G' Day!

Quantas Admirals Club

G'Day!  We made it to Australia, safe and sound.  (I wrote an entire blog post yesterday..and it all deleted just as I was adding pictures...ugghhhh!!)

There is too much to tell in just one post- so I will break it up in the next few blog posts. 

Starting with our flight.

January 17, 2011:  Quantas Flight 17 departing at 11:50pm

Grandpa and Dyllan before we left for LAX

We packed up Dad's truck- 6 huge bags, 1 stroller, a grocery bag of snacks, and a baby and cruised to LAX with Grandpa behind the wheel.  We weren't sure if Grandpa was going to be able to drive the truck due to his recovering knee- but sure enough he shimmied into the drivers seat, and away we went.  We arrived at LAX nice and early (7:15pm)- as we were advised the baby bassinet was available on a first come first serve basis.  We had a strategy.  Grandpa sat in the truck,  I went inside to start the baggage boarding process, while Dan shuttled the bags from the truck to the ticketing counter.  We kissed Grandpa goodbye and began checking our bags in.  As we put each bag on the scale- one by one.. they ALL exceeded the MAX weight limit (70lbs), even though Dan swore when he weighed them at Grandpa's house, they were all under.  haha.  Not wanting to spend a single extra dollar- we shuffled the bags around and attempted to get the weight down.  Despite our efforts it was useless.  We had too much stuff.  Lucky for us- we got there so early that no one else was checking in and we had all the ticketing agents full attention.  Dyllan was happy and smiling and managed to attract the manager over to our circus.  She took one look at our stuff and said that if we were moving to Australia- she could waive the fees.  WHAT?  Who would have known that.  We really didn't have any way of proving that we were moving, apart from all of our bags..  and our tickets were return tickets, which didn't really help our case.  We insisted that we were really moving- and she believed us and said.. "Im only doing this because your baby is so cute".  We couldn't believe it- all 5 bags and the bike box (what should have cost us $400+ if they wernt over the max weight limit) free.

Admirals Club

We got through security- with only one little hold up- the Bob (stroller) got jammed in the xray machine and held up the line as 2 guys managed to fan dangle it out- and headed for the Admirals Club.  We tried our luck at getting in for free, or at least a discount- but had no luck this time.  So we decided to bit the bullet and pay for a day pass.  After all we had 2 and a half hours to kill before we boarded our flight.  For $50 each (Dyllan was free) you get a day pass which includes all the free food and non-alcoholic drinks you can consume, plus 4 cocktail vouchers!  Not to mention, TV, showers, view of the runway, and great people watching.. We enjoyed martini's and bloody mary's and snacked on turkey sub sandwiches, chex mix, cheese and crackers, and fruit- as we tried desperately to keep Dyllan awake until we got on the plane.

Dan and Dyllan having fun before boarding the flight

Before the flight everyone we talked to advised us to keep Dyllan awake as long as possible- so that she would sleep well on the flight. Poor thing was so over tired that she could barley keep her eyes open- and kept drifting off. We finally boarded the plane- got situated and just as we were pulling back from the gate... Dyllan threw up all over herself and Dan. Poor little bug.. she has never thrown up before, so that was the last thing we were expecting. I got up to get some paper towel and the flight attendant told me that I needed to sit down because we were about to take off. We stripped Dyllan down and got her a fresh pair of jammies. Dan stripped down too- and had to go shirtless until the plane was in the air. haha, I don't think he minded too much- because as soon as the fasten seat belt sign came off, the flight attendant came around and gave him a free pair of Quantas pajamas!

Dozing off...

Playing and keeping Dyllan awake before the flight

The rest of the flight was a little better, but not much.  Dyllan figured out how to escape her cot the min we put her in, so trying to sleep knowing that she could and would escape was tricky to say the least.  Dyllan slept for about 4 or 5 hours (she normally sleeps 12 or 13 at night- so we were hoping she would do the same on the flight).  Dan was amazing.  He took care of Dyllan pretty much the entire flight.  He walked her up and down the isles, fed her, played with her, and kept her pretty quiet the rest of the flight.

13 long hours later, we arrived in Brisbane, Australia!  Jet-lagged was an understatement.  We cleared customs, gathered our bags- and got held up by security for not declaring Dan's bike.  Apparently Dan's bike could be smuggling foreign soils into the country.  Lucky for us, there was no dirt on the tires- so we were not fined $130, phew!  (They didn't even look at Dyllan's stroller tires which were covered in mud)
We rechecked our bags and raced to the gate.  The second flight wasn't so bad at all.  Only an hour or so- and Dyllan was our entertainment.

So much fun playing in my bassinet

Im warning you mom and dad... be nice or I just might jump!

Settled down... for less than a second.

When we arrived in Sydney, we were pleasantly surprised to have Dan's mom, "Yunny" greet us at the gate.  Leave it to her to sneak through security without a boarding pass to greet us at the gate.  "Lozzo", Dan's dad was waiting at the curb with a huge cage/trailer attached to his car for our bags.  We were glad to be here.

We spent the rest of the afternoon talking and catching up, getting the grand tour of our new place, and doing a little unpacking.