Traveling Home, Dec 9 and Dec 9

 December 9 x 2

       

It is all a matter of perspective, isn't it?

We had two Tuesdays this week! (And two summers and two springs this year)

        We had a nice breakfast at the Holiday Inn, the best one we've ever stayed at - beautiful tropical gardens, pool. 

          The shuttle took us to the airport. We hadn't been able to download our boarding passes because the reservation was under Mark F White, but his passport says Mark Francis White. This turned out to be a very fortunate mistake because it meant we had to check in at the Delta desk. We then decided to check the bags all the way to Boston as it seemed easier. This is the first time in about 30 years that we have checked a bag.

      This meant that Delta had to look at everything and....to our dismay, they found that the original booking person had overlooked the International Dateline and we wouldn't be able to get home on the day we landed in L.A. So, they scrambled to find a flight for us so we wouldn't have to get hotel. It took about half an hour, but they manage to find tickets from L.A. to Boston, but not seated together which was okay.

 Barbara did a very good deed at the airport. A woman was struggling with a huge bag and a stroller that kept spinning on her. So, she asked the woman if she wanted help. She asked Barbara to wheel the child and then began to cry that she was about to miss her flight. So, they literally ran to the furthest date - gate 17. The woman would not use the moving sidewalks and...Barbara and the woman did run faster without them, but.... hard work. They made it in time for the flight to Somalia. The woman effusively thanked Barbara, kissing her hands, her cheeks etc in front of the whole gateload of people. Barbara slowly walked back to her gate! Mark had iced latte waiting - Barbara had sweat through her shirt as she had also been carrying her backpack. It was a good feeling, though, to have been helpful.

     

L.A. from the air

It was 13 hour flight from Auckland to L.A. We left Auckland at 2:45 p.m. on Dec. 9 and arrived in L.A. at 5:55 a.m. (So....earlier than when we had left as far as days go!) It was a good flight with only a bit of "rough air." The meals were surprisingly good; airlines seem to do well on the long hauls with the timing of meals and period of darkness. We both read and slept a bit. Mark slept more than Barbara, but that's usually the case.

      In L.A., we had a few glitches going in and out of the terminals and through customs and then another security. We didn't have time to linger which was good. Our original tickets would have meant a 7 hour layover.  There were two or three patches of "rough air" which the pilot informed us about beforehand which was good.

   

Logan airport, Boston

  We realized when we landed that the hotel we had booked at the airport was for the next day - again due to the mixup at Delta. We crossed our fingers that the hotel would get us a room. The man said they were pretty full, but as we booked directly with Hilton and not through a secondary source, they managed to get us a room. Whew! We deliberately booked at the airport so that we did not arrive at Jec and Willy's late at night (as the original booking would have done) and so jet lagged. We were about 19.5 hours in an airplane and 6+ at airports.

      We were able to sleep well and stayed until check-out time. We then took an Uber to Concord. It is a shock to have the sun set before 5 and to be in chilly weather. Luckily we left warm clothes in Concord.

       Jec and Willy have their Christmas tree up which will help us to switch to holiday mode. And, Willy prepared a delicious kale and salmon dinner.