Monday, September 1, 2008

Finally Home

Four flights, one rescheduling, and 41 hours later, we arrived home on Saturday morning exhausted. Our flight from Auckland was delayed over an hour and with only 2 hours to make our connection from LAX to Chicago, we knew we would be cutting it close (i.e. wouldn't make it all). After landing at LAX and then taking a bus to the other side of the airport, going through customs and waiting for our luggage (what good is it to say "your bags are checked all the way through to Columbus" when you have to wait for them, pick them up, go through security, and then drop them back off again? Why not just say "your stupid bags are checked only to LAX you moron!" What's the difference?)

So we missed our flight out of LAX and they put us up in the Hilton at the airport which was nice. We got to shower, read, and rest, and then we took the redeye to Chicago, then finally flew back to Columbus. We actually ended up getting home only about 12 hours later than we would have under perfect conditions. But we did spend two nights in a row on an airplane, and after about 6 hours of interrupted sleep the first night, all we could muster the second night was about 2.5 hours. Now, two days later, we're definitely feeling the effects. Both of us went to bed at 11:00 pm EST last night, woke up at 2:30 am and couldn't sleep for an hour. We then promptly slept without waking once until 11:30 a.m.! I need to get this straightened out quickly because, oh yeah, I'm starting a career as a lawyer tomorrow...

In retrospect, though, there's really no room for complaints. We had a great trip. New Zealand is a wonderful country with spectacular scenery and great people. Of course it will always hold a special place in our hearts as a once-in-a-lifetime trip.