It was a dark and gloomy night…err…day in Melbourne but I didn’t care!
Today, we were starting our Mad Dash across the Pacific Pond and heading towards Los Angeles. The Dash across the Pacific is always mad…It takes 14 hours but it is a dash that us Aussies do particularly if we want to see a particular mouse.
But it was even more so a mad dash for me because we were flying Qantas for this trip. The Aussies among you will know that Qantas is my airline of choice and I always try and fly with them whenever I can. Thing is – they have been having a string of maintenance issues with their fleet lately…that sort of press can make the bravest of souls nervous.
We got up early and finished the last of our packing – the toiletries – and put the bags in the car. In the end, we ended up with 2 check-in suitcases (and a spare bag inside one of the cases) and 4 carry-ons.
These are my traveling companions – DH and DS.
Love is….
Cuddly Warm with father and son.
We had made it to Melbourne airport with plenty of time to spare. We were traveling Qantas this time – which meant that we could make use of the Airline Lounge, courtesy of DH being a member.
We made ourselves comfortable…
And checked out our plane…um….your guess is as good as mine…it could be anyone one or none of these planes.
I checked out the goodies available. But as it was only mid-morning, these were the only items that interested me.
This is probably the last time I’m seeing pale
yellow tasty cheese in the next 10 days!
Our flight left on time. Once we cleared the cloud layer, I was pleased to see blue
sky and took a picture through the window, a very pleasant
window scene indeed.
DS had been scared to fly all week and had wanted us to leave him behind. No signs of scaredy cat now…(that would have been me, taking the picture).
We landed on time at Sydney airport and had to transit from the domestic terminal to the international terminal. This had originally been our tightest connection with only 2 hours in between. Turns out that Qantas had another one of those ‘maintenance’ issues and the flight out of Sydney was delayed by an hour. There had been a plane that had to land in Fiji the day before and Qantas sent a plane over to pick up those passengers…our original plane…and we had to wait for another plane to come out of maintenance…our new vessel. I guess this probably tips the scales definitely into the Mad Dash category!
DS was not happy with the delay and wanted some food. We knew that the Qantas Club Lounge would have food; but DS wanted sushi. So, we found this in one of the shops….sadly, it didn’t have a
sushi bar, so I guess I’m still on the hunt for one of them.
..and DS scoffed the lot for lunch.
What can I say? He is half Asian and really should know how to use chopsticks by this stage!
I just sat there and admired the view of Sydney (also dark and gloomy) and the
people at work…doing something important (I’m sure!)…
….well, they would be… after they stopped milling for a chat.
We then made our way to the Club Lounge…found a quiet spot to sit…for a bit of
solitude
..and found…more food.
BLIMEY! English scones and cream! YUM!
I was also pleasantly surprised to find one of my
Favourite Foods on offer…
Yes…this is fresh lychees.
I guess no one else knew how to eat this fruit as there was a whole big fruit bowl of them. I helped myself to a plate or two; and DH and I enjoyed the unexpected treat.
Before too long, we were called for boarding and thankfully, we had a pretty uneventful flight over…all 14 hours of it…we all even managed to get a little bit of sleep with DS grabbing 4 hours, DH got 3 and I managed a paltry 2 hours.
Up Next - Day 1 in California
I am looking forward to hearing about the whole crazy trip! 
Thanks for joining!
