Back home

Got back around 11am today. Hung around at The Lady's parents' place for a few hours, then all went to McD's for a healthy(?) lunch.


TIP TO TRAVELERS: Fly on New Year's Eve!!! Our flight over the Pacific (about 14 hrs.) was the most comfortable one yet, due to the flight being less than half full! Apparently, people don't like missing out on N.Y.'s Eve celebrations. The Lady and The Bub commandeered on row of seats (four across) and sacked out, and I took the one behind them. Had a good, solid 7 - 8 hour sleep -- unusual for these flights, where we're usually trying to sleep sitting up (albeit reclined).

The flight was empty enough that I summoned up the courage to do what I'd always wanted to do: ask for an extra in-flight meal. And got it! (Lasagne.) They even came back ten minutes later to say I could have a third one, if I wanted -- but by then, I was full.


The only real eventful component of our trip was that we had to not ''run,'' but ''walk briskly'' at LAX to catch our ''L.A. to Aukland, NZ'' flight. We made it with about a half hour to spare. But, at the Brisbane luggage carousel, we discovered that our luggage had not.

Luckily, we were now home, not on vacation, so our lack of extra clothing, etc. wasn't a problem: We'd brought our ''travelling'' toothbrushes and toiletries, so we had our ''at home'' things we could use; and we'd packed wintery clothing, so now that we are back in summer weather, it's a whole different set.

(BTW -- got up about 4am to use the toilet. Inside the house, seventy-nine degrees [Farenheit]. At 4am. Urgh.)


A few misc. photos and commentaries to come, once I get around to extracting the photos from the digital camera.


--GG