30,000 Feet

So we're on our way. Finally, after much angst and not enough planning, we're on a plane, 30,000 feet over Saga, Japan.

For such a long journey, it's been surprisingly easy. On our first flight, from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, Meg and I looked at each other and said "finally - time to talk!" But all we wanted to do was zone out, so that's what we did, aside from some very interesting conversations with our seat mate, a representative from Nabster, who was in Minneapolis meeting with their new parent company, Best Buy.

Los Angeles was lovely. We got a sunny, clear day with snow covering the nearby mountains, and enough recent rain to green things up. Mom's friend Sylvia picked us up at the airport and took us to a trendy restaurant in Santa Monica for lunch. We felt very far away from world traveling there - just locals out for lunch. Then we headed down to the Santa Monica pier for  short walk by the beach. Hanging out in the old haunts was such a treat, as was escaping the concrete and fumes of LAX for a few hours. I even got to see some filming down at the pier! No idea what, but we saw the fleet of trucks, cast, crew, lights, etc.

Our EVA 777 is  one of the most comfortable planes I've ever been on. The first class looked positively scrumptious with only 6 seats across. Our section packs us in at 9 across, but even that isn't bad. And the plane isn't full, so we've got 4 1/2 seats for the three of us. Personal video at each seat feels very civilized, where we navigate through menus to pick the movie, tv, games, or maps that each of us wants. I watched New Moon for awhile, but mostly I've been watching our flight path, able to zoom way in or out. And for the first time, I've actually slept. I hope I can still sleep when we arrive.

Our flight path surprised us all. We didn't just cross the Pacific. We've actually hugged the land all the way up the west coast, past Alaska, then down over Japan. Mom's interest in the window actually exceeds my own, so she scored that spot most of the time, but I got a turn to see the ice flows and snow covered islands of Alaska. It was very cool.


Here's a math problem for you. We left LA at 5pm. It was very light out. We headed northwest, taking 14 1/2 hours to cross 8 time zones. We arrive at 10:30 at night, which will be dark. How much of our trip was in the light? With the time changes, and the international date line, we sat here stumped for awhile, but it turns out that about 5 hours was in the light, the rest in the dark. Mom is over there watching lights as I write.