...Finally on my way

The day finally arrived.  I had my plane tickets for London.  The only downside was the 7 hour layover in LA, but a small price to pay for finally being on my way.

My daughters picked me up at 9:00am in Salem to drive me to the airport.  It was Father's day so I wanted to spend at least some time with them.  We had brunch at the airport, and both of them game me photo's from when they were younger for my desk in St. Albans.

I flew United to Los Angeles and checked into Virgin Atlantic to get my boarding pass.  Ruben was kind enough to take some time off from his Father's day to come get me at the airport.  We drove up Pacific Highway into Malibu.  Lots of beautiful beaches along this road. 

We stopped for dinner at the Chart House where I had the Prime Rib.  Peter had warned me that the beef was much more expensive in the UK, so I stocked up on a last meal.  It was very nice to see them again, and I look forward to showing them around St. Albans when they come out in July.

After returning to the airport, I finally boarded my plane to the UK.  It was a non stop flight and was going to be over 10 hours long.  We left at 9:15pm and landed at 4:00pm in London.  I was immediately grateful to be flying out Premium Economy.  The space was similar to a first class seat on a domestic flight, and they gave me some Sparkling Wine while we were at the gate.  Definitely the way to start a long flight.

I forced myself to stay awake for the entire flight watching five movies.  Well really six movies as I only watch half of two of them before getting bored.  I don't know about other long flights, but on Virgin you basically have your own personal video red box.  There were over 73 movies plus games and TV shows.  I played a game of chess with another passenger on the plane over their network.

Since I stayed awake the whole time, I got to interact with the flight crew quite a bit (I was the only one awake in my section).  So they gave me one of the few surveys each flight with a chance to win $400 (250 pounds).



The Black Lion Inn - My room is in the upper right with
the window open



Once I landed it took me over an hour to get through immigration and out into the airport where I was picked up by Greg from HCSCars.  It was a great ride, I rode up front to play with the buttons in the car per Peter's advice.  The drive to St. Albans looked pretty much like driving through Oregon (Aside from the cars on the wrong side of the road).  Once we got near my hotel (The Black Lion Inn) I started to see the narrow streets and very old buildings.

I go to the hotel around 6:00 ate dinner and forced myself to stay up till 9:30pm to get into the correct sleeping pattern as quickly as possible.