Home Sweet Home

Breakfast on the plane was delicious. It was still dark out & some people were woken up to have breakfast. The man in front of me asked if he could sit with me so his little boy could stretched out & sleep some more. I said sure. He was a nice guy in his 30's from San Diego that had taken his family to Tahiti for vacation. Sounded like they had a fantastic time snorkeling & such. He said the prices were sky high & he wasn't sure they'd have enough for the whole week. They managed by eating out just a few times. They had a bungalow on the beach. When the little guy woke up, the man moved back so the boy wouldn't be scared.

Right after sunrise, we flew into LA. Surprisingly it wasn't smoggy but there were some clouds over the land mass. We flew right over Catalina Island.

LAX is an ugly airport. It's plain, old, & kinda dirty. It hasn't any decorations or even nice paint colors on the walls. Lines & lines of people were waiting to go through customs & immigration. Those of us that were already citizens were herded to another line. When I went through customs, I remembered what Jon said about mud on his shoes & how customs were glad he had said something so I made sure to tell them of the sheep doo doo on my left sandal that had been there since Alison's. They took it away, cleaned it off for me, & looked grateful that I had told them about it.

I got my luggage & walked all the way over to the Southwest terminal. My luggage, even though on wheels, was getting heavy. Curbside check in was loaded with people. I thought I was getting in line at the right place but someone said the line starts down that way. It was all the way down to the end of the terminal & sidewalk! I've never had to mess with the Christmas airport crowd.

At the end of the line, I met a woman from Indiana that was heading home with her adult daughter. She was nice. After a bit though I realized that she wasn't quite all there. Good thing her daughter was with her.

I'm glad again that I had gotten to the airport early. By the time I got in, I only had 30 minutes till they announced boarding.

Left LA at about noon. Sat by a woman who was just getting back from Australia. She was heading home to Scottsdale. The food she missed the most was corned beef on rye. She had traveled all over the world in her life time & her most favorite countries were the Scandinavian ones although she said it was hard to pick because every country had it's own flavors that she liked. Australia she said got a little boring because a lot of it's country looks like the US's Southwest.

Arrived in Phoenix at 1:15. Picked up my luggage, called Vern, & got picked up at about 3pm. I was so tired I slept in the car on the way home. I freshened up a bit & we went out to my favorite restaurant, Arribas, for good Mexican food. Oh, I missed that salsa & chips, & a bean burrito, enchilada style.

So there's my big adventure. Till next time...