Delta said we needed to get to the airport three hours in advance of our international flight. Murphey’s law dictated that we made it through check-in and security in record time (maybe 15 minutes).
But, the good news is that Australians apparently like to shop while they wait for their planes (or maybe when they get off the plane and buy stuff duty free...). I had $25 Australian dollars to spend and I managed to use it all up on a couple of stylish coffee mugs for Evanston.
We got to chill in the Air New Zealand crown room after that. It was so nice! They had a hot breakfast buffet set up AND (more importantly) free wifi that was faster than anything we’d paid for on the trip.
I was feeling a bit peckish so even though we’re probably going to be fed at least 6 times in the next 24 hours I had some toast and a piece of kiwi-fruit (because it just doesn’t taste the same in the states).
We were on exactly the same kind of plane going out of Australia that we were coming in, so the seats were definitely fantastic. And because we were flying through what I considered day-time I was awake to use more of the media features.
In fact, I used most of the trip catching up on all the media events I’d missed out on in the last couple of years. I watched a couple of movies, LOTS of movie trailers, some music videos, and listened to several Delta radio stations, learning that Kristin Chenoweth has a new album called Some Lessons Learned that is fantastic!
The selection of movies on the flight was huge! There must have been more than 100 to choose from. They had a little bit of everything too... Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Ice Age (1, 2, and 3), Tangled, Inception, Citizen Kane, Harry Potter 1-7a, the LOTR trilogy, Sideways, (500) Days of Summer...
I watched two full length movies, Ice Age and an old classic I’d missed out on, Tootsie. Both were hilarious. Of the movie trailers I watched the list of movies I thought looked interesting and I’d like to see included Never Let Me Go, Just Go With It, Black Swan, and Barney’s Version (note to the reader: I have not checked these out on Rotten Tomatoes yet, so if there are any duds in there I’m not responsible).
Unfortunately, because the flight was mostly during my daytime I wasn’t able to sleep much. On the way over I got almost 8 hours. This time I might have dozed through two play-throughs of a Pink! best of album. I love the noise-canceling headphones they give you though... man, do they make the flight quiet.
Also, the oddity flying this direction is that you get two Wednesdays. We left Sydney at 10:30am Wednesday morning and arrived in Los Angeles seemingly before we left at 7:00am Wednesday morning. This is a fun peculiarity, but doesn’t weird me out nearly as much as not existing for a day going the other direction.
At any rate, we arrived in LA and got our bags/cleared customs really fast. We recheck the bags with a sigh of relief and headed to the Delta Crown Room to wait for our next and final flight to Orlando. I think Dad would have gone to the El Cholo’s in the airport (even at 8am) for nachos but he decided that they probably wouldn’t be as good as the real thing, and he’ll just have to look forward to them in November. (Nachos are traditional Thanksgiving food, right?)
This crown room was not as nice, but they did have some breakfast foods out. Also, I know this is a really random thing to notice (and definitely to photograph) but they had a really nicely decorated bathroom... (jet-lag is my only defense here).
Finally, we got on our domestic flight. The seats were definitely a step down. They fed us a burger and I managed to snooze for another hour and a half or so. Oh, I should also mention that even with all the movies/music/etc I read an entire Kindle book on these flights as well. It was Forever Neverland, an interesting twist on grown-up (gasp!) Peter Pan.
Mom met us outside security at the airport and it was sure nice to see her! We got our bags in about 25 minutes (lightning speed for MCO). Mom drove home, since Dad was jet-lagged and I couldn’t remember what side of the road you were supposed to be on (seriously, I kept walking down the wrong-side of the hallway and going to the wrong side of the escalators).
By the time we got home at 7pm I was kind of on a second wind and managed to unpack, chat with mom, and putter until about 9:15. Then I went upstair, took the best shower of my life, and went to bed.
I’m writing this now at 6:45am the next morning. Jet-lag being the bitch it is, I woke up at 5:00am, managed to doze until 6:00, then finally gave up.
All in all, this has been a really great trip. I feel rested, relaxed, rejuvenated, and enlightened. What more could you ask for?
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