Traveling to Australia

The first day of our trip consisted of thirty or so straight hours of travel. I was pleased to see that my “pack light, travel fast” mantra had mostly landed. Utah, however, showed up with a huge duffle bag. He took some flack for the amount he had packed, but lightened his load a little bit by pulling out three hats. We all piled into my parents’ fifteen passenger van around 10:00 AM on Sunday morning to drive to Washington, DC. Over time we discovered the rollover sensor (which needs to be serviced) would alarm roughly every fifteen minutes. I offered five bonus points (Emily calls them "problem points") to whoever could figure out which fuse it was, so that we could pull it. Meanwhile, Justin said I lost points for almost missing the airport exit.

DCA main terminal

Though I’ve flown out of our through Dulles many times, this was my first time at DCA. I noticed it looked very historical. There was also almost no line at security, which was nice. We were flying soon after the American Airlines helicopter collision disaster that happened at DCA only a week or so prior. Before we took off, the pilot (who had been a meteorologist and a paramedic/firefighter in a previous career) came out of the cockpit to address the passengers, emphasizing his commitment to safety.

Notice the Washington Monument in the background

Justin got randomly selected to move to the exit row with extra leg room and generously offered it to Adam, for a mere $50. I watched Finding Nemo to prepare for our arrival. On this, my first time flying into LAX, what I noticed was how sprawling the city is, with lights stretching as far as the eye could see as we were coming in to land. This was also true of the airport itself, with seemingly a dozen different connected terminals. When we arrived at the gate, Utah went to ask for a free upgrade to first class. They looked at him a little confused and asked, “Did you book business class?” When he told them no, she said, “Yeah, sorry. We can’t help you.” Justin, meanwhile, initially had two empty seats beside him (which were eventually filled, much to his chagrin). The empty seat between Tanner and Adam, however, was not.

Joe was wearing his Virginia Tech shirt as a proud Blacksburg resident, but, counterintuitively, not a Tech graduate, when someone we passed in the airport hit him with a “Go Hokies.” Joe looked like a little confused, so I had to fill in the blank for him, “And also with you.”

The Cava bowl I ate for dinner and I had a little disagreement early on in the flight, and I decided to skip the airplane dinner. While they were passing it out, Adam got special treatment, and got his dinner first. Apparently he selected a “special” bland meal when booking his ticket. I did my best to prioritize sleep on this flight, so that I would be functional once we landed and managed to get several hours. I also watched the LEGO Movie 2, and, by the time breakfast rolled around, I was ready to enjoy it. We also had a snack at some point, which consisted of ice cream and a little calzone. First time I’ve been served ice cream on a flight!