We are not alone! LAX is as close as I usually come to an airport like Charles de Gaulle or Heathrow. Its at LAX International that I realize that America is not the only game in town and that there are a lot people who live differently than I.

And…it’s bloody crowded!

American Eagle from San Francisco to LA was an hour’s flight, nice enough. One deplanes at a small satellite terminal, takes a shuttle to the main building, then grabs baggage. One is supposed to grab one’s baggage. Our three (count ‘em) blue boxes did arrive but the big, red, Bill Bag containing the 2 jib sheets, a new halyard, and the irreplaceable injector tubes did not arrive. An hour and a half later, I went huffing into American Baggage service to start a trace. After a long wait, the bag eventually slid down the ramp and we claimed it, but only after a very nice young woman had made arrangements to get it shipped to Pension Tiare Niu on Raiatea. She didn’t lose the bag was willing to do what she could to return it. American Eagle receives and “F” for convenience and baggage handling, but an “A+” for helpful staff.

We had several hours to wait until the Air France ticket counter opened, so the baggage extravaganza consumed some hours that would have had us sitting where we are: on an unused baggage cart. After the Air France counter opens, we’ll dump bags, wind our way through TSA, and sit in the departure area for another few hours, until midnight. As I’ve written, we’ll look and feel our best when we arrive in Papeete, Tahiti at 0515 hours tomorrow. Yikes!

Rather than each airline possessing an entire ticket counter, each airline simply rents time at a ticket counter that lasts from a few hours prior to their flights until a few minutes after the flights’ departure. It’s an interesting arrangement but it means that one must sit with luggage until the damned counter opens. I want to give it to them, for heaven’s sake.

As I sit here, people speaking every conceivable language stroll by jabbering in their native tongues. I’ve heard everything from English and Spanish and French, that I recognize and partially understand, to Malay and Ethiopian that are a total mystery to me.

We paid a bit extra to get further from the engines on our Air France flight to Papeete. More leg space was another $60 each and I’ll make do. We do board early and that helps with our carry-on storage. I’m so tired from our packing rush that I might just sleep a bit, but I’m usually unable to do so in their tiny seats.

We’ll see, but this might be the last blog in America for this trip. That’s an interesting thought.

T and P...join us!

Hello, Ashly.