I'm way behind - already . . . !!!

Thursday, January 8, 9 and 10 (30 hours of air and airport time plus a crossing of the International Dateline)
The whirlwind began with a wake-up at 3A on January 8. We were out the door to the taxi at 4 - mountain of luggage in tow! As availability and prices of everyday goods is variable, we took as much with us as we could. We could have taken one more, but Deb said, "ENOUGH!!!"

The flight down to SFO took off promptly at 6 and landed an hour later. Four and a half hours later, we took off for Osaka. It was really neat watching the flight path, airspeed, headwind and altitude while we flew. I was totally surprised that we flew so far north that we were above the Aleutian Islands for a period of time. We approached Japan from the NNW, not the East as one would think. Ahhhh! The Great Circle Route! (You'll have to search on Wikipedia - I can't really explain the idea adequately). We flew at 41,000 feet at up to
600 mph and started with a tailwind of 24 mph and got into a headwind of 184 mph as we approached Japan. We hocked every United mile we had to spend those 12 hours as comfortably as we could and I must say it was worth it. I wish I could show how the windows dimmed - no shade to pull down. The window just darkens according to the amount you want. The very strange thing (to me anyway) is how we flew for about 12 hours, leaving SFO at 11:30 A and arriving Osaka at 3:30 P. We could watch the position of Noon on the flight display. It started near SFO and then slowly crept ahead of us, but it was daylight all the way. It was odd that at the beginning of the flight as they served lunch, they asked what we wanted for breakfast, even though it would never be night!

We had to wait 5 hours in the airport in Osaka. We were in the North wing with minimal amenities. We managed to find kind of mini-mart type snack shop and got noodles and curry.
The flight to Guam was about 4 hours. We arrived about 12:30 A, went through Immigration and Customs and waited for our 2:45 A , 1-hour flight to Saipan. As with all things, we finally took off and we arrived in Saipan - went through Immigration again, grabbed our mountain of luggage and were overjoyed to finally see the smiling faces of Marilyn Denio and Sara Stickland. We finally got to the apartment at about 4:30 A and fell into bed after a shower - and could not sleep! We were just too anxious to get settled. So up we got, downed a couple cups of coffee in the tropical early morning breeze on the little deck outside our living room.

Saturday was spent unpacking and organizing the mountain of luggage and discovering that one half gallon of coffee (dry- ground) had come open and had infiltrated everything in one suitcase. A little dusting and a little vacuuming and all was well. We secured a phone number and a car -

two essentials - and dined at one of the two McDonalds' on the island. After we got home, I decided to go on a reconnaissance mission to the north part of the island. My destination was a place called the Grotto. It was beyond beautiful - and the stairs down were beyond steep! Worth the climb down and up again. It's a favorite diving and snorkeling destination. We concluded Saturday with dinner at a special, nearby Thai restaurant - called the Thai House.