Two Sunsets & a Sunrise On The Same Day

March 8, 2016

We woke up early and packed our bags for our departure from Sydney.  Rachel's washing machine was broken and the repair man was coming early to finish the repair with a new part.  Since she had to be at work, we waited for him to finish and then left the apartment.  It took a while to catch a cab, but we were leaving early enough to make sure we caught our flight back to Tucson via San Francisco.  We made it through security with only losing a small pair of cuticle scissors.  They were supposed to have been packed in the checked luggage.  Oops!

Then we had a long hike to our departure gate.  Along the way we went through the duty free shop and it was a good time to get rid of some Australian currency.  Gerry took what we had left and bought a bottle of Eau de Toilette spray.  It was cheaper than what she could have bought it in the US, so it was a win win situation for her.

Then the trek continued to get to our departure gate.  Why is our departure gate always the farthest from the entrance?  Finally, we made it to the gate and sat and waited for the flight home.

Our Qantas plane on the left awaits us.

 

Gerry patiently waiting to board with Sydney in the background.

 We finally departed Australia on time and had a 13 1/2 hour flight ahead of us.  The plane wasn't full and we shared three seats which worked out very well.  Each seat had it's own monitor and we settled in to watch 3 movies to kill time in between the dinner, snack and breakfast they served us.  It was a good flight with a minimum of rough patches so that was great.

We arrived in San Francisco and had a long walk to our next departure gate.  I mean a really long walk, except they had some people movers to help make it easier.  Our United Airlines flight was on a small airplane but once again we lucked out on the weather and we arrived on time in Tucson.  

Our friend Ron K was waiting for us and whisked us back to our motor home very quickly.  Thanks Ron for helping us out.  We crashed and went to bed a little early but didn't sleep very well.  It took us a couple days to get over missing a nights sleep and recovery was slower than when we flew back and forth over the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the US.  Of course, that was a few years ago.  Age does have a way of creeping up on us.

As the title says, we saw two sunsets and a sunrise on the same day.  We left Australia on the 8th and arrived home about a hour clock time after we left.  Of course we crossed the International Date Line and had to set our watches back to Mountain Standard time.

We had a great time and loved visiting Australia and finally meeting the cousins and seeing a lot of the country.  Sydney was very interesting and the Great Ocean Road was superb.  Thanks to all the family in Australia who made this a super trip for us.  Now to get them to visit the US sometime soon so we can repay them for their hospitality.

That was our one hour day, how was yours?