Time to go!

Planning, planning, planning... reservations, reservations, blah, blah, blah... I'll spare you the boring part and get to the goods.


Before I agreed to this trek, I had a 10 Commandments of Travel created:

1) Thou Shalt Not Get Sick on the Voyage.
2) Thou Shalt Not Get Injured on the Voyage.
3) Thou Shalt Not Pester your traveling partner on Voyage.
4) Thou Shalt Not Annoy your traveling partner on Voyage.
5)...

You get the point.
These were agreed to with a "Yeah, right."

You'll see how well that worked...

Tuesday before Thanksgiving, arrives on a morning flight. We spent that day getting haircuts and what not. That evening, mom gets an email from her credit card company that a charge has been placed from Amazon Marketplace on her credit card.

Okay, I get it. You get a weird charge, you want to find out what it was. Hours on the phone. HOURS! My mom wanted the company to delete that charge - since it was obviously fraudulent - but NOT to cancel her card. It was the card all of her reservations and hold fees were on for the trip. This caused a really, REALLY, nasty problem. Also, this can't be done. It is the policy of all credit cards that one fraudulent charge shows up, the card is cancelled and a new one is dispatched. Kinda hard when one is going to be up in the air the next day. After a ton and a half of torment, the charge was forgotten in hopes that nothing bad would happen until we get back. Let's just say this review was a considerable TONED DOWN version of what actually transpired.

That night passed very uneasily, but at least we made sure the Skype was working and mom got to see her dogs.

 In the morning, final preparations were made, final items packed, kisses given to beasties, and we were shuttled off to the airport.

Now, I don't care what anyone says. When I write my book on 'How to travel with Seniors without committing Murder' (or something like that), my first rule now and forever will be:
SPEND THE MONEY ON A LOUNGE!

As mentioned in a previous post, the buy-in lounge we went to on a past voyage was closed. Knowing this and desperate to avoid having to spend any amount of time in the Ebola infested airport gates, I looked into Priority Pass.

 In a nutshell, you pay a yearly fee (they offer discounts from time to time), and you pay a discounted rate when you get to the lounge itself. Since I knew this was only way to get into a lounge in Terminal 2 of LAX, I gladly shelled out the moola for the privilege.

So, there we were. The Maple Leaf Lounge in Terminal 2 of LAX. 

 NOT LAX's Air Canada Lounge, but you get the point.

 The bar in the lounge.
Nice cold sodas, open bottles of spirits, hot tea and a coffee machine.


A nice salad and soup bar with chips and other interesting things.

Our beverage selection. Mom: Rum and Diet Sprite. Me: Baily's and Ice.


Me: Italian wedding soup (which mom thought looked horrendous) with veggies and humous.

Mom: Cheese and bread.

I had planned to complete my test for my online class in the lounge. After all they promised wi-fi. Of course this didn't actually work. I failed miserably. I don't know what I was thinking to try to complete an online course whilst traveling. Note to self- this does not work.

A couple of hours later, we were ready to brave the germs and head down to the gate.

"Awwww."
"What?"  
"I forgot to get a glass from the place like I did last time."
Sigh....

Yes, yes I did. I went back inside, acted like I was looking for my mom's cell phone and pilfered a glass.

 
I'll end here for the moment.