November 3 2012

The Long Road Home

It was still dark when I got up at 6.30am, readying myself to front up to San Diego officials for immigration checks. Decks 1 and 4 were called at 6.50 am and by 7.05 am I was back in my cabin, and ready to have my last waffles with blueberry sauce up in the Lido for quite some time.

I’ve heard lots of bad reports about San Diego red tape but at 9am they were calling for the first lot of passengers to leave the ship – and by 10 am I was sitting on a coach for HAL’s City Highlights tour and airport transfer, with my luggage safely bestowed underneath.

The coach wasn’t filled to capacity but it included Jenny, Carol, Norm and John from my trivia team plus my Canadian dinner companions from last night. As transfer tours go, this is about the best I’ve been on in that we actually had stops where we got out of the coach, first at Coronado to take photos back across to the city skyline, at La Jolla to see the sea caves and marine life along the shore and then a lunch stop at Old Town. We also drove through the Gaslight District and Balboa Park.

At Old Town our trivia team had lunch together in a Mexican restaurant, the others licking the salt off their Margaritas while I had a soda (while I’ll still be waiting at LAX for my flight tonight they will have arrived home!).

I think what made this tour better than most was to spend the final few hours before departure with friends I have made on this cruise so that it didn't feel final when I walked down the gangway for the last time. And I’ll be catching up with Jenny and Norm when they come to Sydney next year.

As I was the only person flying out of San Diego’s commuter terminal, I was dropped off at the airport first. I had read up on the facilities at San Diego’s International Airport but obviously had missed the part about the commuter terminal where I had to spend the next 6 hours.

Free wifi is on offer and although there were power points in most seat blocks to recharge your iPad, phone, laptop etc. the majority did not work. With vacant seats available for passengers, it is always amusing to see some seated on the floor immediately outside restrooms because that is where the only working power source is – for the cleaners!

Over the last few days I had watched news coverage of Superstorm Sandy and one thing that stood out for me was how much we rely on the ability to recharge our gadgets now to stay in touch with people. A lot of people have given up landlines and rely on mobile phones, which are great as long as you have a charged battery, and this was difficult for a lot of those affected by the storm. All three airports I have spent time  in (as in many hours!) on this trip – Sydney, LAX and San Diego – offer free wifi but not enough charging facilities and it has been interesting to see passengers breathing down the necks of others, waiting for them to unplug and move on.

My little commuter flight to LAX also carried the three Aussies from Maske but they sat at the back of the plane so I didn’t speak to them. The seatbelt off sign had barely come on

In LAX I had 2 hours to fill in before the long haul home. The A380 to Sydney left just before my flight so after my 747 took off we were hit with quite a bit of turbulence as we were in the jet stream of either it or one of the other 3 Qantas flights departing at around the same time for Australia. Whichever one it was, it caused quite a few bumpy minutes. I’m a seasoned traveller but I was a little unnerved as it wasn’t like turbulence I’ve experienced in the past so I was glad when the Captain explained the cause.