Because of how time zones work, our flight took off on Tuesday, April 8th in the evening and we landed on Thursday April 10th in the morning in New Zealand.
Doneen and Alan picked me up to drive to the airport together. Our flight was to leave at around 6 so the goal was to be at the airport by 4. We got checked in with no issues.
Dion, Summer, Dad, Diane and Ryan arrived together and we met them at the gate. Danielle was flying from her home to meet us in L.A.
Very shortly after we arrived at the gate, Dion and Summer went to the Delta lounge. Dion is all about the lounge.
Not long after, I got a text from Dion that said, "Something is wrong with me" That freaked me out so I went looking for him. I did find him nearby standing by a trash can looking decidedly ill. He was very pale and in pain and not sure if he was going to throw up. Looked like a kidney stone to me which was very scary (worst pain I've ever experienced).
He kept saying maybe he should just stay home. I definitely didn't want that! He said, "if this was you, would you get on that plane?" and I said "yes!" haha. I figured he could survive the 2 hour flight to LA and then we could reevaluate at that point. He started to feel a bit better so he and Ryan and Dad went into the family bathroom where they gave him a blessing. He was able to get on the flight and had no issues but he drank tons of water and was nervous.
We arrived in LA and met Danielle, who luckily landed only a few gates away. We had a few hours layover so we ate dinner in shifts and Doneen and I went on a couple of long walks. There was a large group of missionaries in the waiting area so Dad shared the first article of faith in Maori with them.
Dion had gotten us premium select seats (the best seats besides the pods with lay down beds) which was amazing. We all loaded up and had extra leg room, a pillow, blanket and some other goodies to help with sleep. Felt like the seat was full of stuff before I even sat down!
I've need been on a flight this long so I was a little nervous. Doneen usually gets pretty nauseated when flying so she took some dramamine. We were using an app that was supposed to help avoid jet lag so it told us when to have light, dark or try to sleep which I tried to do as well as I could. I watched some movies, they fed us dinner and I got up what felt like a zillion times to go to the bathroom (was trying to drink plenty of water). Bonded with the flight attendant while doing deep knee bends in the middle of the night. There was a point at which I decided to see how close we were and the flight info said we had over 6 hours left! LOL
We had all filled out the necessary paperwork online so getting through customs wasn't bad. They warn you over and over not to bring any food into the country, even snacks that you purchased and have opened so we all ended up throwing away a bunch of snacks. (I had packed enough snacks for both flights...or so I thought). The fine is $400 if you forget and leave snacks in your bag so that didn't feel worth the risk. But I missed my gum the whole trip! (we never found any in the store!)
Here we are in front of the airport as we left to get our rental cars.
I am a nervous passenger especially in a foreign country and on the wrong side of the road so I had made a decision to go in Dion's car since he has done left side driving a bunch of times and it was Ryan's first time. I didn't think my gasping and potential screaming would help Ryan as he practiced. So it ended up the Doneen (also a nervous passenger), myself and Dad all squeezed into Dion and Summer's car while Danielle had a whole back seat to herself.
The airbnb was really great!
Arriving at the Airbnb
Entryway
living room where Danielle liked to sit and look at the city lights
lovely view of the harbor
pool not heated but we decided to do some cold plunges to take advantage
dining area...no kitchen pics?
Once we were all checked in, we decided to go to lunch at a restaurant in the nearby harbor. We walked over (Dad opted for a nap instead) and went to a restaurant called Grangers. The food was fish and chips, burgers etc. and it was amazing. We all thought so.
We had been notified that there were was parking pass available for the temple dedication but we needed to go pick it up at the church near the temple so after lunch we headed over to the temple. I forget the name of the sister who met us there but she was in charge of the open house/dedication with her husband so we felt really grateful she was willing to meet us.
We walked around the temple a bit.
We were met by a cute cat that turned out to be the "temple cat". He was fed by the construction crew and now just hangs around the area. Dion got some selfies with him.
We tried to fill the day with a few things so we weren't tempted to sleep so the next stop was a Botanical Gardens nearby. The entry fee was FREE which was awesome and it was quite lovely. We walked around a lot and were able to get Dad a scooter so he had no issues (though he almost ran a couple of us over a few times)
Dinner was at Zabrone, a small Italian place that was very yummy. The guy was cranky on the phone (phone calls never went very well...they couldn't never hear us well) but everyone was super nice once we arrived.
We bought some groceries and discovered that we were too sleepy to make many decisions but it was a good time trying to.
Once home I taught everyone a new game "Tapped Four" and we played until about 9 when we were all very ready for bed! We were proud of ourselves for staying up and playing cards!
Good night!
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