Day 1. Or is that 2? Or 3?

---

Well, good morning! I am waking up after one awesome full night of sleep. We arrived here in Australia yesterday after flying first from DC to LA Friday afternoon, then LA to Melbourne on Friday night...arriving at the Melbourne Airport on Sunday morning. The flight on Qantas was amazing - a little uncomfortably crowded, but the service was the best I had had in years. Frankly, it reminded me of what flying used to be like back in the day- when Mom would dress us up to take a flight. Good food, great service - I'd definitely take Qantas again sometime.

We loaded the plane at 10:45 pm on Friday, taking off on time at 11:30 pm. A few hours later they served us a good dinner, then gave us a snack pack for the night and tucked us all in. With an amazing selection of music available through the head sets, I laid back with my pillow and blanket and fell asleep listening to The Tallis Scholars. The whole flight was quiet and dark for about 7 or 8 hours. Of course, then you realize that you're only about 2/3's of the way done, so then it was on to the wide selection of movies - Dark Shadows (meh) and Brave (yeh!), then breakfast, and then my first view of Australia, via the camera on the tail of the airplane - so awesome.

We arrived in Melbourne an hour ahead of time, but by the time we got through passport control and got our luggage, then got sniffed by the dogs to assure we were bringing in no bio-hazards, we were right on time! Having grown up overseas, I was suprised at how at home I felt in a huge international airport announcing flights to Bombay, Singapore, the Phillipines...As it turns out, this is the life for me.

---

Photos

First view of Australia
First view of the coast of Australia taken from the camera on the tail of the plane.

Melbourne Airport
I kept wanting to take pics inside the airport - and then kept seeing signs that photography was not allowed! So I snapped the first thing I found as we stepped outside the airport marking that WE ARE HERE!

...and another
Here's the second thing I saw marking my location.

Comments

[Faith]

Hooray! A great start!
Looking forward to details!

[Maureen]

Tail cam
Could you watch the whole flight via the tail camera? Very cool.

[potterdc]

Yes!!! Though most of the time it was night outside and not much to see.

[Drew Joseph]

wow
Your excitement is infectious! You haven't yet left the Melbourne airport and already you are living the life...

[Mom]

So glad you guys are having a good time. I hope it all goes well, take lots of pictures. Love Ya!