Before we left the States I down loaded an off-line blogging tool. What this means is that I can type up my blog entries on the computer, and then when we get some internet access on the computer, I can publish them.
The idea is that I can do quick little updates from places like Internet cafe’s and the sort, but then write better longer entries when I have the time, but not the net access….. Like now for example.
Right now we are all pretty burnt out. We are all lying on the beds in the hotel trying not to go to sleep. (Terry is the exception, he’s pretty much punching out the zzz’s).
We left LA around 1pm ‘yesterday’, drove up to LAX, got a little lost finding the rental car return place, got unlost and had a nice little surprise. They now have a service where someone at the rental place drives you and your car to the terminal. You don’t even have to get your luggage out of the car. It works well. We all liked that rather than getting the bus.
United flight check in is broken. Just broken. There are about 30 counters and 3 people, they spend their time running up and down helping each person a little, sometimes they helped one person check in, often not. Anyway, I think if you knew how to use the touch screen and had all your paperwork sorted, it might work, sort of……..The usual security check in was pretty smooth… its all pretty crazing taking your shoes off and such, but hey, it is what it is and I don’t see it changing any time soon.
Once we cleared the security checks, we milled about for a while, I have no idea why they insist that you are there some 2 hours before the flight leaves….. but, they do, so we milled.
We then boarded the plane, a little domestic job, the same sort that went ‘bang’ last time we went on one (doh! one of the down sides of this off-line thing is that I cant look up my old posts and link to them…. Anyway, do a search for the word ‘bang’ and you should find the last trip’s experience).
Anyway, we taxied out and stopped. The pilot then came on and told us that SFO was shut because of weather. So, we waited, and waited and waited. We were sitting on the tarmac for about an hour. Finally a short one hour fight had us land in fog and light rain.
It’s a long walk from the domestic to the international terminals, but it was nice to stretch our legs.
Got there in plenty of time, did not have to do the whole security thing again which is nice.
So we sat around at the terminal for about 2 hours. Terry and I kept busy with him trying to teach me how to do the Rubiks cube, and Amy is teaching herself contact juggling. Freddy was amused watching the show.
The flight over was ok. It was pretty smooth. Not the usual bumps and bangs over the equator….. that came later for about an hour out of Sydney. Anyway, we were packed in pretty tight, not a lot of room to rattle when you are strapped in;
You can see that our knees pretty much touch the seat in front. Anyway, its only 14 hours, its over before you know it.
We touched down at Sydney in the pouring rain, a nice bit of weather, real weather.
We also found out that there is also a snap bus strike. So, no buses, pouring rain and Sydney all add up to be a pretty interesting time.
We got to the motel via taxi, pretty smooth, he knew the back ways and that seemed to save a lot of time.
We sort of unpacked and then food was pretty high on the agenda…… Long ago we made up a list of foods we missed, so there was not a lot of time spent trying to figure what we wanted, it was more a case of where to find it within walking in the rain range of the motel.
(Best to click on it and see it bigger).
It was not cheep, but it was very very yummy.
We are still waiting for the rain to stop so we can walk around some more and find some other places to eat since we are here for a few days while we get our medicals done.
Anyway, as I said at the start, we are all just crashing at the moment…. Its been a really long day.
Sorry that this blog entry is going to be a little out of order, but the photos and extra details should make up for it (I hope)…… I wonder if I can change the ‘published date’ and make it fit in…. hmmmm……..