heather's amazing stuff

Wondering why we're 3 days into our trip and I'm talking about leaving LAX? Weeeeelllll, the first room we were given didn't have a hot port so they had to move us to another room. That was quite alright though because the ritz this is not and at least this new room has a better view and is a bit cleaner. However, that caused us to not be able to keep up with our blogging. I am also capturing everything in a travel journal I bought on amazon.com.

We took Van Nuys Fly Away to LAX and our first hiccup was when the shuttle driver took us to the wrong terminal for Qantas. Apparently we looked like we were travelling first class, but sadly, no. We stood in line to get our checked bags x-rayed and then we headed to the counter to check in. We found out we're in the wrong place and went two buildings over. We check in and find out that Rob's ETA wasn't processed but mine was. The woman processed it and we were off.

At our gate for the flight, we're stopped by a woman taking surveys for Tourism Australia. “Are you US Passport holders?” First Rob says no and then when I tell him what she said, we turn around and go back to say yes...big mistake. She wanted us to take a survey...but I figured since I entered a contest to get here, what is doing a survey going to hurt (much to Rob's chagrin)? That took about 25 minutes and then we went to get something to eat at Burger King (soon to find out that in Australia it's called "Hungry Jack").



We boarded our plane and we were off! The flight was not too bad, they had plenty of entertainment and the cabin crew was very nice. Rob was a little cramped, seeing as to how he is used to business class, but we got a whole row to ourselves since it wasn't a full flight. Being short, I was able to curl up between 2 seats and get some rest. When I woke up, I watched the movie "Sideways", played some checkers (Rob won), asteroids, caveman and a few other games that they provide.

We finally landed (14 hrs. later) and headed to customs where we had to claim our granola bars and keebler cheese and crackers. We weren't sure since it said to claim all food. It ended up being nothing...they waived us through. BUT to get there...Rob lost his customs card after the guy processed him through and we had to get another one for him. We didn't find the original card till we unhooked my suitcases to get to the train. Oopss.

posted by heather  # 8:04 AM