We had our final Four Seasons breakfast buffet then bid farewell to the Club 32 crew. We checked out by 8am with a couple of final photos from our room and caught a taxi to the Sydney airport.
The taxi driver gruffly dropped us off at the wrong end of the terminal so we had to drag our bags quite a way to check in for our United flight but we made it. The Australian equivalent of TSA did a far more thorough search of our carry on bags than we’ve ever had in the USA but we survived that as well.
In the massive duty free area we asked about the Vantage Botanical liquor that Mark had requested. The saleslady pointed us toward it and quickly tried to talk us out of it in favor of an Australian vodka she said was far superior. But that’s not what Mark asked for. We got two bottle of Vantage and had them sealed up to carry through US Customs.
We marched a long way to the Air New Zealand lounge that we were entitled to use. By the time we got there we sat for less than 30 minutes before having to march back a long way to our gate (16 minutes by official estimate). The lounge was nice but we didn’t avail ourselves of any of the amenities other than the restrooms. Our gate was actually a bus that transported us to the plane that was parked at a distant spot past the cargo areas. We had to climb the external steps to get on the plane, not what we expected from a major international airport. We’re not sure why United didn’t use a regular jetway gate.
We settled into our Business Class seats aboard the 787. These were more spacious and comfortable than Air New Zealand’s business class, with an ample supply of pillows, blankets and other goodies.
United’s service on the jet was brusquely efficient and the food was adequate – a hunk of overcooked beef for me, fish for Barb. Barb was quite pleased to get ice cream with a chocolate dip. Barb was able to get pajamas and once again got a fair amount of sleep on her lie-flat bunk. I stayed mostly upright and mostly awake for the nearly 14-hour flight. I watched two movies, The Creator and Dream Scenario, as well as several episodes of Abbott Elementary and listened to several podcasts. In all, this United flight was more comfortable and relaxing than the Air New Zealand one, and I could nearly see the value of paying through the nose for business class…certainly for Barb. I still think I would be more economically and adequately served in Economy Plus, in case we ever do a full overnight flight again.
We got to LAX a few minutes early at 5:40am on Monday morning and had to wait at the gate until 6am until Customs and Immigration officially opened at 6am. It seemed unusual to have to wait for immigration to open at this major US gateway but so be it. We got through the process easily (thanks, Global Entry), found our bags and dropped them off at the transfer desk, hoping they would get to Dulles along with us.
We had to walk a long way from Terminal 2 to Terminal 7 for our domestic flight to Dulles. The US TSA flagged my duty free liquor, surgically removed it from the sealed bags and “inspected” it by putting the bottles in some machine that magically determined they were acceptable. We thought it would be fun if the machine reported that it was an inferior choice.
We made our way to the Polaris Lounge and set up shop for our nearly 4 hour layover. The lounge was empty when we arrived but got quite busy by 10am. Barb found a quiet room to take a nap. I took the opportunity to catch up on my notes, such as they were. There was a full breakfast buffet from which we had a small sample (bacon).
We made it to our 11:45am flight to Dulles in plenty of time, settled on board and enjoyed the short (just 5 hours…I never took my shoes off!) flight. The United food and service was again businesslike. I mostly listened to music. Somewhere around Kansas City I decided it was a good opportunity to listen to my iTunes playlist, Songs of Life, which I really enjoyed. I need to break it out as a separate post with an explanation of why each song is placed where it is and why it’s important to me. I’ve got stuff to say. Another project for someday.
We landed on time, found our bags which arrived on an earlier flight, and caught a taxi home from Dulles. Lesson learned: the taxi from Dulles cost around $150 with tip compared to the $220 (with tip) car service from home to Dulles. All in all, not a bad way to go, especially in order to eliminate the need to find our own car in a long-term parking lot, hope it starts, then drive the hour or so home after a long (or very long) flight.
We got home around 9pm to a very squirmy, chatty and relieved Manny. The house was clean with our mail and newspapers stacked tidily thanks to Mr. Mark. We unpacked and got to bed at a fairly reasonable hour (after Manny and I had some blankie time). I thought I did pretty well to wake at 9am the next day to start reading papers and getting back to normal. Barb slept until noon and we had a quiet recovery day on Tuesday.
We had a good chat with Allie on Tuesday night prompted by Barb’s search for an opal ring she swore she gave to Allie. Allie suggested it would be a useful project to record Mom going through her jewelry and telling whatever stories she can recall about each piece. I agree that would be a good thing to do. Another project for someday.
On Tuesday night, I couldn’t sleep well and we both ended up sleeping until noon on Wednesday. I guess it may take a while to get back to this time zone after all. As I type this, it’s 4:30am on Thursday, not a good sign. Manny is confused.
Barb was upset that the postcards we sent from Auckland had not yet arrived. I wrote the hotel to ask if they’d been mailed and got a reply that they had in fact been posted on February 16th, almost 3 weeks ago. We will see if/when they actually arrive (the answer: March 13, a full month after we sent them).
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