G’day mates. We’re here.
The good news is, we’re in Australia and my marriage is intact. This might seem self-evident, however, there was a period of 90 minutes or so on Saturday afternoon when these outcomes were in doubt.
Shall I tell you the story of our misadventures before we ever even left the country?
On Friday night, Pete and I discussed what time we needed to leave on Saturday morning. Our plan was to drive from our town up to the Washington DC area, park our car at some friends’ house, and then they’d drive us to National Airport. One of the people in my marriage felt that we should get to the airport by 2:15, which was two hours before our flight left. Someone else felt that we didn’t need to allow quite so much time — really, an hour would suffice.
The upshot was that while one person wanted to hit the road at one time, the other person dawdled and wasn’t ready until nearly an hour after that time, which was convenient, given that person’s desire to get to the airport only an hour before the flight left.
Leaving an hour later found us parking our car at our friends’ house a mere two hours before our flight left. The airport was another 30 minutes away. Too bad that 30 minutes ran longer, due to a traffic jam along the way.
This meant we arrived at the airport just 55 minutes before the airplane was supposed to be backing out the gate.
Checking in and checking our luggage took a while and was only made possible by the kindness of some airline employees who took pity on us and pushed us up the line. The person checking us in looked doubtful that we’d make our flight and actually told us to run. We didn’t even have boarding passes.
The folks in security sent us into an expedited lane and allowed us to jump to the front of that line. We then had to run through the terminal to our gate. At that same time, I was clutching my laptop in my arms because I didn’t have time to put it back in my messenger bag after it was x-rayed and Grace was running in her socks and carrying her shoes because she didn’t have time to put them on.
When we got to the gate, our flight was boarding. Pete went to the gate desk to get our boarding passes and discovered that he had been put on the standby list, which meant that he might or might not even be able to get on the plane. If we didn’t get on that plane, we would miss our connecting flight in Dallas — the only such flight that day. As it turns out, there were a number of people put on standby because the flight was oversold. The gate agent was offering passengers $500 flight vouchers in exchange for giving up their seats on the flight.
We had a rather tense time at the gate, during which I was certain we would not get on that plane. But at the last minute, the VERY LAST MINUTE, Pete was taken off standby and we all could board. We still didn’t even have boarding passes; the gate agent just told us to take the last four seats on the plane.
Mercifully, we were able to sit near each other. That said, the spouse who wanted to get to the airport two hours early might have told the other spouse that it would be best if they didn’t sit next to each other or even talk to each for a while, as someone needed some time to allow some anger to dissipate.
(We’re all good now, by the way.)
After that, things were better. We had an easy flight to Dallas, with a nice layover that allowed us plenty of time to eat dinner, walk around and stretch our legs a little, and even recharge our electronics. We got on the plane a little before 10 p.m. Saturday evening and away we flew.
The flight from Dallas to Brisbane was 15 hours, which is a loooooooooooooooooooooong time to be on an airplane, I tell you. I’m not even going to discuss those hours because I’m not ready to revisit them.
We landed in Brisbane at 5:00 this morning (Monday), which is an ungodly hour. Luckily, getting our luggage and going through Customs was a breeze. In fact, it was so easy that even with our cab ride to our apartment, we still pulled up at 6 a.m., which was a full hour before the check-in desk was open for business. We dropped off our luggage and went in search of coffee and hot chocolate.
Sunrise near the Brisbane River.
We ended up going for a walk along the Brisbane River, which runs through the middle of the city. I swear to you, what I’ve seen of Brisbane so far is so lovely as to almost defy belief. It’s almost like the picture-perfect worlds created at Walt Disney parks.
A kayaker at 7 a.m.
We walked along the river for a while and just soaked in our surroundings. By 7 a.m., we were seeing lots of walkers, runners, and cyclists. There were even plenty of people who were clearly commuting to work via bike and Nike. Impressive.
It’s sunny here and the temps will get to the upper 60s today. That’s the antipodean version of winter, y’all.
Walking under the South Bank Arbour, which winds along the Brisbane River for a half mile or so.
We had breakfast in a little cafe by the river, then walked back and checked in. All told, we got in four miles by 9 a.m. and I was also able to scout out my running route for tomorrow morning.
As I type, it’s about 11 a.m. We’ve checked in, showered, and are now resting a little before we head back out. We’re all feeling pretty good, considering how little sleep we’ve gotten in the past 48 hours, but an easy day is called for, don’t you think?
Until later…
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Wow! That’s amazing! You did it!
I enjoyed reading this out loud to the other person in this marriage.
Glad you guys are there. Get some sleep!
Ohhhhh so glad you all made the flight
it’s all up from here.
