Cali Cali Cali

So here we are, in sunny smoggy Los Angeles!! No real mishap on the way in except when I was trying to board the plane the lady said I had to either check in a bag or stuff one into the other because I had a small rolling bag, a backpack and a purse. I told her but the rolling bag is small, she said sorry, only 2. I'm thinking what the hell??!! My rolling bag was easily half the size of most people's carrying on luggage!! !@#$!@$ Then to make matters worse, Anthony was ahead of me then another guy snuck in between us so by the time I finished biting my tongue at the lady, Anthony was already out of view down the walk. So I step to the side and start trying to shove my purse into an already packed backpack. After pulling thing out of all 3 bags and rearranging and on the verge of frustrated and lack of sleep tears, I got everything but a block of an external drive that I was carrying that had a copy of all the files on the computer we had shipping in the overseas tank. Fortunately right at that moment, Anthony came running up from the walkway and I told him what happened. All the other people had boarded by this time so he turned to the lady and asked if it was okay for him to carry the drive since he can put it in one of his bags. She said yes and apologized for being a stickler about the 2 bags but since a group of TSA people were standing just a few feet away,randomly selecting people to inspect their carry on's, she had to say it. She did look sorry, probably because I look like I was about to burst into a flood of tears, so I felt a little better about it but it didn't make it anymore frustrating. So we get on and apparently everyone around us knew since as we got to our seat the flight attendant asked Anthony if he found me and you could see the people sitting around us giving sympathetic smiles. I didn't say word, I felt embarrassed enough. And to think every other time I had traveled I had always stuffed my purse into my backpack....I should have known the one time I hadn't it would have been an issue!

We kept wondering how the kids were doing down below. As we were driving to the airport and while we were handling the paperwork at the cargo area, Senna was howling and mewling the whole time. By the time we got to the airport, she had already half destroyed the bedding I had put down for her. So every time there was a jostling on the plane, we'd look at each other and said, "I bet that woke Sete up."

We arrived on time, picked up our 4 enormous checked in bags. Anthony worked his magic and somehow linked one of our checked in back and our two wheeled carry on bags to 3 of the large checked in bags so that we would just have rolling bags to handle instead of 6. Anthony grabbed one in each hand and I had one but OMG it was heavy. We got on the rental car shuttle, gazillion bags and all, had some hiccups picking up the rental car but finally after walking clear across the entire lot (I had to stop about 3 times), put down the seats and loaded the van with all our bags.....then the car wouldn't start. Long story short, we had to get everything back to customer service then to another car then reload then leave. Finally we found the AA cargo building.....only to find out the kids were at the Priority Parcel Services area.....at the baggage pick up!! So the poor kids had about an additional hour and a half in their crate of waiting.

We spent sometime driving around trying to find one of the dog parks I had mapped out before we left. It must no longer exist because we couldn't find it. So it's about 12 PST by now. We headed to the USDA office and while Anthony and the kids waited o the side of the street in the van, I spent about 2 hrs in line for a 20 minute transaction. Fortunately we emailed all 65 sheets of documents to the the day before so they already had time to closely examine it. There was only a minor glitch with a date that I fixed so it was just a matter of handing them the original documents, let them scan through it again, then pay (ugh!) and get scheduled for the USDA vet to meet us tomorrow at the Quantas Freight building.

Finally, we found the other dog park I had mapped. It's in Culver City which is rather nice and about 15 minutes from the airport/hotel area. It's an all fine gravel floored and fenced in dog park with lots of pooper scooper contraptions and waste baskets all along the fence instead of dookie bags which I think is a rather smart idea and all the gravel means no watering. There was a few trees and covered benches all over too and a split large and small dog area and one time out area. So all in all it was a rather nice set up. As usual we got a million questions about our dogs but most importantly they got to burn off some of their pent up energy which also helps them relax.

Next we made our way to the hotel. It's rather close to the airport and probably a mile from the car rental place so it'll be convenient when we leave. It's certainly no Four Seasons....or even a La Quinta but it's clean. Kinda old but it works. The place is surrounded by thick metal bars and doors, as Anthony puts it, like a fortress, so probably not in the best neighborhood. I've already had not let two black guys that tried to follow us in through the gate. I quickly closed it behind us and each time they wanted us to let them in. Not sure WHERE the courage came from but I asked if they were suppose to be here and when they said yes, I asked where their key was. At that point they give up and walk away. Fortunately there's a parking spot for us right outside the gate which is right outside our special "pet room" so it's a quick in and out.

Okay, heading out for lunch....or I guess dinner since it's about 4:30PM now then off to the dog park again to make sure they're good and tired. So until tomorrow!!

- julie