Last night I managed to stay awake until about 10:00. Evidently 7.5 hours of sleep is all I need. My bladder and I were awake at 5:30.
I really do love traveling. People watching and talking with them is one of my favorite parts. We stopped at the front desk to secure a late check out and there was a security guard standing close by. I said good morning to her. I asked her how she was doing and she said she was cold. She was wearing a leather security guard jacket. It was about 45 degrees. I said I live in Kansas City where on Saturday the high will be 25 with a small chance of snow. She said “That’s why I live in Los Angeles! Last night I slept with 5 blankets on?” I asked how she managed to roll over during the night. Her response was “I don’t think I did.”
At breakfast there was an oriental family with two grade school boys. The family was bilingual. The youngest boy was deeply engaged with his phone. His mother had to call his name several times before he gained his attention. Cute kids.
The second family that came in to sit for breakfast near us was a father, mother, a young teenager boy and 4 daughters all below about 18ish. Four of the females were wearing head covering. What appeared to be the oldest daughter was not and had long teenager hair. I speculate that the mom and dad had the discussion with her and asked that she honor the head covering tradition until she reached age X and then she could make her own decision.
The rest of the morning was spent packing and repacking our suitcases. Our first flight to Australia is on Qantas and no issues with weight. Our second flight is shorter and on Jet Star. They are a discount airline and have tight weight limits for the checked bags and the carryon bags. We had to plan carefully to be able to swap something’s from one bag to another when we arrive in Australia. I think we will make it.
We have to check out of our room at 2:00 PM. Our flight boards at 9:45. So we will have 6.5 hours in the airport. We will have access to a lounge so that should ease our burden.
We are scheduled to leave LAX at 10:30 PM on Thursday January 16. We are scheduled to arrive at 9:30 AM on January 18. I do believe that somewhere over the Pacific Ocean someone will be stealing a day from us.
We checked out of our hotel at 2:00 PM and very quickly the shuttle picked us up and delivered us to terminal B where we had to wait for about twenty minutes before the Qantas folks opened their check in counters.
This was when we had a rather bizarre and unnecessary dance with the employee checking our luggage. We had no problem with Penny’s carry on. She had a bag that was around 5.5 kilograms and a personal bag that they did not weigh but it was about 1.5 kilograms. I on the other hand had my Rick Steves backpack and computer and jacket inside my one carry on bag and it weighed 14.4 kilograms. Sorry, I was told, it could only weigh 10 kilograms. So I took my jacket out and put it on. My backpack came out as my personal item (purse) along with a bag of electronics that Penny had put in my bag to lighten her bag which we now put back in her bag. Weighed the bag again without those items inside, 10 kilograms. I was good to go.
After we left the counter and got through security I put everything back as it was before the dance.
The unnecessary part of the requirement was that the weight entering the plane was identical regardless of where it was in our possession.
We are currently sitting in the Qantas Business class lounge at 4:45, we are supposed to board at 9:45, and leave at 10:30. I am staying awake and am confident I will be able to sleep while the thieves who are going to steal our Friday do the dastardly deed.
Traveling with Ray Owens 