Touchdown in Tinseltown

Sorry I've been missing for a few days. We just arrived back in the U.S. yesterday after an epic journey. We had a great time for the last few days in Australia and really cherished the moments with family and friends. Many hugs and a few tears later, Izzy and I boarded our already 3 hour delayed flight to Los Angeles. I knew it was going to be a crazy journey when I accidentally freaked out in the terminal when I read that it was the final call for our flight and yet they hadn't called us to the loading area yet. It took a very kind young Aussie to reassure me that Qantas had not in fact begun boarding for our flight, and that the departure monitor was wrong. Sheesh... talk about a false start. That was the bright spot of the journey!

About 2 hours into the trip the captain came over the PA asking for any certified medical practitioner to please step forward to help with a medical emergency on board. Never an auspicious start! About 5 hours into the flight we watched our little plane graphic that shows your progress on the trip slowly begin to curve around... We had actually crossed the international dateline and then went back again! I think that means I lost a day and gained one in a matter of minutes!

The captain then informed us that we needed to make a medical emergency landing in Fiji so the plane turned around to go back. Needless to say, it made for a not so ordinary trip. The poor teen girl on board who was ill (have no idea at all of details) was wheeled off of the back of the plane after an hour on the ground in Fiji at 1:30 in the morning. Not exactly state of the art evacuation planning. It took a further 2 hours to locate her bags and remove them from the plane due to security regulations. We stayed on the plane and were finally on our way in about another hour. Now remember, this is a 14 hour flight under perfect conditions... we finally landed in LAX after 19 hours of travel time total!

Needless to say, we are VERY happy to be on the ground and with more family in Southern California. It's now 2:30am and Izzy and I are both awake and jetlagged out of our minds. I'll post more soon but I did want to share this part of the trip. Things are NEVER boring on this blog! ;-)

Hope this finds you well and more rested than us!

Jan