Sophie and I had a fitful night's sleep as both of us were in new surroundings and a bit nervous about the long journey ahead of us!
We were up and showered and heading down to breakfast by about 8am. The restaurant was busy with people eating and milling about and we took a seat next to a man who sniffed loudly the whole time he was there. Not pleasant!
I had a small bowl of cereal and a coffee to start while Sophie chose bubble and squeak, hash browns, mushrooms, beans and scrambled egg. She was disappointed that there were no Quorn sausages! I had a second coffee and helped myself to a fried egg, sausage, mushroom and hash browns. The food was delicious.
After we'd eaten we headed back to our room, packed everything up and checked out. It was a gorgeous day outside and we stood and waited for our shuttle bus in the sunshine. Overhead, huge planes were coming in to land, but we hadn't heard anything in the room, so that was a bonus! It only took us about twenty minutes to get to Terminal 3 and the helpful driver told us where to go. There were only three of us on the bus, so that was good!
Bag drop was busy and we were shown to a self-serve machine, which was a bit scary. You were basically left on your own to scan your boarding card and passport and print out your luggage tag. We didn't know if we'd put ours on correctly and I imagined my suitcase ending up in Miami or Atlanta!
We went straight through to security, which was heaving with people. We shuffled along and predictably, I set the alarms off, as I always do. The member of staff was very nice though and couldn't understand how I'd done it. I was treated to a full body scan, as were lots of other people!
Once through we found a quiet row of seats and Sophie went off to explore, coming back with some water and mascara from Boots. She then disappeared and came back with a large plastic Harrods bag as she'd treated herself to two new handbags! They were very reasonable, though!
We sat and waited and watched a couple in the next row with their three children. The man spent his whole time staring at his phone while his poor wife dealt with their two little girls of about 4 and 2 and a baby boy. They both had Australian accents and when the Melbourne flight was called, they all got up...phew! They were brave!
Our departure gate came up at about 12.30pm so we trooped off and found a seat. Luckily, neither of us were searched again and we sat and stared out at our aircraft - she was Birthday Girl and was a 787. I tried not to think of the long flight ahead of us!
When we boarded we took our seats right at the very back, in the middle, near to the galley. It meant no-one was seated behind us so we could recline our seats and not annoy anyone. We had hoped no-one would be sat next to us, but a young American woman arrived who proceeded to fiddle with all her bags for the first half hour!
There were loads of empty seats near us so I suppose we could have moved, but we decided to stay put and we had a very enjoyable flight. We made friends with one of the crew who was from the North-East and he plied us with more food over the course of the journey, so we enjoyed two Gu desserts! I had an Aviator Gin and Tonic and a glass of wine with my meal and we enjoyed a Fab ice-lolly and a pasty before Mile High tea was served just before we landed.
Our route took us up to Scotland and out over Iceland, Greenland and Canada. At one point the crew called us over to look out of the window as they could see mountains covered in snow beneath us! It was a beautiful sight!
I did sleep for a while but we were very tired when we landed early, at about 4pm California time. It was beautiful weather outside and we steeled ourselves for US immigration. We'd filled our form in and we were directed to a machine that took our fingerprints and our photos.
I'm always a bit wary because of my "Colombian" experience in Florida a while back, but our official was very friendly and was a bit surprised Keith and Mike weren't with us, as he asked when was the last time we'd visited! He then waved us through so we didn't have to go through the whole rigmarole of fingerprints and photos again! Fab!
We collected our luggage and found the shuttle to take us to the car rental, which was on the other side of the airport. We had booked through Virgin and rented a Compact car through Alamo. After the paperwork was done and we'd picked up our SatNav, we made our way to the garage and found a car - a Hyundai Kona. We managed to get our large case in the boot, but had to put Sophie's smaller one on the back seat!
The journey to our Airbnb was a bit hairy as I think I missed the turn for the freeway and we ended up on the 280. However, I took it steady and the SatNav did help, but sometimes she changed her mind about the route we were taking! Of course, it was rush hour so the traffic was heavy, but we had found our address within half an hour of leaving the airport so it wasn't too bad.
Tedd met us and said we'd parked well, in between two driveways. He was very friendly and welcoming and gave us a tour. We have an open plan living/dining area with a well-equipped kitchen, two bedrooms and a large bathroom. He lives upstairs with his wife and they had very thoughtfully left us milk, orange juice, yoghurts, scones and fruit. We also had plenty of coffee and lots of different teabags to choose from, which I thought was a lovely touch.
We unpacked and decided to relax in the apartment. As Virgin had been so generous with their food, we weren't that hungry but we did enjoy a scone each and a glass of wine (I'd bought a bottle of The Ned Pinot Gris with me!). We watched Zombie House Flipping (ahhh...Florida, how I still love you!) and decided to call it a night at about 8.30pm.
We were well and truly shattered!
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