Saturday morning began with an early wake up and working my way through two long checklists. One checklist was for gear, clothing, and essentials that had to fit into my daypack and hip pack. The second list was about preparing the house and property for being vacant for a week. Once I completed those two lists I helped Ellen in the garden. We got a lot done before our launch time of 3:30 pm. Actually, we were sitting and waiting for 3:30 when we decided to head for the airport at 3:10. We were excited.
It was a horrible drive from Duvall to SeaTac because the traffic was abnormal due to people getting out and enjoying the warm and dry weather. Our GPS took us away from 405 due to an accident and then we ran into an accident on SR 900 that really slowed us down. We kept thinking about the sequence of events if we missed our flight to LA. Once heading south on I-5 to our parking location we were well within our window of making the flight. Security check-in took only a few minutes due to the lack of crowds.
Our flight to LA was quick and easy. Ellen spent most of it looking out her window at our driving route to Joshua Tree this past spring. It was beautiful with the sun turning the hills and mountains a warm color. It was a special golden hour from 35,000'.
Ellen had kept a piece of paper the kiosk gave her at SeaTac and that turned out to be instructions for getting from our United flight to our New Zealand flight in LA International. Those instructions saved us plenty of grief. LAX is huge. It took us about an hour to walk to our next flight's terminal and then we had to catch a bus to the terminal that actually was the location of our flight. The entire time in LAX was surreal.
Once on the plane we prepared for a ten hour flight. We actually stalled at the terminal for about 30 minutes as they waited for the baggage to be loaded from another flight. Then we had an additional 30 minutes of waiting on the tarmac due to an emergency landing on the south runway so all departures were now using the north runway. Once in the air we settled in and made the best of the situation. We watched a movie, had dinner, two glasses of wine, hardly slept (even with 15 milligrams of melatonin and one AdvilPM), had breakfast, watched a second movie and prepared for landing. The 11 hours didn't fly by but they passed. I was physically and mentally exhausted. Once they opened the exit door you could feel the humid heat start to sap the body's energy. Customs at the small airport was slow and uneventful.
John
What a harrowing drive to the airport! Who'd have thought Saturday afternoon traffic would be so bad. Between the accident on 405 and the one on SR 900 where the GPS rerouted us to, I thought we would miss our flight. Mostly I was just a paranoid, though, because we got to the airport about 15 minutes after I'd planned. The line for security was about five people, and we got routed into the special line where you don't even have to take off your shoes. To make things even better, our gate was pretty much right there just a short walk after security.
Our flight to LAX was one of my favorite flights ever. We boarded a Canadair Regional Jet 700 (small plane), so we flew lower than usual. That meant we were able to take in the sites, which we pretty much did the entire two hours. Mount Rainier was spectacular as were the Sierras.
LAX was a tremendous airport. We walked for nearly an hour to get to the international terminal and went through a small shopping mall complete with live entertainment. It was actually visually attractive. Our terminal was a bit basement-like and then we took a bus to board the plane.
Due to a luggage delay and an emergency landing, we sat for an hour or so on the tarmac. The plane was HUGE. I've never been on such a plane. It seats over 300 people. There was lots of head room and the economy seats weren't bad. We got to watch two movies, and dinner, wine and breakfast were free. Before taking melatonin and progesterone, we watched Hidden Figures the movie about the black female mathematicians who helped NASA get to the moon. I liked it. The second movie, which we watched after about five hours of rough sleep, was Lion. I loved it. Shortly after, we ate the fruit portion of a breakfast (nothing else was vegan) and before we knew it, we were landing. It was my first nine-hour flight and my first international flight. I did great! (I am kind of afraid of flying.)
Ellen
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