Europe Adventures - Day 1

On June 2nd, Delta Airlines started Salt Lake City's first ever non-stop service to Europe with a daily flight to Paris. I intentionally booked this flight because I figured there might be some cool stuff going on - and I proved right!

The gate area was decorated with a large archway of balloons.



There was tons of French food being served up by local French restaurant The Paris



There was also an accordion player jamming away at what I can only assume were traditional French tunes. I don't know much French music outside of the classical masters or the band Air.

Later, several dignitaries started showing up, including Salt Lake City mayor Ralph Becker, Salt Lake County mayor Peter Corroon, and Gov. Jon Huntsman.

The Guv. doing the traditional ribbon cutting:



And then jamming with the accordion player:



As we boarded, we were given a tacky tacky tote-bag. Each bag contained a t-shirt with the same image and a little pin I could wear if I wanted.



The first line ("A MONUMENTAL, TRIUMPHAL, AND DELICATE EVENT") makes me laugh - I'm not entirely sure those are the adjectives I would use to describe this, but whatever.

We departed right on time with a full police escort and media trucks following the plane all the way to the runway. On the way to the runway, we paused for a water canon salute, which is when several firetrucks spray water in arches onto the plane. It's really neat to see from outside, but from the inside it's just like going through a car wash. Still, the hosing off was greeted with loud applause from throughout the plane.