Monday, 20 October 2025

Los Angeles

Finally On Our Way

After months of planning and a weekend of panicking and packing, here we are in Los Angeles.

    We enjoy home-made biscuits and scrambled eggs for breakfast at Mountain View Retirement Village, bid farewell to our friends who are up at that early hour, and are ready at 9am when our friend--and cruise companion starting in Rome--Anita drives us and our luggage to the Tucson airport.

    We don't take anywhere near our weight in luggage allowance, which is four 70-pound bags to check and four carry-ons. In fact, we end up with two large bags to check (each weighing only slightly more than 40 lbs), and one carry-on-size to check. In addition, Will carries a small cross-shoulder carry-on and I use my smaller of two, but still voluminous, backpack.

    The airport is very quiet when we arrive for our 12:10pm Delta flight to Los Angeles. We receive excellent help getting our bags inside and checked, and getting Will seated in his wheelchair. The security line is a breeze, even given the metal in both of our bodies. And since TUS has installed newer x-ray machines for baggage, we don't have to remove computers and iPads. In fact, our carry-ons go through without a zipper disturbed in spite of all the electronics and drugs we carry.

    We are seated at the gate about two hours before departure and everything is running on time. The Delta first class flight is very nice, although it is the smallest jet I have been on in a very long time. Small enough that there is only one restroom--at the back of the plane. And so small that the overhead bins hold very little. In fact, every passenger who wants to bring a wheeled case on the plane is forced to check it at the gate. Which leads to an important question: Since everything with a battery must be in a carry-on, how come all this additional bags, many of them with electronics, are allowed in cargo? Very interesting!

    But the flight takes only a little over an hour and we are at the gate at LAX a few minutes early. The best part of the flight is that we fly first class free with Delta miles!

    I will spare you all the mundane details getting us from the airport to our nearby hotel, Homewood Suites by Hilton LAX, except to say that we have excellent help with our luggage out of the airport, into the shuttle, and over the short distance to the hotel, where we are granted early check-in. Added bonus:  the hotel is free with American Airlines miles. 

    Since the hotel is free we treat ourselves to a very nice dinner in the hotel restaurant. Will has a small spinach salad and a very large plate of pasta in a pesto marinara sauce, accompanied by garlic bread. I enjoy a large, well-prepared filet of salmon over garlic mashed potatoes and fresh green beans, with a small Caesar salad on the side.

    Full from dinner and refreshed from the restful afternoon, we are ready for a good night's sleep before we head back to the airport at 11am tomorrow.

    You will next hear from LFLatSea when we are in Istanbul.