Made it to Cali

Shortly after I wrote my last post, I made it on to the 5:25 pm flight to LA. I'm still not sure how it happened. I was 13 on the stand-by list, but there were only six seats. Miraculously, seven people didn't show up so I ended up getting a seat. Thank you to those seven people...you made my day.

When I finally boarded and sat down, it was surreal that I actually made it on the plane. I ended up sitting next to guy in  his mid-20's, who was traveling to California because he had an overdue ticket. In a month, he was going into the Coast Guard so he needed to take care of the ticket ASAP.  His dad was a pilot so he was a stand-by rider as well.

The flight wasn't too bad. It was a big jet, a 777, with 2 x 5 x 2 seats across. Luckily, I got an aisle seat, so I didn't have to make everyone get up everytime I had pee.  I spent the 4.5 hour flight reading, sleeping and watching the movie, New Years,which was better than I thought it would be.

I made it into LA right on schedule, around 10 pm. Once I picked up my bag, which luckily hadn't been lost because it had been sitting in LA for 8 hours, I went to the car rental counter. The line was sooo long and sooo slow. It took my forever to get to the front of the line. If this had been the East Coast, there would have been a riot. When I finally got my paperwork and got outside, it was raining hard. Since when does it rain in LA? The car they gave me was a little subcompact (I paid for a compact) and my suitcase barely fit in the trunk. At least it was good on gas mileage.

I made my way down to Orange county and met my friend, Rose, at the St. Regis in Dana Point. She let me stay with her and her friend, Alex, in their room for the night. Thanks to both for letting me staying with you.  BTW - the hotel was AMAZING. Stay there if you ever get a chance.

Justin