FLIGHTS

In October 2005 my mother and I traveled to Australia for my brother's wedding. Our flight over was 27 hours from Sacramento to Brisbane, due to stopovers in Los Angeles, Sydney, and Melbourne. We returned via Melbourne and San Francisco. So we got to ride a lot of airplanes.

The sunrise lights up the engine as we head south-west to Australia

On the flight over I sat next to two Iranian kids, 10 and 8, who were immigrating to Melbourne after living in Canada for 10 years. We had good conversations. Their parents and 4-year old sister were in the seats in front of us.  He asked me why I had put a shirt over my head:

For a moment I wanted to say, "Why, do I remind you of your mother?" But instead I explained that, with the earplugs and head covered, I could get good sleep. (Indeed I had no problems with jet lag at either end.)

We approached heading south then circled to land heading north at the airport south of Sydney. This was a close as I got to the Sydney Opera House, marked with a white arrow.

Our shadow as we depart Sydney. I asked someone "What happened to the 'U' in QANTAS? He explained that it's not a word - it's an acronym for something like "Queensland and Northern Territory Airline Service."

After clearing customs in Sydney we depart for Melbourne, providing a view of the Sydney airport during our right crosswind departure. On this flight I sat next to an American who worked Air Traffic Control in Melbourne since 1982 when President Reagan canned the striking ATC workers. He had just retired and was returning from two weeks back in his original home in Kentucky.

From the plane to Melbourne I saw the Snowy Mountains.

We had a good view of Melbourne skyline during final approach. On the return trip we spent a day here.

On the flight from Melbourne to Brisbane I snapped this photo of what I believe is the foothills to the Springbrook area, with the Gold Coast in the background.

A few minutes later I captured this view of a reservoir.

Generally on the flight from Melbourne to Brisbane I could see that much woodland has been removed for farms - much like the U.S. midwest.

This is southern Brisbane as we approach.

Here is our shadow in the final seconds of approach into Brisbane

A week later I have my supplies ready for the 14 hour flight from Sydney to San Francisco. We were lucky to have the center seat empty on this flight.

I had purchased a one liter bottle of Bowmore Scotch from Duty-Free at LA airport for the wedding. It was nearly full, but open alcohol bottles were not allowed on flights from Australia. I sealed it up with tape, returned it to its box (see photo), and placed it in a checked bag. Then at Melbourne we were pulled aside for random luggage search. The guy tore into everything, but amazingly after a few tugs on the metal lid and shakes the guy did not open the box to see my tape, so it arrived home.

Fourteen hours later we approach over Mountain View, about to turn left for final approach into SF. (The beach was not nearly as enticing as Sydney.)