AUSTRALIA - DAY TWO [PART ONE]

Today was going to be the day we were heading to Australia. This time we had tickets through Delta and they do not travel out of San Francisco, so we had tickets to fly out of San Fran to Los Angeles early afternoon. Emma and I took our time getting up. We had to be out of the room by 11 a.m., but did not have to be to the airport until 1 p.m. I asked the front desk how much it would be to take a cab into the city and have a tour before heading to the airport. She made a call and came back with a flat rate. I couldn't believe how reasonable it was, so I told her to BOOK IT! 

Emma and I had a quick breakfast and the driver was waiting for us. He put our luggage in and away we went! Talk about making lemonade out of lemons...best decision I made. This cab driver was great! The San Francisco Giants had just made it into the World Series, which was to be played there that night! He started by taking us by the stadium. It was crazy around there with the media. He then took us by the Bay Bridge. We saw some cable cars and he then took us to Pier 39 where all of the Sea Lions are! He dropped us off and Emma and I went running! So much to do around there and we could hear the Sea Lions calling! It was great! You could also see Alcatraz from this point! We got our pictures and we were off back to the cab. 

He then took us by the Fisherman's Wharf. I remembered being there as a child, but could not recall much else. Then, he took us towards the Golden Gate Bridge. I was busy taking pictures from the car and had no idea he was taking us to some of the best look out points! We got right in with the buses and we got our shots. We got back into the cab and away we went! What else was there to look at? By this time, I couldn't believe our luck by getting this exclusive tour. He then started taking us up some pretty steep streets. Before we knew it, we were at the top of the windiest road in America! He took us all the way down and then pulled over at the bottom so we could get some photos. 

Lastly, he took us through Little Italy, Chinatown, and every other "good" area you could imagine. All of the restaurants were making my mouth water. By this time, we had seen basically all of San Francisco and ready to go to the airport. When he dropped us off, we had been on tour for 2 hours! This was perfect, especially with a little person who doesn't like to spend a long time looking at bridges and windy roads, etc. This made our little pit stop all worth it. 

 We checked in at the airport and headed to L.A.  

AUSTRALIA - DAY ONE

Emma and I were lucky to leave Minnesota when we did. The weather was horrible and the cold flurries were coming in. Luckily we were heading west to San Francisco, so the weather would not effect us. We found out from the captain on the flight that other planes were grounded and were not allowed into Minneapolis/St. Paul due to the bad weather. 

On our trip, Emma decided to take a friend on board with us - George. George was on an adventure from Emma's school. The kids take turns with George, each one taking him for a weekend of adventures and documenting them with pictures to show the class. George has had more of an adventure than we ever thought possible.

We made it to San Francisco in good time. The down side - the waiting. Flights to Australia do not leave until late at night, so we had a good 6 hours to kill in the domestic terminal. We found out early on that flying business class on stand by was out of the question. Children apparently need to be 8 years or older. This made our chances of getting on stand by decrease considerably. With hardly any place to go and no Starbucks to be found, we found many interesting things to do to occupy our time and keep us awake.

As the time neared to board the plane, there were a ton of people. As the staff started to set up for the flight, I was treated very rudely when I asked about the status of stand by passengers. Odds of getting on...plummeting. Closer to take off time, we were told there were 40 passengers waiting to get on stand by and not everyone would get on....plummeting lower. The rudeness continued. After everyone was boarded, they called two elderly couples to get on and stand by was complete. We did not get on the flight...plummeting complete.  

Luckily, my fantastic husband was at home with his trigger finger just waiting to click accept on two tickets to Sydney for the next day. There was light at the end of the tunnel. Now, we just had to go back and get our back from the baggage claim and find a hotel. By this time, it was 11 p.m. Pacific Time, 1 p.m. Central Time.

We finally got our bag off of the baggage claim and Matt had reserved a hotel for us. Now, a cab ride over proved to be interesting when the driver had no clue where to go. However, we made it.

 By the time we got in the room and got Emma into bed, it was 12:30 a.m. Pacific Time, 2:30 a.m. Central Time. My gorgeous girl did great and that really helped me keep my sanity. Cost effectiveness was out the window by this point, but I knew we were definitely getting on a flight to Sydney, so that eased my mind.  

AUSTRALIA - THE PLAN

Our plan was to visit Australia back in August. Matt's sister was getting married during the time we would have been in Oz, so we decided to push it back to October. This time we had been offered certificates to fly over through a friend. Troy had a week off for fall break. The whole thing was going to be cost effective and the timing was great!

Emma and I were going to leave on October 12th with the boys leaving on October 13th. This would make our chances of flying standby better. The weekend before, however, we found out that flights were oversold and the planes overpacked. We were not going to be able to go during this time. God had other plans...

My trial, originally scheduled for October 25th, was pushed. This allowed Emma and I to head over by ourselves. We could not take Troy out for another two weeks on top of his other week off. Well, we could have, but did not want him missing that much school. Flights were opening up around this time as well, therefore it was still cost effective. Or so we thought...