Heading South and West

From Vancouver we headed south to Los Angeles for a stopover before travelling 6 hours west to Honolulu. This involved a 6am start and about 9 hours in the air, 4.5 hours waiting in LA. In the row just behind us a rather aggressive woman argued with relatives on the phone, then repeatedly told herself to ‘calm down’. After several minutes of this,  just as we were about to signal an air hostess and suggest that the crazy lady might need psychiatric evaluation, a large amount of whining and barking under the seat announced the presence of her miniature dog.

The plane eventually took off to the sound of a small animal shrieking its head off in terror. We tried to look innocent as half the rows in front turned, wondering what on earth was happening at the back of the craft. Thankfully, after take off the dog was smuggled back out of the regulation container and into a big handbag where it seemed to be less agitated. Definitely left me thinking that some sedation should be required. For both dog and name-dropping owner who managed to divulge a lot about all the places she’d been and people she knew in the space of the time it took to disembark from the plane in LA.

As is usual before an early start involving flights – I hadn’t slept much the night before.  I spent most of our airport stopover in LA curled up under a few seats trying to rest my eyes, even if sleep was out of the question with the constant airport security announcements. Our following flight was a bit quieter. We got to see ‘The Soloist’ which stars Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx. It was a good film, and oddly appropriate after seeing so many homeless on the streets of Vancouver. The flight finally ended, leaving just the joy of suffering through the nuisance that is US customs and security in order to gain entry to one of the more glamorous locations in our travels…