Welcome home!

12-14 August 2008 (yes - time travel is possible if you are crossing the date line)

Packing and repacking to get everything right. I've become awesome at squishing suitcases down so you can do the zip up, it's almost an art form.

I discovered there was a lighter in one of the small pockets of a suitcase that I’d taken as carry on luggage when I flew to Las Vegas! They didn't mention anything when it went through on the scan. Maybe it was empty? It was a bit of a shock to find, but at least I didn't get accused of trying to blow up the plane earlier.

I'd foolishly insisted on wanting to try Taco Bell while I was in the US, so we stopped there for breakfast or lunch or something, on the way to the airport. I had a couple of soft tacos , and these weird, crispy, twisty, cinnamon things. They were made out of stuff a bit like Munchos, shaped a bit like twisty licorice with an x cross-section, about the size of my finger. Instead of being flavoured with spicy tomato, or cheese and onion powder, they were covered in cinnamon and sugar. It was a little strange, so I just had a couple to try and then didn't eat too many more.

After all the stories my friend had told me about how Taco Bell tasted good, but left you with a bad feeling afterwards, it was kind of amusing when both of us weren't Both Michelle and I felt unwell about 5/6 hours later. Nothing too bad, but both at the same time!

Our internal flight from Las Vegas to San Francisco was pretty bad. There was no snack offered at all, not even a boiled sweet, and even a cup of tea or coffee was $1. I think we flew with United Airlines. Fortunately it was only for an hour or so.

In San Francisco we had pizza for dinner, it was very good. We got chips and drinks as well and ended up being absolutely stuffed. Then we found our gate, and spent some time looking around in the shops nearby while waiting for the plane to start boarding.

I lost sight of my friend, so continued looking around for a bit and then went back outside the shop and sat down to watch for her to come back out. I eventually realised that some of the shops were joined, so then I had no idea where my friend was. I looked over the edge, down to out boarding gate but couldn't see her so I decided to go and sit down there anyway. She would be able to see me from the handrail and it was the most logical place to meet. I started reading and wasn't sitting there too long before she came and found me.

After the usual hanging around, we boarded the plane. My travel agent did a great job of getting us good seats. We were sitting in the left-hand section of the plane, in the centre by the wings. We were sitting in the second row back, so the row in front of us only had 2 people. It made it much easier to get out and go to the toilet, because the row was only 3 people wide so I could get past the person next to me without them having to get up too. Unfortunately I was a bad friend-passenger on this flight and kept forgetting to let my friend know when I got up to go to the bathroom. She was watching movies and didn't notice when left so missed the convenient time to also go.

One thing that was a little disappointing was the food. I was looking forward to having some NZ style food on the way home, but of course the plane had stocked at the American airport. I was a little bit sad not being able to have NZ coca-cola, but it was still ok. The lady who was sitting next to me got a gin and tonic when the flight attendant came around. One of those little plastic cups was put on her tray, and then filled about two-thirds with gin. Then she was given a small can of tonic water. She had a looong sleep later hehehe.

I managed to get a couple of hours sleep on the flight, which really helped the rest of the time. Watched TV episodes and movies the rest of the time, as per usual.

I've no idea if it's actually quieter if you aren't sitting right behind the engines, but I have found that wearing earplugs the whole time I'm in the plane is much better. Even when I'm watching the movies, I can hear them more clearly with the earplugs in. I've also noticed that I miss a lot of the quiet stuff like that - I first watched Whale Rider on this plane trip back. When I watched it at home over Christmas, there was all this whale song when she was underwater swimming with the whales. Who knew?

Yes, two days of travelling means a post twice as long!

I made the most of the time difference by having three breakfasts! On the international flight, at about 4am NZ time I had some pancake thing with cooked apple and raisins (meh). Then on the domestic flight at 8am I had the best breakfast ever! It was in a plastic bowl - blueberries at the bottom with yogurt, all covered in muesli! It was so tasty. Has anyone else noticed I'm all about the food?

Oh - and the third breakfast was good too. You see, I didn't really get much of a chance to try American doughnuts, and there just happened to be a doughnut shop at Auckland airport! So I bought a half dozen and shared them with my friend all the way back home!

A very satisfying end to a fantastic trip! Now to plan the next one...