49 Days of Experiences! Day Two March 25 - 27, 2019

Slept so well last night!
The hotel provides ear plugs, lavender spray and even a white noise machine to counter the airport noises, but I never heard a thing.  In fact, the sound of planes seemed to lull me.
Our flight on American was safely accomplished and the flight crew were amenable.  However, I doubt I could have made it for longer than the 6 hours as it was tight, dark and boring!  No one opened their window screens and there was no TV, no movies, no nothing.  We actually relished the light cast when someone opened the bathroom door!
My handsome young seatmate is an aeronautic engineer who has a fear of flying tho' he is forced to fly often for work.  He cannot sit in the window seat but counts on the ability to see out.  That didn't happen on this flight!  While passing over the Grand Canyon, our window-seat mate cracked the screen up for a few seconds, and then firmly popped it closed, as it remained the rest of the flight!

We caught the shuttle for the hotel and were promptly delivered.  Crown Plaza LAX.  We had a great dinner at the Tap Room (Recommend!) and then enjoyed a good night's sleep.

Breakfast was offered in the dining room (expensive) or room service - small coffee $12, oatmeal $11.00....Instead, we hit the coffee shop - I had yogurt parfait and hot tea - $8.00 - very good.  They even offered raw sugar - my favorite!

We took a walk around the hotel to see the pool and the gym, and later returned to the gym to use some of the facility.  At lunch time we went back to the coffee shop for sandwiches and an apple.

Back to our room, we got our bags ready for a 6 PM departure for the airport.

Morning View from our room

Killing Time....a wander about the hotel.

 When we got on the tram for the airport, we were joined by three flight attendants for American.  That was very fortunate because our driver did not know Qantas' terminal and it was not noted on our tickets.
Once through security, we had several hours to get past...We had a snack of a pizzette to share and I had a glass of wine and Larry had some Spanish beer.  The hours passed fairly quickly.

For Pat and Ian....seen at the airport - LAX

It was finally time for our flight.  It was a different thing all together, finding our seats on Qantas airlines!  There was at least double the leg room for starters....but then, no more than we had taken our seats and an attendant came to us asking "fresh orange juice, or bubbling wine?"  Wow!  We had booked "premium economy" and it was sure feeling like "premium!"
A bit later, it was time for dinner.  Our first clue was an attendant coming around to layer a linen table cloth over our trays and placing a linen napkin on it.  We were then treated to our choice from the menu....I selected roast beef, salad, vegetables and a dinner roll.  There was wine and other drinks aplenty, tho' I stuck with water.
Knowing we had a 15 + hour flight ahead of us had concerned me from the beginning, but I was finding myself much more relaxed than usual and I dozed off several times.  Finally, taking our friend's advice for aligning ourselves to the time of our destination - Australia, when we were about 5 1/2 hours or so into the flight, I dug out our bedtime meds, added an over the counter sleep aid and we both took them. I fell deeply asleep and slept for several hours.  When we awoke we had only few hours of flying to go.
When breakfast was served, it was, again, on white linen!  Larry had a cooked breakfast, eggs, chicken sausage, etc.  I had a small muffin, fresh fruit and muesli with milk.
At the end of the almost 16 hour flight we found we were none the worse for wear.  The process of disembarking and getting through immigration is very automated and was very smooth.
We retrieved our bags and exited the terminal and almost immediately saw our dear friends - he wearing a Phillies cap - coming toward us and it was hugs all around.
We got to the house and had a bit of time to catch up, then we were treated to a delicious lunch of sandwiches on wonderful rolls.  In the evening Jude treated us to a great home cooked meal - lamb, roasted potatoes, squash, carrots and broccoli.  We really enjoyed it and were so grateful for it.  And for their friendship.
By the way - we'd left on the 24th of March from home.  We left California on Monday, March 25th.  We arrived in Australia on Wednesday the 27th...meaning we lost one day...the 26th.