Flight to Sydney

Overall we had an uneventful flight.  Mary and I slept for a few hours after dinner, then woke up and watched movies for a while, taking occasional naps.  They came around with hot towels to help us wake up and then server a nice hot breakfast.  Very nice service!  I could have used a little more leg room, but with the open seat, I was able to sit sideways and lean against the wall while Mary was able to curl up on the double seat.

However as we were just 45 minutes out of Sydney, the captain came on and said we were being diverted to Brisbane!  It turns out a rain storm did not happen so fog formed and Sydney airport was fogged in.  Since we did not have ample fuel reserves for a long time in a holding pattern we had to divert.  So we landed at Brisbane at 6:00 am for a fuel-ang-go stop.

Only we've now been on the ground for over an hour and our earliest departure time is 7:30, which means an 8:50 arrival in Sydney.  This doesn't affect our timetable much since we don't have connecting flights like many others do, but  we are both worried about Pat waiting for us.   It's a 2 hour drive from Newcastle, so they were probably en-route when we were diverted. We have a cell number, but no cell phone to reach them since mine gets no signal (as expected).  We trust they would notice the fights and lack of landings and call Qantas for flight status. 

So we wait.  It's raining here.  Sure hope it starts raining in Sydney so it can wash away the fog and we can head out. 

Waiting for the Plane

Due to our long wait in the San Francisco airport - and the lack of
internet at our hotel - I signed up for the T-Mobile Daypass so
someone could get caught up on her email. not that I won't use it as
well... We got it working before we checked in, but after that it
would never display a login page! I ended up calling t-mobile. it
took the 4th person to actually know anything about Hotspot and he
had to hand off to a level 2 person who finally gave me an IP address
to connect to. I finally got a login page and now all is well.

So now we're waiting to board our plane. Our meals are kinda messed
up, but we did that a bit deliberately to help with the time change.
Qantas has a nice plan, if you are able to follow it.
- You leave late at night
- After 1 hour they feed you (2+ hours)
- You watch a movie (2-3 hours)
- You sleep (6-8 hours?)
- The feed you breakfast (1 hour)
- An hour later you arrive
Total - 15 hours.
The tough part will be the sleeping.

The gate agent gave us seats 59 A and C (with non one in-between us)
so that will give us some room and also means we don't have to
disturb anyone to get up and walk around.
So more in a future post about how well "The Plan" worked - I must
admit I'm not optimistic, but I do expect to get some sleep on the
plane.

Once we arrive, scheduled for 0620 Sydney time, we'll have about 1
1/2 hours of baggage and customs, then we'll meet Pat and Robert for
the first time. It's a 2 hour drive back to Newcastle from Sydney so
we should arrive before lunch time. Pat has high speed internet and
I;m hoping to find a wireless router that just needs to be
activated. If so we'll be online from their house a bit. If now,
out online time will be somewhat limited, altho I'm sure the router
would have a place for a second ethernet hookup so we can have 2
computers online. As you can surmise, one of my early tasks will be
to assess their internet capabilities and hopefully to help them with
getting their second computer online. Nothing like making myself
useful! LOL

Well, enough for now. More to come about the flight once we arrive.

Day One - San Francisco

It was very nice leaving late in the day - made for a very relaxed day and we both found a couple of little things to thrown in that we may have missed otherwise. 

Our flight to San Francisco was routine - which is always a good thing. Surprisingly, we did not have to pay an extra suitcase fee!  Maybe it was because we have a "preferred" status since we're using frequent flyer miles, but whatever the reason, I'm not complaining.  On the NWA flight, they came around with beverage service once, but with water or coffee 3 additional times!  We also experienced a very long sunset.  Since we were heading west, the sunset lasted for over 1 hour, like it was in slow motion.  And it was beautiful as the blues and gold turned into a deep red. 

On the other hand. this Day's Inn has issues.  Shuttle service was hard to contact, Internet has been down, ants in the bathroom,  and less that friendly staff.  We're currently booked to stay here the 2 days we're in SFO on our way back, but I think that will change.  On our walk this morning we found a nice Comfort Inn down the street that has a pretty good rate and meets our 3 criteria (Airport Shuttle, Breakfast, and Internet).  I think I'll get a reservation there before we leave today.  

