Australia 2011: Day 1 (and a half)

Our flight was slightly delayed getting out of Orlando due to afternoon thunder storms, which delayed the catering trucks. Since our layover in LA was only an hour and a half and we were more than an hour late taking off, we were a little bit nervous.

As it turned out we had no difficulties at all. Our flight landed in LA by 10:00pm in the same terminal we were taking off from at 11:00pm. We boarded an enormous Bowing 777LD and prepared for our long night... in First Class! The seats were amazing. Everyone had their own little pod. The seat flattened out creating a bed, and a nifty safety belt with one padded end (and a push release) meant that you could comfortably roll over without feeling stuck.

By this time we had already been at the airport/in flight for 8 hours so we were kind of tired. But Delta served up a very tasty dinner (or in our case, second dinner). Dad and I both had the short ribs, which were actually quite good.

Immediately after they cleared the last plate, I put on the nice noise canceling headphones they provided, donned my sleep mask, and flattened the turned the seat into a bed.

I actually managed to conk out for about seven hours. When I awoke it was in time for our midnight snack (or something, who really knew what time it was anyway...). I read a little, and did a few sudokus, before napping for another hour or so.

The sun had just started to rise by the time we approached Sydney. Our 4am breakfast pancakes were pretty good, and after all the sleep I felt marginally ready to great the day. Delta gave us what where essentially “fast passes” through immigration and customs (which we were able to skip entirely). The air was crisp and cool, at about 55 F. Wonderful after a hot Florida summer.  A nice driver met us at the airport and shuttled us off to the Four Seasons.