May 22nd and 24th: On Our Way

Yes, read that title again. This blog is about May 22nd AND May 24th, not May 22nd THROUGH May 24th. May 23rd didn't exist for me in the year 2009. I'll explain later.

Ashley flew in to LAX from Salt Lake after working in the morning, and I met up with her not long after she arrived. Having lightly discussed what we'd do for dinner before our flight, I had my brother take me to the airport by way of In-N-Out, one of Ashley's favorite places to eat when she gets the chance. She finished her food as I checked in my bag at the airline counter.

We had given ourselves plenty of time to chart out a route on a map to the cities we wanted to visit and then resorted to pacing the airport terminal in anticipation of the 12 hour flight. By the time the very LARGE plane made it's way to our gate seating room had filled up and we resorted to sitting on the floor - we didn't mind though, we were excited for the chance to use our passports again!

I LOVE Qantas Airlines! They seriously know how to take care of people on an overseas flight. We made our way to the 68th row of the airplane (there were 75 rows total on the lower level) and found our seats prepped with a pillow, blanket, headphones and a zipper pouch filled with all sorts of goodies: socks, a lanyard, a miniature toothbrush and toothpaste set, and an eye mask - which we promptly used. Add movies on-demand and a couple of Tylenol PM's to the mix, and we were OUT.

Like I said before, our flight was 12 hours long. We left after 9pm on the 22nd and flew all night to land bright and early (well - not bright, the sun wasn't up yet) at 4:45am local time. Here's the kicker: we had crossed the International Date Line somewhere over the Pacific Ocean and had therefore travelled forward in time. It was 4:45am on the 24th. Saturday the 23rd completely disappeared!

Since the shuttle running from the airport to our car rental company wouldn't open until 8am, we busied ourselves talking to a couple of the locals to get their opinions of places to visit, laughed at the way the restrooms were called toilets and that the lock on the stalls said "engaged" rather than "occupied," and waited for the real adventure to begin.