We set off on our voyage Saturday
evening, with the intensions of arriving in Sydney, Australia, early Monday morning after flying for only
14 hours, followed by a connecting flight to our first destination, Perth, Australia,
by lunch time the same day. Thus,
physically traveling for 22 hours, but traveling through time more than a day and
completely skipping a whole day (Sorry to our Canadian friends – our time
travel prevented us from celebrating Canada Day).
Keeping with the theme of “2”s (from the Home page); we had
a 2 hour wait on the tarmac at LAX because a cargo handle of the plane fell off
into the hands of one of the ground crew
after loading the luggage. After much
deliberation and consultation, it was determined that the reattachment of
handle was necessary before our departure.
Once this was completed, approval from Sydney, Australia, was
required. Finally, we were permitted to
depart.
The 2 hour delay was exactly the time required for our
originally scheduled stopover, so we landed in Sydney just as our flight to
Perth was leaving. Fortunately, the
airline had it all under control and swiftly transferred us to the next
available flight, leaving 2 (of course!) hours later. The majority of the time was spent processing
through Australian customs, collecting our luggage, rechecking our luggage, and
transferring, by bus, from the international airport to the domestic
airport. We only had a limited glimpse
at Sydney, but we promise to explore it in more detail, as the final
destination of our trip.
When we arrived in Perth, we were greeted by Dave’s Aunt and
Uncle, Jamilee & Ken. Once at their home, the kids were
excited to run around in the park across the street; finally free from the
confines of an airplane. I must say,
they endured their confinement with superior fortitude (the personal movie
selection never hurts).
For the grand finale, we had a family introduction/reunion and
wonderful dinner with Dave’s 2 cousins, Fouad & Charlie, and their families. It was so nice to meet everyone and reconnect
with some. The kids were thrilled to
meet relatives their age and quickly bonded over their electronics.
Regrettably, it was a short evening as we all started suffering
the effects of the jet lag. Believe it
or not, the boys were so tired, they chose to go to bed rather than wait a
little longer to have cake for dessert.
As we climbed into bed, Dave & I calculated that it had
been 45 hours since we had been in a horizontal position. That computation was about it for our mental
capacity and we quickly dropped off to sleep.
