Making the Journey

Everything was running right on schedule until we got a call from our travel agent around noon. "Call American Airlines right away," she said. Something about a cancelled flight. So I called. It seems that our 5:00 flight to Chicago had been cancelled by air traffic control. So we were to be rerouted through Miami - on a 2:45 flight. After a couple of frantic calls to arrange transportation, we showered and gathered our luggage. We left the house about the time we should have been at the airport.

We arrived at the Richmond airport to find a great deal of construction going on and not a porter in sight. Still in panic mode, we got through check-in and hurried to the gate, only to find that we had been selected for screening. This is not something I ever want to go through again. Every bag was opened and searched, our shoes were inspected, and each of us was "wanded" and patted down. Thank goodness they held our flight! When we got to Miami, we had barely enough time to catch our next flight. The trip to Los Angeles was uneventful, except for the fact that the kids were in row 38, I was in row 34, and Lace was in row 31. Someone was kind enough to move, so we at least got two sets of two seats together.

In LA we had to claim two of our bags and recheck them because there had been some error with the kids tickets. We were able to get dinner at the airport before boarding the LONG flight across the Pacific to Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific airlines did an OK job, but we probably will stick with Singapore Airlines in the future. The hot towels offered by SIA were replaced by giant wetnaps; snacks and beverages are available if you ask, but they are not offered regularly as on SIA. Also, we have always gotten "Meet & Assist" service when flying with SIA; they escort us from gate to gate on our journey, and walk us through immigration and customs upon arrival in Bali. Cathay's M&A consisted of showing us which line to stand in when we got to Bali.