01.08. departure

Straighten the backrest, fold the tables, buckle up - here we go again! Off on vacation!

Wake up at 6:00 am, grandpa picks us up at 6:30 and takes us to the airport. No problem with traffic, but it's really crowded at the airport. Once again, we gather our half of the living room (see the previous blogs) and look for the baggage drop-off. Check-in was already done from home, so that should be quick. But behold, even the baggage drop-off now has to be done by ourselves, instead of having personnel there are machines everywhere. First, we go to the machine to print the baggage tag and then to the actual baggage drop-off with a scale. There, each piece of baggage must be confirmed by an employee before it can be dropped off. However, this employee is responsible for about 20 machines. So, we have to wait for each piece of baggage. We have 5...
Customers are indeed the best and cheapest employees!

We pass the security check quickly and after a small breakfast, we're already on our way. The Austrian Airlines plane (Flight OS 081) is full, and we take off for Los Angeles with about half an hour of delay.

The flight lasts 11 hours and 30 minutes, we pass the time with in-flight entertainment, we can't sleep because of all the excitement. Surprisingly, time flies relatively quickly, and around 1:00 pm local time, we land in Los Angeles.

Right upon arrival, we head to the hall for US immigration - the passengers from about 10 flights from all over the world are already waiting there. Sammy, of course, didn't sleep during the whole flight. But now he's getting tired (it's already 10:00 pm for us). We somehow drag and carry him through the line to the counter (It takes about 1 hour to wait in line). The officer from Homeland Security is very nice, but he's in no rush to ask the obligatory questions or take the photo and fingerprints.

Hooray, we were allowed to enter!

The luggage is already waiting for us, off to the shuttle to the car rental. There, we have to wait again, not enough cars available. Finally, we get one, a huge battleship where we can barely fit our luggage. The V8 is more important than enough trunk space.

Then we get stuck in traffic in LA and finally arrive at our hotel on Sunset Blvd, completely exhausted. The kids go straight to bed, and the adults take a little walk. A very, very long day comes to an end full of anticipation...