't because that all kind of disgusts me. Nothing like that type of jet noise, though.

I also collected 7 registrations (my OAK record is 9), which obviously takes a backseat to the 4 wide-bodies. When it's less windy and a bit warmer, I'm going back.