Departure Day - The day that wouldn't end

Finally, 28th Febuary has arrived and we are off to Mexico. Excitement was rising as the 7 of us met at Brisbane Airport. We boarded our Qantas flight full of enthusiasm. However after 13 hours of flying, we were looking forward to a break and to stretch our legs. As we had a longish stopover in LA, we thought we'd have time to have a good break.

We arrived in LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) at 6.35 am local time on the same day we left Australia. Having two 28th Februarys seemed funny at first but after 8 hours and lots of hitches at LAX, we were heartily sick of 28 Feb!! Finally able to get our boarding passes and check in after 1.5 hours getting through immigration, customes and baggage claim, then a further 1.5 hours finding the terminal for the connection to Mexico City, finally get to the check in counter but not being able to check in because we were a group, finding the machine we were supposed to use, going through each person in the group individually, only to find the machine wasn't printing so, back to the check in counter. Success at last - boarding passes in hand, confidently set off through security ............... another long queue and wait.

Very tired by now and not enjoying LAX at all. Finally to the gate area, only to find limited choices for refreshments and the long, long wait until getting on the plane with nothing to do but sit. As most of us had been up since 5 or 6 am  on the Australian 28th Feb we were getting a bit jaded with this travelling gig and the tedium of airports etc but being patient and obedient travellers, we just waited and waited and waited. Still another 4 hour flight to Mexico City!  AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH!!!