Later today we plan to head downtown to have lunch at Fisherman's Wharf and sight-see in that area. Then back here and head to the airport since we are supposed to be there by 7:15 p.m.  

All our Bags are Packed, we're ready to go

I figured that would be an appropriate title...  LOL

It's been a fairly quiet day - nothing last minute due to Mary's excellent preparations and checklists.  As you can see we were able to downsize to 3 suitcases.  I bought a new one yesterday because I was worried about having enough room.  We're using it along with our other two large suitcases.

At the weigh-in, one came in at 49 lbs so I moved some stuff to another and got it down to 45.

Andy will be here in a few minutes to take us to the airport so I need to sign off and shutdown this computer.  It's hard to believe this day has finally arrived!

Nearly ready

Well I accomplished my To Do list for today.  The main things were to get the iBook checked out, complete my Emmanuel Treasurer duties, and a variety of travel prep activities.

• The iBook thing was weird.  They did not find anything wrong, yet when I came home, it charged the battery back to 99%!  So I chalked that one up as "kinda fixed".
  
• The Treasurer stuff took about 4 hours.  I knew it'd be at least 3 since I had to do 2 payrolls plus quarter end plus write other checks. It worked out nice that the late June payroll is just salaried people so no time sheets to mess with for that one.
• We looked at our suitcase situation last night and decided we should get another large one for me.  So while waiting for the computer to be fixed I went to Kohl's and found a nice one on sale. 
• I got most things packed tonight.  Some final items to do tomorrow, but I'm 90% packed, except for electronic things - that is on tomorrow's agenda.
• Tonight NWA sent me a reminder to print my boarding passes so that is all set!

After buying the new suitcase, Mary was packing tonight and decided she only needs her large one and part of another - much less space that expected.  After I got nearly all my stuff into one large suitcase we decided we could get by with those two plus the new one!  So that will save us $50 on each NWA flight since I'll have 2 suitcases and Mary only 1. It all helps.  And yes, all are under the 50 lb limit.

So it looks like all is ready as it can be.  Tomorrow we head out!

Transition

Tomorrow my vacation starts.  It'll be a day of transition with lots of stuff to do in preparation, but also a time to bring closure to any work stuff.  I got most everything I wanted to do today.  One non-critical task was left hanging but the other guy on it should be able to wrap it up.

Unfortunately our iBook G4 laptop is acting up. The battery says it is charging, but the battery percentage never goes up.  It works great on power and if we were gone for a short time I wouldn't worry much about it.  but for this long trip, I'd like to get it fixed.  So there goes an extra 2 hours to drive to the repair shop wait for the repair and return home.  Maybe I can work on refining my packing list or something while I wait.  We were talking about going to the Red Wings parade tomorrow, but that is out of the question now.  Besides it's supposed to be over 90 and humid tomorrow so that would be pretty miserable.

As I was walking out of work today it was kinda hard to believe I won't return until July 3rd.  I've never taken a vacation this long before so that will be different -- I think our longest one before this was 2 weeks.  And I am very much looking forward to it.  As I talk to people about it they are very impressed with the concept of actually living with an Australian family for 6 days.  That will be very interesting.  I am having some trouble finding a solid Lutheran church to attend.  Pastor B. has given me a few leads, but I'm still in the midst of a train of referral emails.

Well, that's what's happening tonight!  It's starting to get very real!  

4 Days, but who's counting...

Wow - our big vacation is getting close!  Just 2 more work days and 4 calendar days until we leave.  It's hard to believe it's finally happening since we've been talking about this for 3 years - and planning it for 2 years!  (We were aiming to go last summer, but a variety of factors got in the way so we delayed to this summer.)

I still have a few details to take care of - but for the most part I'm ready.  I will take some time tomorrow to organize my reservations and contacts into one folder and sequence them, as they come up.  

My vacation starts on Friday and I've also got a growing list of Things-to-do.  The biggest of them tie into being treasurer at Emmanuel, but a number of other errands that need some attention.

having most bills on automatic payment, along with direct deposit, sure makes trips like this easier!

Well, time to get ready for a church meeting...