Let's Book Your Cruise Blog

Make a shandy! (That is, head to a brewery)

* H/t to my roommate and travel buddy Emily for the excellent post title

It should have been so easy. I was flying to Seattle to meet my brother for our Alaska cruise. His flight was direct, mine connected in Austin. (I like to fly out of my way for extra miles, don’t judge.) We were supposed to land in SEA at nearly the same time. Until…

Just before I left for my first flight, I got a text alert that my connecting flight had been delayed. Okay, delays happen. How bad could it be?

My flight that was originally scheduled for 10:25 am was now scheduled to depart at 6:00 pm. You read that right. That’s a SEVEN AND A HALF HOUR flight delay.

When I landed in Austin, I stopped first at a Delta counter to make sure they didn’t try to book me on other flights. I knew there wasn’t another direct flight, and I didn’t want to get stuck in another connecting city. Then, I did the thing I always do when I have some time to kill:

I opened Google Maps and searched for “breweries.”

As it turns out, Austin has a lot of them! I settled on Lazarus Brewing Company, a brewery/restaurant/coffee shop about 15 minutes from the airport. I took a short Lyft ride to the brewery and passed a few pleasant hours (including writing this blog post) before heading back to the airport.

Leaving the airport did make me a wee bit nervous, but I checked the Delta app frequently to make sure that my flight time hadn’t been changed. I headed back to the airport around three hours before my expected flight time to allow for plenty of time in case the airline made last-minute changes to the boarding and departure time.