One day, you’ll laugh about the plane thing. OK, reality check, one day *Pete* will laugh about it.
I can blog about it now, but I wouldn’t say that I’m laughing or that I will.
I’m so glad you’re there and still (now) speaking to each other. One hour early is not enough, unless you’re at a small regional airport. Checking Ernest in for his most recent trip at LAX, the PA kept announcing “check in closes 45 minutes before flight time.” There you go! (Since 2.5 hours early was barely enough time to get through the line for his Ecuador trip, we got there 3 hours early for his India check-in but that went really smoothly and he sat around at the gate for a long time.)
I’m nodding my head, I’m relating, completely. Including the packing misadventures…it’s all SO familiar sounding. So, easily, this could be me…but it’s YOU! Well, a big booyah for landing in the same country, all together. That’s an accomplishment, given what it started out as….I won’t mention the words that start with PA, but that’s my marriage. I”m glad you were able to watch your anger disapate like a slow leaky bicycle tire….wooooosh. I was not expecting a first day blog post! I know the photos you post will knock my socks off, and I”m looking forward to that!
Oh that flight. That. Flight. I am in terror just reading about it. FIFTEEN HOURS. Do you know how long it would take me to recover from that? I’d probably have to stay in Australia permanently. dear merciful heavens.
Personally I hate traveling with Nate. I feel like he loses 86,003 brain cells when we’re traveling and I have to do all the thinking for both of us. It’s awful. There have been times when I have literally almost murdered him, and those times were always in an airport. Dah!!
GOOD GOLLY this is their winter, wooooooooooooooooooooooooow! I had no idea it was such a gorgeous place!
Welcome to Australia. I hope the weather up in QLD is an utter delight for you all.
I have no doubt you will have a memorable and wonderful trip.
That being said: I would have died. THEN I would have killed him.
We will. I nearly did. And I seriously did. If it ever happens again, it’s definitely on the table.
Did you not have the option pf printing the boarding passes ahead of time? I am usually parked by my laptop at 23 hours and 50 minutes before takeoff, confirming seats and sending myself an electronic boarding pass. Such a huge stress reducer for normally-very-stressed-out-me!
We always try to print out our passes in advance, but the airline’s website was messed up, so we could not.
I for one, am glad to hear they waived you through.
In the good old days, I was known to get to the airport at the last minute and race through the terminal to get to the gate. On our honeymoon, I actually talked the man at the gate into getting the plane to turn around on the tarmac and come back and pick us up. (Our connecting was late, that wasn’t because I took my good old sweet time getting to the airport that time.). The last time I flew, I was exactly one minute late checking in and they bounced me to a later flight and every employee I complained to along the way told me flying had changed and that’s when I swore I was never flying again until I knew I could make my own rules.
I guess you just figured out which person in my marriage would be the one sitting by themselves in a time out.
Whew! So glad you made it! Nothing stresses me out more than close shaves making planes.
Glad you made it safe! Can’t wait to read more!!!!
Gah! Even though I knew y’all were there and well, I was all jittery-heart racing just reading that flight near-fiasco! THAT is exactly what it was like traveling with my old boss. He was always late. I don’t like being there extremely early, but I also don’t want to have to run through the dang airport. Someone would have been getting the evil eye and growls if that’d been me. Also…I probably would have left his ass and told him to find us when he got there. : )
Glad you guys have arrived and are adventuring. Soak up every minute!
Wow, scary times at the airport. I’m glad you made it.
Glad you all made it – sounds like it started on a nerve-wracking note! And I am suddenly very grateful that my spouse is as inclined to get to the airport crazy early as I am. (I suspect this might be different if we had kids in tow.)
How long are you all in Brisbane? If you have time, I heartily recommend Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. You take a boat up the river from downtown Brisbane, complete with a cheesy Aussie song soundtrack, and they take you directly to Lone Pine. There you can feed kangaroos and hold a koala (for a fee, but it was worth it). Then it’s back on the boat and back to Brisbane. Totally touristy but fun.
Anyway, have a great time!
Guess where we’re headed today! This was pretty much the driving force behind the trip.
Been there, done that. I love how you told it in a totally not-telling-who-did-what way
Phew. So glad you all make it with both yourselves and your marriage intact. I swear, traveling can really put stress on a relationship! Hope you guys have a total blast, and that the rest of the trip is a bit more relaxing!
So glad you made it on the plane!! Brisbane looks lovely.
Oh my goodness, we have had a run through the airport like that. It’s a memory I don’t want to revisit (but I am, as I type these words out). It was a really good thing that I couldn’t sit with my husband that day due to those differences of opinion about airport arrival times.