2nd April - Off to the USA!

I am sitting in the Adelaide Qantas Club after little sleep and constant panic this morning...always the panic thinking you have forgotten to pack something or done something. It is too late to do anything now but I suppose as long as we have our passport and our credit card we will be alright. The panic about being away from family for such a long time is palpable and the knot in my stomach is obvious.

The transition to the Qantas Club was pretty smooth with a small hiccup on checking baggage...as I have now dropped status with Qantas Frequent Flyer I was advised by the auto bag drop station that my additional bag would be $100 but the lovely staff waived it as we were connecting with our overseas flight tomorrow.

A smooth flight and shortly after that we were in an Uber to stay overnight with Catherine, Daniel and the kitties. As there was no need to rush for a morning flight we had a reasonably good sleep before leaving there about 1pm.  The stay in the Qantas Business Lounge was quite relaxing before boarding some 40 minutes later.

The only hassle was being taken from the line at the departure gate to an inspection area where my coat and shoes were removed (again) and the laptop opened and checked for gun shot residue as were my hands and shoes.  Steve was patiently waiting on the other side of the check in desk so we just smiled…Steve always calls me a sh*t stick and once again he was proven correct.  All that was forgotten once we settled into our seats and had a glass of bubbles to celebrate.

The flight went very smoothly – a nice dinner of prawns followed by fillet steak.  Half a glass of red wine and a sleeping tablet later it was time for bed and I think I got about 7 hours all up that I was very happy with.  Only 2 hours or so until landing which was seamless.  Off the plane and into Homeland Security and the long snake of people waiting for clearance. The snake took about 30 minutes until we were at the head of the queue and then we  were very quickly through and it was out to see if the luggage had arrived.  Lucky here too – all bags accounted for.

I had paid for our Flyways ticket to Union Station so we headed outside to the bus stop.  Quite a chaotic area with people pushing and shoving and getting in the way.  Lots of people trying to get to the front but just getting in the way of people trying to get past the bus stop.  Eventually we had our bags packed then entered the bus for the approximately 40 minute trip to Union Station.

Once there we grabbed an Uber and headed to the CitizenM hotel in South Spring Street.  We have stayed with them in the past so we knew the room was going to be compact but with 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks it was quite tight!

We decided to go for a walk to the local Farmers’ Market for an early dinner.  Unfortunately Steve’s right knee was playing up so we headed to a pharmacy first to stock up on painkillers then it was back to the market for dinner after a couple of glasses of locally brewed beer.  I headed off to the Mexican place to get some dinner.  It was so loud and the man was wearing a mask so it was very hard to understand him but eventually we worked out that Steve wanted a beef burrito and I had a Chicken Gordita.  Both were delicious even though I left most of the masa behind and only ate the chicken, beans and salad.

Angels Flight Railway is just across the road from the market and we headed up the stairs to check it out as they had closed for a few minutes.  This is a really pretty little funicular railway that is 118 years old and is also the world’s shortest railway but they believe it has carried more people over the years than any other railway line.

We headed back to the hotel for a drink before bed and hope we have a good sleep.  It has been a really good day and we are both very tired.