That was last week. It popped in and then just a few hours later it took off again. I managed to snap a pix of it with my cell phone. It was parked just a few hundred feet from our office. I drove up to the plane and snapped the pix immediately and just 2 seconds after I clicked the pix, the airport security guard drove up and waved his finger at me– no pictures! I put the pedal to the metal and drove off. Here’s the pix:
That was late last week. Then I had to work the weekend. I kept reminding myself to remember to bring my real camera. And naturally I kept forgetting. So as it got closer to the day that Michelle Obama was to arrive, I had to make absolutely sure to pack my fancy camera in my backpack Tuesday night so that on a groggy Wednesday morning, I wouldn’t forget it. But first I had to re-charge the battery to make sure my camera wouldn’t poop out.
Wednesday morning I was all ready to go. Now all I needed was for the plane to park just meters from our office. That’s where Air Force One parked last time it was here when George Bush was in town. (see my Up Up and Away blog) I kept waiting for Michelle Obama’s flight to arrive. How was she even getting here, I was wondering. I waited and waited and waited and there was no sign of her. At 11ish I had to go pick up and deliver some packages. One of the packages was this.
It was the cutest dog I ever saw. And I have never seen a box like this where you could open the top and put your hand inside. This hole was just barely big enough for my hand to fit inside of it – that’s how small this dog was. It was so cute I ended up talking baby talk to it the entire way from airplane to cargo hall. I named it Fuufii.
On the way back from Gate B7, Fuufii and I noticed that Delta Airlines was pulling into gate C28. Delta arrives from DC and I thought – No, Michelle is not on a standard Delta flight – is she? Huh? Noooooooo. OK she wont be in Air Force One because Barack will be on it on Friday when he comes to the IOC meeting. Could it be that Michelle will be on AF1, dropped off and then AF1 will fly back to DC to pick up the prez? I just couldn’t believe that she would be on Delta. I didn’t know for sure and it didn’t matter now cuz Fuufii and I were getting hungry so back to the Cargo hall we went.
It was now 11:30 and time for lunch so back into the car and off to the canteen. On the way to the canteen I kept an eye out for AF1 or another big ugly Hercules flight. I’m ready to click and my finger is just itch’en to snap a photo but Michelle is nowhere to be seen. I get to the canteen and spoon up some all-you-can-eat slop. I decided to go up to the roof top patio and eat there.
Depending on the wind, you can sometimes see the flights land if you look to the right. You can see out over Oresound and over to Sweden if you look straight ahead. If you look to the left you look out over city streets, the motor way, the metro station, gas station, stupidmarket and McDonald’s as you look towards the city.Click the photo to see the larger size. In the background you can see the bridge over the sound to Sweden. Our house is exactly half way between the church tower and the bridge. At the end of the bridge is the airport.
It was windy and I decided to sit on the side that had the least wind and also so that I could hopefully see Michelle land and snap a pix. Turns out I couldn’t see any flights at all. As I’m chowing down my lunch I hear yet another police siren. All week long there have been soooooo many sirens screaming this way and that. As I’m eating I’m thinking: oh great, just what the airport needs – another stupid siren. I pay no never mind and continue eating the regretful canteen food. But the siren keeps shirking so I do my best ET impersonation and rubber neck my attention towards the city. It’s only one siren so I know it’s not the first lady. But what do I see? All traffic is stopped. Well this can mean only one thing. So I stand up to get a better look and there goes several motorcycle cops and then a few black cars. Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god!!!!! I say to myself in an absolute panic. I’m up on the roof top eating lunch and there’s Michelle Obama driving by at almost arms length away from me. I grab my camera and frantically fumble with it trying to get the damn camera case open in a hurry before the motorcade zooms by. Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry up dod gammit!!! I’m pressing and I’m pressing and I’m pressing, pressing, pressing, pressing. Damn, son-of-a-bit………. What the hell is wrong with this camera!!!!!!!!!. And there goes Michelle….. without a single click from my 10.1 mega pixel Casio, zoom-lens camera. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
Just writing this makes me want to cry. I was so close, I could almost reach out and touch her afro sheen hair. I grab my tray and pout all the way back down stairs with only a half eaten meal. I drive back to the cargo hall hoping that Fuufii will comfort me in my time of pain.
Michelle Obama arrived in this private presidential plane and it was parked in the middle of the airport. It would have taken a very special camera to get a good shot.Little by little planes and cars of presidents, kings and queens, emperors and IOC delegates arrive over the next 2 days and I am trying to out run airport security to cell-phone-snap a picture of something that will hopefully sort of show up on this blog.
This plane belongs to IOC member Prince Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar.
I thought this plane belonged to someone special but it's just a charter plane. I had to snap it when I could and therefore I could not get the front half which is white. It was a pretty plane.
The following night there was a special performance for the IOC guest and honorary guest at the new opera house. Here you can see Michelle and Oprah.Click here to see Michelle arrive to the opera house.
In the upper right hand corner you can click away the commercial film by clicking on the "AnnonceX" button.
Opera has this to say about Denmark and the weather.
OK - so any pictures of Air Force One landing is going to be out of the question unless I do it with my super old, falling apart cell phone. And so I did from Gate C42. Here under the control tower you can see AF1 landing.
as long as it's on-line, you can click here to see AF1 landing at CPH airport.
This is as close as AF1 gets to C finger. It does come a bit closer to A finger but with my cheap-o camera, why bother?
I don't know how long these clips will be on-line but click here to see a brief chat between President Obama and Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen.
Here, the Obama's meet the Danish royal family.
Today, the Obama's meet the royal family. They also make their brief appearance and strong push, doing their best to sell Chicago as the next hot spot to host the Olympics in 2016. But Chicago was surprisingly eliminated in the first preliminary round.
Michelle was here for just 2½ days and Barack for just 5 hours.
The Obama's say good-bye.
On this plane King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia arrive from Spain. They lost their bid for hosting the games in Madrid- for the 3rd consecutive time.
On this plane, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama of Japan made his plea for Tokyo. With tons of money in the bank and just about everything already built - infrastructure and stadiums/sports centers - Japan freaked when they were dropped in the second round of voting.Why so many people were surprised as to who was elected to host the games in 2016 was not at all a surprise to me as this was the chance to bring the games to a part of the world that has never experienced the Olympic movement and what the Olympic experience is all about.
Cry baby President Lula da Silva of Brasil was a mess when IOC president, Jacques Rogge flashed the card that read Rio de Janerio. He arrived on this plane.Congratulations Rio!
