My trip to Australia from Springfield MO was very eventful. I left on Tuesday June 14 scheduled to arrive in Melbourne on Thursday June 16. Things did not go as planned. The first leg of the journey from Springfield to Chicago was plagued by bad storms which meant too long of a wait to land at O'Hare so we had to go refuel in Indianapolis. That meant I missed my flight to LA and the connecting flight to Melbourne.
I barely made the last flight out of Chicago to LAX and had problems getting a flight the next day to Melbourne. United's flight was full so after some persuading they booked me on the Quantas flight the next day and got me a hotel room with some meal vouchers thrown in. I was impressed with the customer service.
I decided to chillax at the hotel and headed over to the airport about 6:30 p.m. 3.5 hours early for my flight since I'd heard that security had really long lines. Good thing I did since United had booked me on a flight out the next day. I had to walk 6 terminals around LAX to get to United Customer Service and thanks to the wonderful lady working the makeshift booth there I was able to get on the United flight that night with an aisle seat in economy premium. YEEE HAAAW. Have to say I was much calmer than I would have been before I retired. Chill, chill, chill.
Finally arrived in Melbourne on Friday morning after more than 15 hours in the air, and got the biggest hug from my beautiful daughter. Oh that was worth the entire flight and all the problems.
We came back to Bre's apartment which is very nice but up three flights of stairs. I'm going to be in better shape when I get back. After showering off the flight, we walked to a quaint little coffee shop and I had a wonderful french omelette with potatoes in the middle. Heaven!!! Have to say I've eaten 4 meals here so far and the food here is marvelous. They seem to use the freshest ingredients and presentation is beautiful. However, when I saw the prices I was floored. $45 for a breakfast for two!!!!!!!! Have to keep in mind that these are Australian $$$ and I'm on vacation.
Bre and I have walked through several cool and fun shopping areas and had dinner with one of her friends last night. I spent the first night at Sarah's house since Bre is dog sitting her huge 120 lb. dog, Flex. Sarah is riding her bike in the Trans America Bike Race so Bre is helping her out and watching Flex. The dog is so nice but huge.
As I was leaving the U.S.A., I found out that Tula Pink is doing an Australian tour and she is in Melbourne today not too far from where Bre lives so I'm headed over to see her later this afternoon. How odd is it that I have to travel halfway around the world to see a woman who lives about 250 miles from me. So excited.
I drove for the first time today to take Bre to work. Not pretty but I didn't hit anything. Keep you fingers crossed I get better at this.
More to come soon.
Pretty much every time I came to an intersection in NZ or Australia I would say, often out loud, "tight right, wide left." Russ started doing it too.
ReplyDeleteOnce, and luckily only once in Australia (it was Melbourne in the busy downtown), I had to make one of their wacky doodle right turns... Where you get into the LEFT lane to wait for traffic to clear and make a right turn.
Russ and I liked Pie Face although I don't know what they have for vegetarian and it's probably the equivalent of thinking McD's or KFC is good food.