Stormy Travels: Getting to Australia

Post Date: Sunday August 5th, 2018

Hunter and I have been planning to go to Australia for about two months now and it's finally here! My last day of work was August 2nd and I planned to fly out on Friday the 3rd, however, as non reving goes and with the help of bad weather, I had to leave about 4 hours after I finished work that Thursday. I took an Air Canada flight to Edmonton, spent the night and got on a plane to Hunter's bright and early. While flying the night before I planned to leave wasn't a huge deal, I was unaware my family had planned an awesome surprise dinner. I was so sad I couldn't be there, but so happy they were able to enjoy an evening together. They even bought ice cream cake! Thanks guys for making an effort to get together before I left for the year again, I love you guys so much ♥️

After getting to St. George and having the obligatory In N Out, we headed home to pack and sleep as Hunter had work the following day at 3am!

For dinner that night we went to a new place in St. George called HuHot. It's a Mongolian grill and so very delicious.

Sunday we again woke up early (not quite as early as 3am) and headed to the airport to make the Los Angeles (LAX) flight and the fly to Melbourne!!

Once we arrived in LAX we had breakfast at a place called Wahoos. It started as a foodtruck and is hunters favorite place in LAX. We shared a breakfast bowl dish and some breakfast nachos. Both were delicious! We then headed over to the international terminal to see the foreign long haul planes. Hunter teaches me about all the planes and tries to get me to remember them but there are so many that look alike I'm not very good at identifying all of them. I have the 747 and A380 down pat though (they're the most recognizable ones).

After walking around we decided to head to the USO. It's a military lounge for active and retired military members and their families. Since my dad worked in the Navy and retired, I am able to use them which is so amazing. They have a brand new facility here with a nap room, a movie theater, baggage storage, and they even have showers. We got our bags stored and then headed to lunch where Hunter surprised me with In N Out right beside the runway so we could watch all the planes, big and small, take off and land. It was pretty impressive how close they were to us and how noisy they were. There was also a park beside the In N Out that you could sit and eat at. We even got a milkshake. It was so cool.

By the way, if you ever go to In N Out, which I hope you do, my favorite thing to get is a cheese burger animal style with both types of onion and an animal style fries. I promise you'll love it!

Finally, after a 15+ hour layover we were ready to board our plane and begin the even longer 16 hr long flight to Melbourne, Australia. We thankfully were able to get seats in United's business class which was awesome. They were lay flat seats like the Delta One flights we have taken. This was both Hunter and I's first trip in United Polaris business class.

The flight

The flight to Australia was 15 hours 45 minutes. We got into our seats quickly and waited to take off. While we were waiting, we were offered water, orange juice, or champagne. They also gave us menus for us to chose what we wanted to have for dinner and for breakfast. Hunter ordered poached shrimp and I ordered spicy chicken. We then took off at 4 pm Melbourne time (11pm Pacific)!

The starter

Stormy’s main dish

Hunter’s main dish

Dessert

After filling up on Delicious food, it was time to sleep! The schedule worked out perfectly for reducing as much jetlag as possible. Hunter and I slept for about 6 hours then woke up and had a snack. The flight attendant convinced me to eat lobster mac n cheese which I shared with Hunter.

The plane also had unlimited access to snack such as chips, biscotti, leftover desserts from dinner, and cookies. I really liked the biscotti! After eating more food and making sure to take a lap around the plane to stretch my legs, I headed back to sleep. We woke up to breakfast being served and only 1 hour left before we landed. Breakfast was a delicious omlett with potatoes and sausage.