Leaving Brisbane - Back to Los Angeles

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We were up early this morning for a mid-morning international flight. Brisbane is a bigger airport than Darwin and they asked for international flyers to arrive 3 hours in advance. Our motel's airport shuttle options were 7am or 8:15am. We opted for 7am. We were given a key to the ground floor breakfast room yesterday and had the room to ourselves early this morning. We each had a bowl of cereal with 2 slices of toast. I had coffee. It was fine. It was convenient. The shuttle was on time and again it was only us. We used the self service kiosk to print our boarding passes and luggage tags and had no wait to drop bags. We used the restrooms and visited a last souvenir shop before descending to departures clearance. We filled out a departure form and got in one of many short lines for security. We went through all the clearances without a hitch. They were definitely checking ID against boarding pass here. Still we had a couple of hours to kill on the other side of security. We ate some more and drank some more and Clay bought some Maltesers for the plane. We needed to spend the last of our Australian Dollars. We went to the departure gate about 15 minutes before boarding should start. We could see the jet sitting outside so that was good and boarding still hadn't started. At some point, the economy line up extended past our seats and we were seated far from the counter. We looked and the line was moving and economy passengers were being boarded. There had been no announcement to begin boarding. We walked around that line and got at the back of the much shorter Premium Economy line and walked right on. Premium Economy is a great option and closer to what business class used to be.

The plane seemed pretty fully booked, at least our section. The flight was only about 12 hours. It still seemed harder than the other direction, which lasted almost 2 hours longer. I think because we left LAX at night and we left Brisbane in the mid-morning. They served lunch almost right after departure, not long after they turned off the cabin lights and served a snack a few hours later. They turned the lights back on and served breakfast a couple of hours before landing. We got in about 5:50am. Evidently, LAX rules don't allow them to open the doors until after 6am, so we sat at the gate for 10 minutes while we waited. That was the only delay. Everything else took less than a half hour and we used the restrooms. We used self service kiosks for immigration and customs was cursory. Our luggage came out onto the carousel as we approached. We called the Best Western Airpark and they sent the shuttle van right over. All this super efficiency put a kink in our plans! We were at the hotel before 7am and the Getty Villa doesn't open until 10am. We were told they couldn't put us in a room until at least 9am and we understood, of course. We stored all our luggage with them and told them we'd be back. We walked down the block to Randy's Donuts which we couldn't help but notice last time we were here. What we didn't realize is that it is takeout only or drive through without any seating. We bought our donuts and walked right back to sit in the small lobby with them. The shuttle driver and the day's new desk attendant both encouraged us to go over to the breakfast room and eat their Randy's Donuts but we already had all we needed. It was very nice of them to offer since our early arrival without plans was our problem. We got ice water and coffee in the lobby with our donuts. We watched a news program on their TV and checked email. In no time, the girl told us she had room 214 available for us. We jumped up as we had been having trouble staying awake. Since we had an hour before the Getty Villa opened, we laid down and slept for an hour.

It was past 10am when we walked out and Clay ordered an Uber. He accepted a shared ride and this time we got one. He was in the Kia when it arrived and he got out in Santa Monica. We continued to the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. They were serious about requiring timed tickets. Our driver was not allowed to enter until we had presented our tickets and they were collected. When we got the tickets in February it was because of a special exhibit and we could get open entry tickets good anytime within a time span. That was good news. The bad news is that the exhibit was temporarily closed while we were away and it was still closed today. There was no information or mention of the closure and of course we had surrendered the tickets in the car and had no way to double check ourselves. I posted the link above that confirms there was a Roman Mosiacs exhibit that is temporarily closed. We were told that the 2nd floor of the Getty Villa was closed due to a major renovation, but it sounded like that was for a many months or years long project. So we did enjoy the Villa but spent most of our time trying to find Roman Mosaics! We were too tired to continue by about 2pm.

We went out and since there was no cell reception out there Clay had to stay in the Villa's wifi area. This was wreaking havoc among the Uber drivers and users. Our ride over cost about $17 and our ride back when ride sharing was not offered was $53. It was a good thing the Getty is free!

Clay wanted to eat at Roscoe's across the street from the Best Western again. We had seen at least 20 people in a line outside before 8am this morning. We assumed that was the opening hour. There was still a line at 10am and when we got back at 3pm. We went in and got on the list and went back outside to sit on a retaining wall and wait. It was very loud and busy and the kitchen and servers seemed to be having some difficulty with filling orders properly but they were working hard and I thought the food was better this time than last. Clay didn't. We both got filled up though and it was the cheapest meal we'd had in months. Eating out seems much more expensive in Australia.

It is 5:45pm and Clay has already showered and gone to bed. I am trying to at least wait until it gets dark!  We will take the 7am hotel's airport shuttle in the morning. Their complimentary breakfast opens at 6am, so we'll have that before we go. Something is going on with LAX and AA terminal assignments according to the AA emails we keep getting. We have checked in online and been issued boarding passes but have not been assigned a terminal yet. I hope we get one assigned and can learn it before we shuttle over in the morning as LAX is a big place and we'd like a ride to the right terminal and not just any one. We'll see. Tomorrow we'll be home at any rate. It will take us a while to get adjusted to the right time zone and date I'm sure but it will be good to be home. This trip has been particularly hard for us and we're both rather regretting booking that 2nd cruise onboard. Fingers crossed it will be a good trip and easier and we'll be glad we did it in the end.

My next post will be from home.

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