August 16
We left Brisbane at about noon for a 13 hour flight to Los Angeles. Because we crossed the International Date Line, we arrived in LA at 7am the same day we left (five hours before we had left Brisbane). We still had another 12 hours before we reached our final destination of Norfolk (via Miami — not the most direct route, but that is what we had to take using frequent flyer miles). It was really cool to look out the window of the plane when we crossed the date line (that was where day became night as you can see in the photo of our flight path). We also passed over the islands of Hawaii, and you could see the various spots lit up with towns and cities striking the blackness of the seemingly endless ocean. My watch said it was 4:30 pm (Tuesday) Australia time, but it was about 8:30 pm (Monday) Hawaii time. I thought that was very cool. After a 30 hour trip, we made it to Virginia at around midnight.
Crossing from day to night…mid-flight, sunset from the plane.
August 17
We all slept until 1 or 2 pm and then visited with John’s parents and the dogs. Bella and Sage had a great visit with their cousins at “Dash camp”, but I think they were happy to see us. Today we worked on our luggage and rested some more. It was exhausting coming home. Much more than the trip there. Probably because none of us slept much on the return flights, so we basically lost a day and were up for over 30 hours. I also didn’t feel well. May have been something I ate, but I refuse to blame Qantas because that airline is the bomb! They offer you constant food, snacks, or drinks. We got on the American Airlines 6 hour flight from LA to Miami and were offered pretzels, a drink, and the chance to purchase a meal. We weren’t actually hungry, but that is not the point. Huge difference in service. However, the American airline was a new Boeing 777 plane, which was awesome and very comfortable. We didn’t leave VA until after 7 pm (having stayed for dinner) and got home at around 10 pm.
Wrap-Up
We are happy to be home and to have had a great family trip. At first, I thought spending 3 weeks with just the 4 of us could be problematic (too much “togetherness”, if you will), but I will honestly say that there really was not a single fight, except the one time when I got mad because I could not win at Capitalism and the occasional snip during a stressful travel moment. Kudos to John for driving the whole time on the left hand side of the road with the wheel on the right side of the car. He only constantly mixed up the turn signal and the wipers, which were also on opposite sides. So probably 100 times he was turning, he would put on the wipers. It became a running joke. Thomas and Megan got along great and were absolute angels on all the car rides and plane travels, especially Thomas, because he is always an angel. By the way, I have to thank my wonderful son Thomas for taking the time out of his very busy summer schedule to edit all of these blog posts, including this one (if you can’t tell). They also were very amused (not) at our constant attempts to talk in an Australian accent. We thought we were good. In case any of you wanted to try this at home, here’s some English to Aussie vocab: coffee with cream = flat white, trash = rubbish, sunglasses = sunnies, diapers = nappies, and my personal favorite, “do it now/right away” = straightway. So, when I said let’s get a flat white straightway, it was understood. Yes, we tried to embarrass the kids with this whenever we could.
I will admit that it is John and the kids who are the travel seekers in this family. I am perfectly fine staying closer to home. With that being said, this was a great experience for all of us. We saw and did some things not possible in the states, and I am glad we were able to do it. However, I also realize that there are beautiful mountains, beaches, and other such scenery much closer to home. I am sure we will travel again because my family wants to see the world, but I also want to take advantage of what we have here in the USA. You do not have to travel across the world to have a great family vacation and see beautiful scenery, but we had an experience we will all cherish for a long time.