Kelly's World

After having spent the previous two days packing (yes, I procrastinated quite a bit during this time) when I woke at 5am in the morning it felt quite surreal knowing we were going on an international holiday. I’ve dreamt about it for a long time, but when the day arrived it just didn’t feel right. I kept wondering when I was going to wake up and discover there was still 6 months to go.

We got up, showered and double checked our bags for the 50th time. Dad arrived right on time at 6am to pick us up, as he was kindly driving us to the airport (saving us about $50 in shuttle costs in the process). We had dropped Turbo off at the dog kennel the day before, so the house felt very empty. After double and triple checking the house was locked up, we packed the bags in the car and we were off! For a few minutes at least. Thankfully we hadn’t driven very far when Mat realised he’d left his (only) jacket back at home, so we turned around so he could collect it. We all teased him about being the one to forget something, then headed off again (I later discovered on the plane that I had forgotten the pashmina my mother had given me, but purposely neglected to tell Mat this for several days).

My dad's flatmate, my dad and Mat - just before we left for the airport

An hour and a half later we arrived at the airport, and bid my dad and his flatmate farewell, before walking inside. We thought check in only opened 3 hours before the flight, and we were there 3.5 hours early but thankfully it was already open. We checked our bags in (flashing my passport for the first time – big moment for me), and looked for something to eat for breakfast. Mat saw a coffee club downstairs, so we decided we’d get customs over and done with and find something to eat in the departure lounge. This meant finally crossing the line – getting to go through the big yellow “Passengers only” door frame. Mat didn’t see what was so exciting about it, but after I’d dropped off members of my family numerous times for their holidays it was fantastic to finally be the one crossing the line. I was a little disappointed there wasn’t anyone to see us off (and more importantly, be the one that wasn’t crossing the line) but excitement soon took over again.

Customs was actually a lot easier than I expected. The staff were friendly, and it only took us 5 minutes to get through. In my excitement I didn’t realise “liquids” included toiletries, and that we had to take them out and send them through the x-rays by themselves. Thus our bags were taken aside and searched, and when the customs officer realised what had look abnormal in the scan she took out the toiletries (which we’d correctly put in a see-through zip locked bag) and sent them through again separately from the bag. She laughed and said she could tell we were novices, and cheerfully wished us a fantastic holiday. Not the “hardcore serious” customs officer I’d expected to encounter.

We had our breakfast, collected our refund for our video camera, tripod, camera bag and batteries from the TRS desk, then wandered around to look at all the duty free stores. We were going to be meeting some friends in Las Vegas who had moved to the UK for a 2 years, and they’d asked us to pick up some Silver label Bundaberg Rum for them to bring over (as they hadn’t been able to find anywhere to buy it over there). We purchased the rum along with a beaded neck pillow for the flight (recommendation from our chiro). Amazingly we’d managed to waste a lot of time, and was shocked to find there was only 1/2 hour before boarding time, so we walked to the gate and sat down. We spent the last half hour video taping ourselves and staring out the window. Eventually, it was time to board.

I won’t go through the specifics of our thirteen hour flight because it would get pretty boring. But here’s my main thoughts:

1. Thumbs up V-Australia for comfy seats – I didn’t feel squashed at all
2. Thumbs up V-Australia for a great entertainment system – when I was bored I watched movies, played some games, or video taped our progress on the map.
3. Thumbs up V-Australia for the food (sensing a thumbs up theme here?) I really enjoyed what we had, only complaint would be the waffles were a little bit dry, but it’s airplane food, not a 5 star restaurant. Mat taunted me with his delicious spinach fritata, it tasted so good.
4. Mat really struggled to get any sleep on this flight. However I managed to nap a little bit here and there, thanks to my noise cancelling headphones and the V-Australia eye mask.
5. We were lucky enough not to have anyone sitting in the third seat in our row, so were able to stretch out a bit.
6. When they handed out the customs form there were a few questions that made me nervous, like the date of our Visa Waiver. When I applied it said we weren’t required to bring it to the airport with us, and I wasn’t sure of the exact date we’d applied (I later found out they didn’t need this info from us anyway, so I’d been stressing out for nothing).
7. Flying from Australia to America takes AGES!!

As we were coming down to land it was like being in a movie. We could make out the freeways and cars, and giggled about them being on the wrong side of the road. We saw a black and white police car, and laughed because it was like out of the movies. We saw american vehicles, and laughed. Yes, we had the giggles out of excitement.

After we disembarked and collected our luggage we headed through customs. I kept reminding myself not to make any bad jokes,  and after getting our fingerprints scanned we made it through. We walked outside the terminal where a man immediately introduced himself to us and offered to help us find our destination. We told him we were looking for the entrance back to the Terminal so we could check in for our next flight, and he pointed out the way for us. The official way in which he spoke made me think he was an actual employee of the airport so I was quite impressed with the service, until I realised that he actually wasn’t a staff member. This was around the same time he asked for a tip for helping us out. Before I knew it Mat had given him US$20 (!!!) and we were off walking again. At that point I told Mat he was officially banned from handing out any more money to people on the street.

A nice view of LAX airport, better than what we saw when we arrived (Photo credit: marcus_and_sue)

We got to the elevators the guy had pointed us to and found it was just more carpark. We realised there was another elevator at the far end of the carpark, so walked over there. I wouldn’t be surprised if the parking area was a highlight of the day for Mat, as he found 4wd after 4wd. Each time he tried to inconspicuously look them over and drool, while I kept walking on. He really enjoyed the trucks that he saw all over America, given they have much more relaxed rules on what is a roadworthy vehicle. His “monster truck” back home (that he’d sold to help fund our holiday – amongst other reasons) would have been a baby in America! Finally we reached the other elevator, got to the right level and headed back into the airport.

