Tastes Like the US!

06/02/2022

Wow. It has actually happened. We have left Australia.

I obviously don’t need to bang on about this, but after 2 years of pseudo house arrest, as soon as we had a window of opportunity to escape, we took it. We were strategic… we thought what would be as safe a holiday as we could do that was still a little adventurous and felt like an escape. So we landed on flights to LA, then grabbing a car and visiting a bunch of National Parks.

Then Omicron came and we thought, “ugh… what do we do”. Well, we have decided to brave it. We are triple vaxxed, taking every precaution… and here we are!

I have to say, the travel was actually quite smooth, easy, and felt safe. We had our PCR tests on the morning of our flight (the most nerve wracking bit), kept masked the whole time, and were on a 80% full, but smaller, QANTAS flight to LAX. The flight was smooth, but the most joyous part came at LAX. Used to immigration and baggage often taking 2 hours, we were through in under 20 minutes. Yep. Literal 5 minutes for immigration, and then just the wait for the bags to arrive. LAX International was a fair ghost town, but I tell you… this whole travel made us definitely think we had done the right thing. I can’t imagine having this luxury in LAX again anytime soon!

We arrived in in the evening, so really only had time to get the car, drive to our hotel (the Magic Castle Hotel in Hollywood) and have a late dinner before trying to rest. I took the opportunity to enjoy the nearby In-N-Out for their tasty double cheeseburger. I really do LOVE these burgers. Plus, it reminded me that after 2+ years, we weren’t stuck in our house anymore.