Long Haul to LA

Up at 3am Friday for the dash to the airport, Ryan kindly drove us there. Because of favourable tail winds it only took us 3 1/2 hours to get to Sydney only to have to circle for over half an hour due to bad weather over the airport. As we came into land I managed to snap a shot of the wing just passing the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

Harbour bridge and Opera House

We transferred to the International Airport and boarded our Airbus A380. What a massive plane! Two full length decks, bigger windows and higher ceilings make it feel very roomy, although the economy seat room is only slightly better than standard aircraft. However when reclined, the seat bottom moves forward too which makes it slightly more comfortable for sleeping. The sides of the headrest also bend upwards to help support your neck while sleeping. After watching a couple of movies on my own personal seatback screen, I took a sleeping tablet and settled down to get a few hours sleep. Ros, the movie addict, watched about 6 movies!

One new feature on the A380 is the tail cam. This lets you see the whole aircraft from outside and can be viewed on your screen. Since we were sandwiched in the middle aisle away from any windows, I watched the take off and landing via the camera. Quite a unique view indeed.

Tailcam view

The A380 is much quieter than other aircraft, despite having four huge engines. Again favourable tailwinds got us into L.A. half an hour earlier than scheduled, only for that to be gobbled up by the hour or so it took us to get through Immigration and Customs. Immigration now captures all your fingerprints, left and right as well as your photo. Last time we went through it was only the index finger of each hand and the photo. Here's hoping next time they don't strip us naked and photograph everything!

Michelle & Tessa

Despite travelling for 24 hours, we arrived 9.30am Friday, just 4 hours after we left Perth, because of time zone changes. Josh and Sam picked us up from in front of the terminal and whisked us to Luke and Michelle's place, which is in a lovely little huge gated community with green lawns between different blocks of units. Michelle broke her ankle 8 weeks ago on a camping trip and only just got the plaster off and graduated to a walking boot a couple of days ago. Here she is with said boot and their Dalmation Tessa.

We had lunch with Michelle, Gill and Ela, Josh and Sam before retiring for a much needed afternoon nap. Tonight we are going out to the famed Woodranch Smokehouse for our traditional L.A. meal.