Photos during my trip around the world and within USA
This was one of the many exciting moments for me, bacause the plane had just crossed the coast of the Pacific Ocean,
and started heading down above the coastline of California towards Los Angelos.
Finally! landfall! after many hours of flying into the night from Melbourne.
Flying into Los Angelos
Bottom Photo;
Flying in a little (only 3 seats in a row) American Eagle plane over the massive! lake
which borders the Chicago CBD.
One of the airport buses at Charlotte-Douglas airport.
Charlotte, NC ended up being the departure point for my first flight on the long journey home.
An interesting thing I noticed in the grounds of LA airport.
I had a 5 hour stopover at Los Angelos before my flight to Dallas. Some of the first things I noticed was;
(a) the pictures of the President as you walk in, and (b) the airport announcer rattling off fluent spanish at "a hundred miles an hour"
Also some sort of weird suffocating odour on the bottom floor of the building. Anyway I decided to use the time to see Santa Monica.
So I put myself at the mercy of the "big blue buses", and the advice of the bus driver
who assured me I would have plenty of time to get there and back.
Had to take my luggage with me since there was no access to lockers due to heightened security following "Sept. 11".
Passed UCLA turnoff on the way to Santa Monica I think. Got a memento shirt from Santa Monica McDonalds, and had my first major "word issue" see my dictionary page, and that was WHEN I got to be served by the manager since most of the others there obviously spoke English as a second language or not much. Perhaps it was the combination of Spanish-American that threw me...*LOL*.
The beach looked beautiful. BIG, WIDE strip of sand,and the mountains rising up in the distance on the coast to the north?
(middle-right of this photo just faintly...)
I didn't have time to check out the Santa Monica pier, but there is a photo of the entrance below.
I remembered that song off the radio by Cheryl Crow;
"all I want to do is have some fun....until the sun comes up on the Santa Monica Boulevarde"....
I found the Santa Monica Boulevarde, it was a big wide street a few streets up from the pier. (To the right of the photo below.)
Japan was quite interesting, and very challenging given my language handicap, but not as hard as I expected, in some ways, and I got some help from one of the locals I met on the plane in finding my way around the terminal there.
It was a real feeling of the unknown walking into there. I had no idea where to go to find my terminal, even though there was a fair bit of English on a lot of the signs etc. Some of the toilets there were awesome. It sounds funny but they were.
Also found a 'net cafe so I was able to get on the email for the first time in a few days.
(Couldnt find one in Charlotte,Chicago or Heathrow/London)...
When I saw the McDonalds there it was like an oasis!, as I didnt recognise a lot of the food/food places.
So it was more fast food, and trying to sleep at the airport.
I was so tired when I caught the shuttle train to my departure lounge, that I was asleep within about 5 minutes.
Got woken by the flight attendants with the plane due to fly in about 3 minutes.
In the rush to get on board I left my jumper in the departure lounge.
Ran back down this really long corridor with a Japanese flight hostess,
found my jumper, and got back to the plane with about 20 seconds to spare.
So a bit of drama before my final flight back from Tokyo to Perth.
Back to Around the World in 5 days page.......004........