Vacation Is Done

We left Sydney at about 2pm Friday, and landed in LA at 9:30am Friday, 4½ hours before we left! We were unable to upgrade our return flight, but we did have exit row seats, so the 12½ hour flight was not so bad.

We stayed with the Shangri-La hotel chain our entire time in Australia and were very happy with the accomodations. I knew that Shangri-La is a common synonym for paradise, even though I had never read James Hilton's "Lost Horizon", nor seen the movie. Our room at the Shangri-La contained a complimentary copy of the 1933 novel in the bedside table, so I brought it home with me.

We checked in to our room at the LAX Marriott early yesterday and were hoping to spend some time enjoying the pool, but it was cloudy and cool here so we just relaxed in the room and enjoyed an early dinner at the hotel restaurant. We're having a little trouble re-adjusting to the time zone change.

This evening we board our last flight for home. We've been in 7 airplanes and 4 hotels in the last 10 days, but tonight we can sleep in our own bed. We had a great trip but we're looking forward to seeing everyone again.