Day 362- You only live twice
Auckland- LAX- Saturday, December 22
It was to be the day we would get to live twice. We sat in the garden of our hotel room reading and taking advantage of the late check out. Taking the shuttle back to Auckland Airport, we began the long, arduous task of flying back to North America on the Qantas QF25 Auckland to LA run, a 12 hour flight.
Of course, it was late departing, but we bumped into Annika Pint, one of our exchange friends from Toronto who had already been on the go since early morning Melbourne time as she was doing the flight home in one go- Melbourne, Auckland, LA, Toronto. After departing, we were served a lovely, if not repetitive dinner (fly a little bit and you start to feel like the meals are the same).
Later, as darkness fell, Annika came to visit us in the back. In fact, we were lucky enough to get the second to last row of the 747's middle section. The movie selections, once working, were varied and we all chose something to entertain us. Dinner done, movie watched, snacks served, lights lowered and we still had 8 hours to go. Thankfully, most of us were able to sleep on the plane, and I was surprised to discover, when I awoke, that we had under 3 hours to go.
Since we had crossed the dateline, we had to move our watches back 21 hours (or 3 forward, if you wish), keeping in mind that it was Saturday all over again. Arriving at LAX around 11 a.m. in sunny and +13 ℃ skies, we collected our things and hailed a van taxi to our Manhatten Beach Hotel, just a few kilometres away.
We all planned to get over jetlag as soon a spossible, so Colleen and I went for a walk, but got no further than the Manhatten Village shopping mall, only 400 metres down the street. Of course, there was an Apple store there (do you think I would have planned it otherwise?)
Off to bed and a wonderful sleep, except that I was wide awake at 1 a.m. We all slept in and found the getting going to be difficult, but the day was calling. Should we do the Beach or the Crystal Cathedral? My sister emailed to encourage the Crystal Cathedral. The boys' sleep needs, and our jetlag was going to determine the day.
It was to be the day we would get to live twice. We sat in the garden of our hotel room reading and taking advantage of the late check out. Taking the shuttle back to Auckland Airport, we began the long, arduous task of flying back to North America on the Qantas QF25 Auckland to LA run, a 12 hour flight.
Of course, it was late departing, but we bumped into Annika Pint, one of our exchange friends from Toronto who had already been on the go since early morning Melbourne time as she was doing the flight home in one go- Melbourne, Auckland, LA, Toronto. After departing, we were served a lovely, if not repetitive dinner (fly a little bit and you start to feel like the meals are the same).
Later, as darkness fell, Annika came to visit us in the back. In fact, we were lucky enough to get the second to last row of the 747's middle section. The movie selections, once working, were varied and we all chose something to entertain us. Dinner done, movie watched, snacks served, lights lowered and we still had 8 hours to go. Thankfully, most of us were able to sleep on the plane, and I was surprised to discover, when I awoke, that we had under 3 hours to go.
Since we had crossed the dateline, we had to move our watches back 21 hours (or 3 forward, if you wish), keeping in mind that it was Saturday all over again. Arriving at LAX around 11 a.m. in sunny and +13 ℃ skies, we collected our things and hailed a van taxi to our Manhatten Beach Hotel, just a few kilometres away.
We all planned to get over jetlag as soon a spossible, so Colleen and I went for a walk, but got no further than the Manhatten Village shopping mall, only 400 metres down the street. Of course, there was an Apple store there (do you think I would have planned it otherwise?)
Off to bed and a wonderful sleep, except that I was wide awake at 1 a.m. We all slept in and found the getting going to be difficult, but the day was calling. Should we do the Beach or the Crystal Cathedral? My sister emailed to encourage the Crystal Cathedral. The boys' sleep needs, and our jetlag was going to determine the day.
posted by Rod Murray | 5:01 a.m.
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