Tuesday - Seattle and then on to LA

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Our final morning with Nancy and Lee here in Seattle. We ordered pizza and Chinese food for dinner last night so there were tons of leftovers for breakfast. Despite having packed for this trip once already, the final packing, laundry, and check-lists (school books, electronics etc) takes us most of the morning. By the end of it each bag has been packed and weighed and repacked at least a couple of times.

We say a long and grateful goodbye to Nancy and Lee before taking the rental car back and catching the shuttle to the airport. Joshua wasn't sure he had his DVD player, so we dug through the bags when we got to the airport until we found it.

We passed over the Saint Andres Fault on the way to LA which made for a quick lesson in plate tectonics. Despite the best laid plans (we had a layover in LA from 5:30 pm until 11:30 pm) it was difficult to get any school work done. A kind Air Pacific counter person pointed out that we didn't have the greatest seats and helped us switch them. We thought that perhaps the approaching anniversary of September 11th might make security slow, but it seemed just the same as usual.

We went through security early so we were among the first waiting at the gate. Over the next few hours the room filled up and the PA system was very hard to hear. Finally we boarded the 757 around 11 pm. We had the four middle seats which worked out well for a 10 hour flight as we could lean on familiar shoulders!

Benjamin and Joshua quickly figured out the movie and entertainment system and we were served the first of two meals. I don't think any of us slept well and by crossing the International Date Line we have effectively missed most of Wednesday.

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