November 24th - Day 75 - Homeward Bound!
It hardly seems possible, but it is time to head home! We were up and had breakfast, cleaned the apartment and finalized packing. At 9am we tuned in to the memorial service for Anne Wadsworth's Mom, held on November 23rd at 3pm Buffalo time. The service was just ending at 10:15am when the cleaner for the apartment arrived.
We bustled our bags out to the curb and requested an Uber. We enjoyed chatting with the driver en route to the airport - he certainly was well-informed about politics in New Zealand and elsewhere around the world. Like everyone we spoke with on this trip, he was astonished by the re-election of Donald Trump!
That made the half hour trip pass quickly. We got to the airport around 11am - and the Delta check-in counter opened at 11:20am, so that was excellent timing. After checking the bags, Munroe made a quick trip over to the Alamo car rental counter to see if by some miracle his sunglasses were there. They weren't, so he'll need to get another pair. Fortunately, he has an older pair that can work in the interim.
We hit the Strata club after going through security and had a nice lunch. The food and drink were excellent quality - and Munroe found some Villa Maria sauv blanc - one of the Marlborough Sound wineries the his friend Steve Erfle had recommended. Sure enough, it was delicious!
Traveling home on Munroe's birthday made the occasion very special. It also prolonged the celebration since the 35 or so hours we travelled will all be on November 24th. Deb had a lovely selection of gifts in a gift bag and a nice card - she gave him this just as they were settling in to their seats.
About an hour or so out we were served our starters - a delicious shrimp salad, a green salad, and wonderful tomato soup. Munroe had ordered the pork belly specialty entree about a week before the flight and it turned out to be delicious. Deb had ordered the braised beef short ribs and enjoyed them also. Another round of drinks and it was time for a movie and some sleep. Deb slept the longest, though the beds seemed to be slighlty less comfortable than the ones we'd enjoyed on ITA for the Rome - Tokyo flight. Munroe slept somewhat less successfully - probably a total of 3-4 hours.
We got into LAX slightly ahead of schedule, at 5:20am. Customs and immigration didn't open until 6am, so we had some additional time to enjoy the Delta One experience. Moving through customs and immigration was a breeze - they keep streamlining the global entry process - now you simply have a photo taken and walk through. Our bags were waiting for us at the carousel and I didn't notice anyone at customs as we walked through to re-check our bags to Buffalo. It was flawless.
We had arrived at the Tom Bradley International Terminal and walked outside to neighboring terminal 3. We entered from the outside at the Delta One door - and were whisked inside and through its dedicated security post. Then it was up to the 4th floor and into the luxurious Delta One club. There seemed to be as many employees as patrons in the club! Everyone very welcoming and obliging. We took up seats on the outdoor terrace and had Eggs Norweigian - a kind of Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon - and a fruit plate - for breakfast. Deb had slept through the inflight breakfast service - just as well as this was much better!
Having eaten breakfast we decided to take advantage of the Delta One lounge amenities. Munroe had a nice shower and Deb had a relaxing session on the 'massage chairs.' Munroe had one also after he had showered. The chairs were amazing - a full body massage, including feet and hands, to the sounds of surf at the seaside. We spent the rest of the time in the lounge (funny how quickly 5 hours can fly by when you're being waited on hand and foot) reading, working on the blog, and eating a huge plate of sushi. Table delivery and all! We really can't say how incredibly luxurious the Delta One lounge experience was - of course, it was Deb's second experience since she had this first class treatment at JFK way back in September also!
We had 2 hours in Atlanta - time spent in the 'regular' Delta Sky Club in Atlanta Hartfield's B Terminal. Happily, our flight to Buffalo departed slightly early and arrived in Buffalo about 10 minutes before schedule. We enjoyed the ride - it was on one of the new Airbus 321 series aircraft with the full Delta entertainment/flight tracking in the seatbacks, in first class at least.
Unfortunately, we lost about 15 minutes to a stuck baggage conveyor belt but once our bags arrived we were able to get an Uber in about 4 minutes - we both arrived at the pickup point at the airport at about the same time. We had a nice driver from Uzbechistan and enjoyed chatting with him on the drive.
There were no dogs at the door as we arrived home - none to be seen, until we looked in the living room and both were fast asleep, Zara on the couch and Charlie on his post at the seatback of one of the chairs. Zara woke up with a start - and was VERY excited to see us. Poor Charlie was simply overwhelmed - he just kept staring at us! We we went upstairs, he jumped right in Munroe's open suitcase, as if to say, "if this goes anywhere tonight, I'm going with it!" Only when we were in bed did he 'join' us in his own bed beside us.
So now we've come full-circle on our 'around-the-world' adventure. Everything seems a little strange and we're both disoriented. Thankfully, after a day here, we seem to be over the jet lag. It was great to come home to find the dogs and the house/grounds in such great shape. Graeme did a wonderful dog/house-sitting job for us. And now we will have some time - once the backlog of mail, chores, etc. is attended to - to digest all of the amazing things and places that we've experienced over the last couple of months!