| Saturday 15 September | |
| In Detail
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Wow, we’ve actually made it!! Advance warning that this is written with lots of detail with our parents in mind – for anyone else, good chance to practice your speed reading. Trip was v v long, but all connections happened smoothly, no lost luggage or customs dramas and the kids behaved really well, so can’t ask for more than that. Started at 6.30am in Wagga, where Michael’s parents saw us off at the airport. When we were on the bus transferring us to the international terminal at Sydney airport we sat opposite that TV chef, can’t quite remember her name – think it’s Elizabeth Chong. She was very friendly and commented on Lauren’s colour coordinated tracksuit (ie lots of pink!) QANTAS flight to LA went well, we all watched heaps of movies. Had a nervous few minutes when the video on demand system wouldn’t work, they had to reboot the whole plane and thankfully after half an hour we all had access. Saw Oceans Thirteen, pretty average movie but I’m happy to watch George and Brad swan around in their designer suits for 90mins without being too judgemental. Also watched ‘Amazing Grace’ the William Wilberforce movie about the abolition of slavery, it was really good. I know Michael’s parents have seen it, but to my Mum & Dad, you’ll both enjoy it – would be a good one for your ladies group Mum, and Dad can watch at home. It’s not on dvd in Australia yet though. Kids all slept pretty well on this flight. Saw a lovely sunrise over the Pacific as we approached America, and great view of LA as we were coming in. Huge queue for Customs in LA, but then they started picking out families with kids to go to another line with minimal waiting – one bonus of travelling with children! Both Michael and I were fingerprinted on arrival (done by sensor, not ink pads), that’s a huge database of prints they’re building up now. Lea, you’ll be pleased to know I ticked ‘no’ to the ‘moral turpitude’ entry question and thought of you! Our 2 internal US flights went well, LA to St Louis was about 3.5hrs, we were all very tired by this stage, and got a few hours sleep off and on (except for Brayden who stayed awake). I woke up at one point as we were flying over the Grand Canyon, got a great view – hadn’t thought we’d get to see it, so that was a bonus. Brayden and I enjoyed it but Michael and the girls were fast asleep. One surprise for us with the internal flights is that there’s no meal service, you get a drink and that’s it. No movies either on our flights. We only had a 40min stopover in St Louis, so ended up grabbing some nuts and red licorice rope to eat (balanced diet for the travelling family). Nuts were fine, but red licorice rope vile plastic stuff that only Lauren could stomach (in small doses). We were all very happy to finally land in Orlando, amazed to be on time and have all our bags. Hired a car from Hertz, was meant to be a full size car that would take 4 suitcases in the boot. Turned out to be a Honda Accord that took 2 suitcases, so our 3rd one ended up on the back floor in front of kids, nice and cosy. We managed to navigate successfully, took about 30mins to get to the resort and only drove on the wrong side of the wrong in the car rental car park, so that was pretty good. I’m so glad we have 4 weeks here. At the moment it feels overwhelming, there’s just so much to do and everything’s huge. At least we have time to get through a lot, and still hopefully relax. We got to the resort about 9pm, the Lucas’ arrived just before us. They came via New York, then Miami. They stayed last night in Miami, went to Key Largo, swam at South Beach Miami (super cool they said) and drove up to Orlando. The resort here is incredibly huge. You have to drive everywhere. Our units are right next door to each other, big lake out our back door with a fountain in, we can see the Disney fireworks from here which is great. Got kids in bed about 10.30pm while we unpacked. |