Back in the US of A

Although our return wasn't as frustrating as the Steve Martin movie, "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles", it did have its moments.  The normally punctual Air New Zealand airline was late leaving Auckland, experienced turbulence over the Pacific and then landed almost an hour late in San Francisco.  With two fully booked international 747 flights landing at the same time (Singapore Air was the other flight), the wait to get through immigration was unbelievable.  We were in a "queue" to get to the waiting line maze! 

We were scheduled to leave San Francisco at 1:20pm, we landed at 12:20pm, and then stood in line at immigration until 1:10pm... you can see where this is heading.  Needless to say, we ran to the baggage carousel, ran and pulled our duffel bags through the international terminal (never saw a connecting bag check, not sure how we missed that one), ran to the domestic terminal to the US Airways desk, all the while dodging and weaving through college students heading out to sunny destinations for spring break.  I must of said, "Excuse me, coming through, trying to connect.." a dozen or more times.

Breathing hard and feeling very anxious because it is now 1:18pm (flight leaves at 1:20), the very nice US Airways desk person informed us that the flight was delayed until 2:10pm.  Yeah, sign of relief.  She let us put our bags right on the baggage mover, glanced at our tickets and sent us on our way.  No worries, then there was security.  Luckily the nice TSA worker there noticed our panic state and said, "you're a family, go through this shorter line over here".  Another thumbs up.

Through security we fast walked down to our gate to find a lot of agitated, angry people waiting for a late plane.  Patience was not present in several of the waiting passengers, we were just glad to be there and not have to spend some untold amount of time waiting in the airport for a new flight to Charlotte.

The flight was jam packed full, just like all of our flights on this trip.  We settled into a 4 and 1/2 hour flight (tailwind across the country) with our electronic reading or viewing devices and caught our breath.

Our bags came through fine in Charlotte, the shuttle driver to the motel where we left our car was on time and friendly, things were looking up.  Everyone was glad to see the blue van and we loaded up to go home, but not so fast.  The battery was dead.  After a few choice words from Mark, I sought out our friendly shuttle driver and asked if he had jumper cables, luckily he did, and after a few minutes of maneuvering vans to get batteries lined up (we had to roll the van out into the middle of the parking lot), we were finally off.  With the van pointed west, it was now almost 11:00pm on Saturday, March 22 EST. 

By 1:30am we were home.  Hugs to Gidget, showers, and then bed.  It had been a long day(s).

Now it is time to catch up on everything; email, grading, homework, bills, laundry, and grocery shopping.  Over the next couple of days we will post some of our final thoughts on the trip, more photos, and maybe a video or two.  It's good to be home, cheers!

Just like the movie, stepping into Narnia (Cathedral Cove, Coromandel Penisula).  We arrived "home" today.