Universal

I left the last post off at that point in time where we all happily boarded the A380 in Melbourne. We were a little late getting on board the plane and hence taking off, but given that we had a long flight and no connections at the other end, it really didn’t impact us.

Flying on the A380 was a nice treat. Nice shiny new entertainment systems with more options that I think I’ll ever need on a plane and friendly Qantas-style service. Possibly the best innovation as all as far as I am concerned is the self-service points about the plane that you can go to in order to pick up a can of soft drink and a small snack. It meant you could get one when you wanted without having to call an attendant only to find out that they were busy preparing for food service or the like (Or in the case of Air Canada, get a death-stare that makes you think twice about ever hitting that little attendant button again!)

The only issue that I had with the flight was that by leaving in the morning, there was no real immediate desire for sleep and by the time I should have been sleeping rolled around, I just couldn’t quite manage to get there. Oh for the luxury of a sky bed (one can wish).

Other than Emily, the kids weren’t particularly successful at sleeping either. And of course for the time that she’s awake, Emily manages to make a 1.5 hour movie that you’re trying to watch last at least 2 hours as she asks for assistance to play her game or do something with her. It meant that when we did finally hit LA we were all on a bit of a short tether, especially at that point when we collected all our luggage and did the bag count only to come up one short!

We waited patiently, but of course, because it takes us so long to fill out the forms and get through customs, we weren’t exactly competing with a crowd to seek out our luggage. Fortunately, just at that point when the last couple of bags on the conveyor had gone around 3 times without ours and the stomach started sinking, a helpful airport employee (not an oxymoron after all! – you know you’re not in Canada when …) came and asked us if we needed some assistance. A few minutes and radio calls later and we found out that some kind soul had picked up our bag for us.

Amazingly, they hadn’t managed to leave the airport with it though and we were able to collect it on our way out. They’d even taken the pesky nuts through customs for us!

And then there was the taxi. We managed to cram all of us and our luggage into a mini-van sized taxi. Four kids across the three back seats and luggage jammed into every conceivable space that there was and at that point Michael announces that he’s really not feeling very well. Of course. Well there was no option but to fish out a plastic bag as we zoomed off down the LA highways.

It wasn’t long before the complaints from the back started. Everyone was squashed and Michael started filling up the bag, much to the delight of us all. I think a combination of lack of sleep and not much of substance in his belly had him doomed before we even got off the plane.

The fact that our taxi driver would have felt quite at home in the streets of Jakarta didn’t help the poor tike and I lost track of the number of times I tried to stop the car Flintstones style as he careened up behind the car in front to seemingly randomly brake or swerve around them to the left or right.

Importantly though, we made it to the hotel and grabbed a couple of hours sleep. Somewhat rested and with no plans, we grabbed a cab and headed down to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre to check out the hand prints in the concrete and the stars on the sidewalk. Apparently Hugh Jackman had been imprinted in the concrete that very morning, at about the time we risked life and limb on the highway, but wherever they hid his prints, we didn’t see them or his contemporaries, finding only the very obvious place where some of the older stars were immortalized.

And of course the whole time that we walked around, Michael and his little bag of vomit accompanied us, not a good sign for the following day when we were going to Universal Studios for the day. I did have to take him out of the supermarket at one point. It just didn’t seem right to drag a kid past people shopping for food when he liked to stop every couple of minutes and gag in his little bag!

We had some dinner, returned to the hotel and went to bed nice and early, ready for our Universal Adventure the following day.

Universal was more than enjoyable, though somewhat of a test for poor Emily. The park really is designed for someone older than her and after having the pants scared off her on the Backdraft set, in the monsters special effects demonstration, the Jurassic Park ride and again on the Simpsons ride, I think she would have been more than happy to have pulled up stumps and headed off home. Lucky we never took her on the Mummy ride! She survived though, as did we all, even Sam, who just wanted to go back down on the rides rather than see all the shows.

The Waterworld show was certainly a standout for me and overall it was a great way to spend a day. We managed to eat some dinner before walking back to the hotel, where I managed to have a beer with a friend that I’d met over the internet some 7 or eight years ago (and who had conveniently moved from Florida) and then it was time for some sleep before our last day in LA. No need to set alarms, after all our plane wasn’t due to leave until 2:45pm.

And then Caroline was waking me up at 10:45am to say “We have to pack!” At which point frenzy began. We stuffed luggage and rallied kids from sleep and fortunately had bought a nifty luggage scale duty free on the plane because we had to juggle things around to get all the weight distributed. I tried to organize a bigger vehicle to get us to the airport, but they had to be booked 24 hours in advance, so once again crammed in the minivan, we nervously set off for the airport, hoping to make it in time.

We did that and flew back to Fort Mac via Vancouver and Calgary. Of course, when you’re expecting to arrive home at midnight and work the following day, things are never going to go smoothly.

The plane out of Calgary was delayed and we didn’t leave until after we were supposed to have arrived home. And so it was that taxiing down the runway into Fort McMurray that Caroline said to me, “you do have keys to get in, don’t you?”

Of course I did. Um, somewhere here, in one of these pockets. Or not.

So at 1:30am, with no taxis to be seen at the airport, at -4 degrees, with SNOW blowing horizontally across the darkened landscape, we pondered our choices as to how we might get in.

In the end we settled for ringing the people that Caroline had left the keys with (by which time it was after 2am) and disturbing them rather than chancing a window being open enough to break in through, or even having to smash one. Fortunately they answered the phone and we were able to get into our house without being beset by frost bite or hypothermia.

And at 3:30am we managed to fall into bed.



Oh, and I did go to work.