Going to Australia

On July 2nd, April & Jon Rose embarked on a trip to the other side of the world where no West Indian has gone before. LOL Okay maybe we're the second set that has made this journey but whatever the number I couldn't wait. So for this trip I kind of handled it a little differently. Those who know me know that I have a trip bible filled with daily itineraries. This time I just wanted to wing it. Jon's Dad picked us up that Thursday morning and took us to Newark where the first leg of our journey started. By the way thanks Dad for that airport drop. I decided to use Continental Airlines because we have frequent flyer miles with them through our Chase account (trust me it comes in handy) and I find that leaving from Newark is relatively cheaper than the other NY airports . Another plus is that their planes are really nice and roomy and offer a free food and beverage service. Even though there were self-service kiosks instead of counters, the attendants present were still very helpful. One attendant helped us to get two exit row seats.
Our flight was due in at 4pm at LAX and David and Jeff were scheduled to get there around the same time..... oh, so we thought. Since my cousin David works for US Airways he tends to fly with them or their partners, standby. As we were taxing on our aircraft, I decided to check my voicemail and I listened to a message that started with," Well, April we're having a great start to our trip." Apparently David and Jeff were supposed to fly to Long Beach but then they got a flight out to LAX instead. However, their luggage went to Long beach which is 30-45 minute drive on the infamous 405 during rush hour. Yeah... Great Start. How are we going to get the luggage? Well: by driving. Jon and I checked in at V Australia first and met up with the boys. Since I have never been to LA and we had all of this lay over time, I didn't mind going with them for the ride. We passed by and took pictures of the famous Randy's Donut shop where I had a delicious glazed donut for 60 cents. We were hungry on our way back and Jeff recommended the In~and~Out Burger joint. The burger was just okay. It was really thin like a White Castle burger and the fries were freshly cut and only had flavor once you added their secret sauce on them ( the secret sauce of course being Thousand Island).
Now that we got the luggage, ate, and checked in it was off to our gate . David was a little disappointed that he could not see the different international airplanes because it was dark, but at least we did see the big LAX sign. Wi-fi is available at the airport but for a cost of $7.99 via T-mobile hot spot. There are also Samsung charging stations. 10:30pm rolled around eventually and it was time to board . My hands began to sweat because I couldn't believe I was about to embark on this dream trip of mine for 14 hours, but, here we go. As I approached the jetway, I saw what resembled a bar at a club. I said to myelf like Madea would say," Hallelulya! I can get drunk." The plane was so wide, fresh and brand new smelling, with subtle blue atmospheric lights that made you feel as if you were in a lounge/club..... and it just felt great. We had seats in economy and David picked them out the right way. Before I proceed I will let you know that unfortunately Jon could not get an exit row seat. On V Australia you have to pay a little over $100 each way for an exit row seat. He was still comfortable in the seat we had in economy. Now back to the genius of my cousin. We were all in row 26 but it was in this order: window- David, middle seat- empty, aisle seat- me, then in the middle group of seats were : aisle-Jon, middle seat-empty, aisle- Jeff. We were counting on the fact that the flight was not fully booked. At first the counter clerks told us they were fully booked but when we saw no one sitting in-between us we knew we were in the clear. Now I could rest and watch some movies with their excellent in-flight entertainment. G'day mate.