We checked our baggage in, and headed outside to just have a look before going back into the airport and through security. The weather was quite overcast, and security were looking at us a little funny for filming the outside of the airport and some cars, so we packed up and went back inside. We went through security (one of the many times during our holiday we’d have to take our shoes off for security purposes, and Mat’s socks stunk!!) and walked towards our gate. I must say, I really found LAX to be quite a disappointment. Terminal 3 was old and tired looking and there wasn’t much to do. After coming from Brisbane International where everything is nice and new it was a bit of a letdown. We bought some coffee and snacks (confusing the starbucks people at the time with our accents) and sat down to wait for our connecting flight to San Francisco.

It turned out there was runway maintenance work going on in San Francisco, thus our flight was delayed by 2 hours. In total, we waited for 6 hours at LAX, it was a nightmare! We were bored and tired, so not in the best spirit to deal with a flight delay. Back home I would have been able to spend the time surfing the net on my iphone, but not having a working sim card meant I couldn’t do the same. Until I realised that T Mobile had a wifi hotspot, but it cost US $10 for 24 hour access. After an hour of boredom I caved in and bought a 24 hour access pass for only 5 hours. I spent the time updating twitter and facebook (with very cranky messages about the flight delay) and clearing my google reader while Mat attempted to nap on the chair next to me. It wasn’t very comfortable for him – he was sitting totally upright with nowhere to rest his head comfortably. Needless to say, he didn’t catch much sleep.

Finally we flew to San Francisco. We chatted a little bit with the American woman in the same row as us (she lived just outside of the city), but other than that the flight was pretty uneventful. Thankfully it was short! After we arrived we collected our luggage we set out to find the BART train. We did a couple of loops of the airport due to bad signage, but finally I figured out where we were going just in time to get our tickets and get on the train in the station. Once on the train we watched the passing scenery get more and more compact with residential property the further we headed towards the city. We weren’t used to seeing so many houses packed together (even in Brisbane), and it gave me the feeling of being a hillbilly! Very strange indeed. Originally when planning the trip I wasn’t sure if we would catch the train, get a shuttle bus or take a taxi. In the end I was glad we used the train – it was great value for money, just as fast as the other options and so incredibly simple!

Before we knew it we had arrived at our stop. We got off the train and headed upstairs. We saw all the signs for the various exits but unfortunately none of them pointed to the street we wanted to go to. As we were deciding which exit we’d gamble on we were approached by a passer by (he looked quite normal) who quickly pointed us in the right direction. He made conversation about the city, and even walked us out to the street. He asked what hotel we were staying at, then took out a map and pointed it out to us. Handing me the map and telling me I could keep it, he then asked for a tip. I cursed myself for not realising it was the same as the guy at LAX, and that I hadn’t seen the handful of maps he was holding in his other hand. Mat was switched on at this point, quickly handed the guy a dollar, and we walked off. Surprisingly, the guy was actually pleased with receiving a dollar. I have no idea how much these guys normally get, but we used the map several times over the course of our San Francisco leg, so I guess for us $1 was good value.

Arriving at the hotel I was impressed to see the doormen out the front in their costume-like atire. They greeted us warmly, and after we assured them we would be fine carrying our luggage to the reception ourselves (call me a tight ass for not accepting the service and tipping them) they returned to their post. I was very impressed with the interior of the hotel, it was incredibly beautiful. We checked in, and I inquired as to whether my aunt had arrived at the hotel. They were unable to locate her name in the computer, however informed me that I had mail (which later turned out to be a message from my Aunt letting me know what room she was in) and handed me an envelope. Thanking her, we then went upstairs to our room.

The doorman at Sir Francis Drake Hotel (photo credit: izahorsky)

Initially I was shocked by the size of the room – it appeared to be so very small. At the end of our stay though it felt like the perfect size. We’d really only spent enough time there for short breaks and rests, and sleep at night. The main thing was the bed was comfortable and very big (a king sized bed was probably the reason for the room feeling small), so we were well rested each day. I opened the envelope to find the message from my aunt, and phoned her to let her know we’d arrived. We agreed to meet in an hour downstairs. We had enough time to both have showers before my aunt rang again to let me know the rest of the family had arrived (as they were driving south to San Francisco to meet us – they’d already been in the USA for 3 weeks at that point). We all met downstairs and exchanged hugs, then ventured out for dinner.

We wandered around nearby, watching a cable car run down the street and turn around as well as seeing a Melbourne Tram go past (they’d been donated to the city by Australia). We ended up at a place called Buckhorn Grill, where we had our first proper taste of American food. Typically we went for the most outrageous things. I know I got a Bacon Cheddar Buck, but unfortunately forget what Mat’s “buck” was called. When our food arrived we were pretty shocked – they looked massive and greasy! I guess that was the best introduction of American food we could have had really – we’d been expecting huge and greasy food so may as well deal with it straight up. We managed our way through them, but I can’t say we were exactly satisfied. We sure were full though!

Darkness had settled by the time we walked back to the hotel, and the city looked quite pretty at night. Some of the buildings were lit up beautifully! I was impressed that Mat and I had lasted the full day without sleeping, and I think it worked out to be a full 24 hours that we had been awake for. I’d had the odd nap on the plane at least, while Mat had literally had nothing. We finalised a plan for the following morning with the family, then bid everyone good night and headed to our room. The bed looked incredibly inviting, and  we both fell asleep with ease, incredibly exhausted. It had been a long, long day.

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