We had to pick up our luggage in LA, something we weren’t entirely sure we would have to do so we thought we would ask. First we were told yes, then no, then yes again. Not wanting our luggage to end up in a random unclaimed luggage garbage can and really wanting to change footwear we decided to head to the baggage claim to see if they would appear. Thankfully, they arrived unharmed and we promptly removed our “winter” footwear and changed into flip flops. As grateful for the new footwear we were, we really didn’t want to be stuck dragging our luggage around all day and even though it was only 11:30 in LA, we were still on PEI’s 3:30 time and we hadn’t eaten yet. We had seen Starbucks and a few places to eat on the way to our luggage but thought we would find out when and were we could drop things off first and then make our way back. We found Qantas only to find out we weren’t actually in the correct Qantas area and it didn’t matter because we couldn’t drop our bags off until 2:00 anyway. We were also told we might want to stay in that terminal for a while because it was more interesting then the others. So we took their advice, stayed there, got something to eat and checked in at home. Finally, close to 2 we went to our correct terminal where we sat on a ledge and watched the lady set up the lines and act as though she down right hate her job. She then proceeds to tell us we now need to weigh our carry on luggage. Really?! Why would no one inform us of these carry on weight restrictions before now? Holly came in nicely underweight but with my laptop and hardcover books, I was 4 pounds over. Thankfully I had room in my suitcase so I added the hardcover and my jacket to that and my carry on just passed the self weight inspection scale.
It was finally time to check in our bags and say goodbye and hope they make it to Kiwi Land. We get up to the lady fully expecting her to weigh our carry on’s as she was the one who informed us of these strict restrictions and instead she just gave us our tickets and sent us on our way. Well, at least my backpack is a little lighter now, thank you Qantas, sincerely my shoulders. Time for some Starbucks and hopefully some star gazing. We’re too tired to do much else so we figured a place to sit and people watch was exactly what we needed. Off we go to find Starbucks again, only problem is, it seems to have disappeared. We walked up and down the terminals strip weaving our way in and out of terminals and cannot find Starbucks for the life of us. We were beginning to think we had dreamed up the place after making it to the end of the strip and back and coming up with nothing. We give up and make our way back to the “fun” terminal only to see many men in suits and security. We see a giant cut out of Kobe Bryant and Holly thinks that means he’s going to show up and we should look for him. That lasts all of 10 minutes until we get bored and focus on finding Starbucks again. There is definitely no Starbucks in the “fun” terminal so we wander our way into one of the shops and ask the person working if they knew where a Starbucks was located. Turns out the area we thought we Starbucks should have been in was the right area, we would have found it quite easily if only we had gone downstairs. All that walking and we never even thought of going downstairs, even though we had to go upstairs to get where we currently were. I’ll blame it on the lack of sleep. To torment us a little further when we finally went downstairs we found two different Starbucks but sadly there was no star gazing.
We get tired of sitting in Starbucks and we definitely had our fill of walking around the terminals so even though we were told going to our terminal would be boring, we decide the change in scenery is necessary. We make our way through security again, strip down and walk through in our bare feet and make our way to the other side. All Holly and I could think was, we weren’t in Kansas anymore. This “boring” place had everything we could imagine, including a Starbucks. We couldn’t believe the Qantas lady lied to us. We should have learned our lesson after the carry on incident. We were losing momentum fast so we decided to just find a seat and chill. We had been in LAX for 7ish hours by now, only 5 more to go. A couple more hours pass and just as we were really starting to feel delirious we hear Vladimir (aka Gladimir) on the loud speaker. This guy made us want to jump on the plane to Washington just to hang out with him. We have never heard more ridiculous comments in all our travels. This guy was having a conversation with everyone over the loud speaker. He did give us one great piece of advice though, “When checking in your carry on bags, it may not happen like, bam bam bam badda boom,” I love that guy.
Vladimir flies away to Washington and we waste our last hour in LAX. Finally it’s time to board the plane to Kiwi Land. Holly was really hoping it would be John Travolta flying our plane and sure enough as we sit down and get ready to go, on our screens it shows John Travolta announcing he was our captain. He’s such a tease though because he ended his announcement with just kidding and instead gave us our safety instructions. Not nearly as much fun. It didn’t matter to us anyway because we were ready to open our blankets and eye masks and lose Friday completely. Not sure where Friday went, somewhere over the South Pacific Ocean I assume. Oh well, we wake up with only a couple hours until landing in our destination. Our travel journey was almost over, or so we thought...
To Be Continued
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