The Hitch'n Post

The final leg of my flight plan was from San Francisco to Vancouver, B.C. As I found out when I checked in at the beginning of my journey in Melbourne, this last leg, while labeled a United Airlines flight on my itinerary was actually operated by Air Canada. Unfortunately, this meant that United was not able to make my seat assignment, that had to be done when I arrived in San Francisco. So yeah, I ended up in the middle seat, second to the last row :0) The flight was full so they strictly enforced the baggage size limits which meant my "checked" luggage was now actually getting checked - this was the one flight I would have actually wanted to carry it on so I could get out of the Vancouver Airport quickly. I was quite hungry now since there had been no time between flights to grab a bite and the last food the airline had given me was at 4:00a on my flight in from Melbourne. But it was my luck, and because I was sitting in the back of the plane that there was very little

The rest of my trip home was wrought with delays, hurry up and wait, very little information on what was happening next from any of the several organizations that touched my journey (United Airlines, TSA, US Customs, etc.) - it was a difficult part of my trip. Getting through customs coming into the US at LAX means you need to pickup your checked luggage and then ideally re-check it after walking it through customs. But starting with no information on which baggage carousel my luggage was going to be on, then no information on where I was to re-check my luggage, the LAX experience only go worse from there. US customs required that I fill out a form before my arrival but the form was never looked at by customs, the same questions are asked at the kiosk they make you use. My passport was also electronically scanned and compared to a photo the kiosk take but I still had to meet with an agent who does the same thing - Not a very LEAN process. The coordination between United, TSA, Custo

Goodbye to Melbourne, after a brief delay we were finally in the air. I ended up in the same seat I flew over in, lucky 28L. It's a window seat, which I like on flights that I'll be sleeping on. Having a window seat allows me to lean against the window while I'm sleeping (or trying to). Unless you are in business class or first class, the seats don't really recline much so your head will bob forward when you fall asleep - it's painful to watch people trying to sleep like that. The return trip from Melbourne to LA was a little harder than the reverse for me. The trip starts in the morning so people are awake and talking, the reading lights are on and the video screens are lit with shows. All of this plus that fact that is was during the day rather then at night made it was harder for me to sleep. Several episodes of M*A*S*H and a movie later we still had 8 hours to go - geeze this was a long flight. Eventually, we approached the US coast line north

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Starting very early in the morning the Australian Magpie starts calling . It has a very unique call that almost sounds electronic or synthetic. It's hard to describe but I was able record one while he was sitting on the fence singing early this morning:

I'm not even sure what the rest of the first day was like, I was in zombie land. But the second day (Sunday) was spent getting oriented to the stores and picking up some of what we would need for the rest of the week. Woolies (Woolworths), is the grocery store closest to us and there's a fresh produce store close by as well so we really have access to everything we need within walking distance. There's also a Costco a few kilometers away and we paid that a visit as well. And of course plenty of time was spent doing this:

The sun has been chasing us all night and it finally caught up as we made landfall just south of Sydney. Quite a relief to be able to see something out the window, especially land! I was just able to make out the coast line as we crossed onto Australia. Soon after the view turned to cloud cover below - obscuring the land - an appropriate welcome to me coming from the Pacific Northwest. 7:30a (Melbourne time and Saturday morning) Good morning Melbourne! The clouds are clearing out as we make our final approach. It is a beautiful winter day in Melbourne (54 degrees) and I am definitely ready to get off this plane. Jen was nice enough to bring Becky to the airport and pick me up for the final segment of my journey. Traffic is light because everyone is on summer break so it was a short drive to the house in Forest Hill. A bit different for me to be a passenger on the left side of the car but as long as everyone else is going the same direction all is well. 9:30

8:30p The trip from SFO to LAX was cramped and uneventful - still waiting for United Airlines to shine. In all fairness, the UA personnel have been really great it's just the UA processes and policies that have been disappointing. I'm sitting in the international terminal at LAX charging my electric devices and killing time before my long flight to Melbourne. I'm sharing the charging station with a couple of young ladies from New Zealand - we're all headed in the same direction. I think I will sleep well on the next segment, I hope. 11:30p - ish Finally wheels up. The Boeing 787-9 is a wide plane, I had plenty of room and I had strategically chosen a window seat. I like the window on a long flight that I plan to sleep on as I can put a pillow against the window so I have something to lean against. Middle of the night - constantly shifting, trying to sleep. The economy seats don't really recline much so most of my weight is on my tail bone and it doe

It's 7:00a and I'm at the beginning of my 30+ hour journey.  Why is it that as soon as I get in the car I remember the things I wasn't supposed to forget? So ten minutes into my "early" start, I'm turning around to get my tablet - geeze. And so the fun begins. 10:00a I made it through the Candian boarder without incident - yes I had my passport! And finding the JetSet parking was easy because I downloaded the map for that area from google maps in advance. I put my phone in to Airplane mode at the border so I did not get any International charges but Google maps kept working and directed me right to the lot.  12:00p As I'm sitting in the Vancouver airport writing this, I'm reflecting on the value of my economy ticket. I'm not allowed to carry on a full-sized bag but I did get the opportunity to go through both Canadian and US customs since I'm stopping in the US on my way to Australia - that was special. Right

This is what I am waking up to in the Pacific North West this morning: Alert: Excessive Heat Warning issued August 02 at 3:16AM PDT until August 04 at 9:00PM PDT by NWS Seattle ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM PDT FRIDAY... * TEMPERATURE...Unusually hot weather will continue through Friday. Widespread record highs are expected today and Thursday. Thursday should be the hottest day for most spots when highs will probably be within 5 degrees of the all-time records. Alert: Red Flag Warning issued August 01 at 9:59PM PDT until August 03 at 11:00PM PDT by NWS Seattle .Unstable conditions will extend farther west and include the Olympics in addition to the Cascades. Meeting Red Flag Warning criteria for the south sound and southwest Washington looks less likely, but still possible, mainly for a Thursday afternoon. ...RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM PDT THURSDAY FOR VERY HOT AND DRY CONDITIONS FOR FIRE WEATHER ZONES 652, 658, 659, AND 661...