Read at your peril, I will post this excerpt on my blog as a reminder to all travelers how things were in 2023.
We both, the Countess and myself, hate the airport experiences, but apparently are a necessary evil. This trip home was remarkably smooth with some unexpected detours (one anyway).
It starts with a taxi ride from Casa Iguana to the airport, but we got a newish taxi with great AC and a sedate driver. We asked him to take us on the scenic road out the back way from Zihua. There were several new homes/buildings going in. It makes sense as the new concrete road has power (maybe water too?) The road was finished all the way to the airport highway and put through, about 4 years ago and goes through some most excellent sea and valley overlook view properties in it's 10? mile length. ($500 peso ride)
The lines at the check in at Zihua were shortish but grew after we got in line, that was the longest delay in the entire trip! That line was maybe 15 minutes, but then we were there exactly at the 2 hour before the flight. We both saw families with HUGE amounts of luggage. UGH We checked our one small bag each for the first time and found that a better experience than carry on.
After getting the boarding passes we steeled ourselves for the Mx TSA and found NO line. We were the only ones going through! Shoes/belt could stay on! Lori's hip gave the usual metallic scan issues but that is to be expected. I guess next time I fly, the same will occur with my new knee/s!
The wait at the airport was tolerable as ice cream and water were easily purchased and the crowd was quiet. We did find a Westjet flight that was direct from Vancouver BC to Zihua and will research it for the next journey to Mx.
Boarding in the B group with only our little backpacks was a treat, putting on the face masks for the flight while the bus filled up behind us, we were in the 7th row. No need to stash heavy stuff overhead. 3.5 hours to LAX and we had an empty seat in our row!
LAX has that interminably long walk to customs but when we got to the line snake there was another group from Asia (huge group) just starting to arrive. We got in line with only 3 families in front of us so that line was short and the exam from the Border agent was really short and sweet.
The checked luggage had to be retrieved, which was new to us as usually we are carry on but it showed up and we had to roll it a short distance and some agent from AK air took it and we were out into LAX and heading to get back into TSA approved space. Again, minimal line, maybe 3 bodies?
This time there was a SNAFU at TSA as we were told to take out all large electronic items and phones. We did, but neither us or the others near us considered a Kindle a large electronic item.... We had to send our backpacks back through again... Shoes off, but belt and wallet were fine. Into the LAX nightmare!
We went to our favorite food vendor (The Golden Road) that has sit down spaces and waitstaff who bring you menus and food and take care of you! There was a line waiting to get in and some QR code thing that I signed up for putting us #20 in line! While I was registering the QR thing, the line went away and a waitress came up and asked us if we would like to be seated! We got a booth for 4, ordered a great turkey melt with fries and ice tea. Great food and service! When we had finished eating we had moved up to #17 in the QR thing. We made it to our gate with 20 minutes to wait until boarding (Group B again) and found on take off we had an extra seat empty in our 7th row again!
There was an issue, all was not perfect in flight land. In row 5 (the last in First Class) there was a screaming child! OMG! I would have throttled it and so would Lori. I took out my hearing aids and put in ear plugs. All gooder! Traveling with children? Paying First Class and then have that noise right there??? Issues all.
We got to Seattle a bit early (2.5 hour flight), were the last ones on the shuttle train to baggage claim! Claimed our luggage and found our shuttle to the Marriott parking right away!
Adventure time started then, as I unlocked Zorro (the 2023 Subaru Outback I had purchased less than a year ago) and loaded the luggage. NO start!!! Apparently, we discovered sometime north of Seattle, we had left a map light on when we had arrived at the parking at 04:00 hours on our trip going to Mexico and not noticed it. The battery was too low to start the car! What to do??
The parking lot concierge was a young man who had a very small jump box device came out after we asked him to. We all looked under the dash for the hood release (I had never used it) for maybe 5 minutes.. It was hiddenish. Then with the hood popped, the safety release was also tough to figure out, another 5 minutes. Once that was done though the jumpbox worked perfectly and we warmed up the car a bit and were homeward bound. Dry roads at 38F and very light traffic at midnight all the way to Maryville and then some good rain.
We exited at Smokey Point and had all green lights home! (4?) It was a very smooth journey.
No precipitation at Griffin Hill, but it had just rained, getting the luggage in was a dry experience under a half moon and Milly the dog was VERY happy we were home! So were we!
Sleeping in our own bed is a luxury! With the outside temperature 40 degrees colder this morning we had to add more layers instead of just putting on a swimsuit. So it goes. The Big Dark is behind us and the days will be longer tomorrow than today! Our 'vacation' from our day to day retired living was wonderful and relaxing!
