The Endless Day (Ch 1)

Prologue…

This is Part 1 of a Who-Knows-How-Many Parts Fable about a Certain Family and their Great Mystery Tour of America. You may need a good coffee and a comfy chair for each instalment.  And a decent imagination won’t go astray either. Shall we begin?

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Once upon a time, about one month and one week ago, a Certain Family set out for a Grand Adventure…

The Mother bought shiny cherry-red luggage, and packed and planned and schemed and failed to mention ANYTHING about it on her little part of BlogLand, so she could surprise her Very Special Blog Buddy.  She didn’t Tweet about it, and she didn’t Facebook about it either.  It was all wonderfully cloak-and-daggar, but the non-adventure-blogging was VERY hard for the mother to do, as she so loves blogging and sharing her whinges about lack of sleep to someone who might listen. She even set up phantom (scheduled) blog posts like this to cover her for the days she knew she couldn’t blog.

The trip almost got canned before it started anyway, thanks to the massive floods in the weeks leading up to the intended liftoff.  But this family worked hard and prayed for a little sunshine and managed to get most of the major chores ticked off their ‘To Do’ list.  And then the Australian Dollar played nice for travellers and chased the American dollar til it caught it, and the decision to go ahead was finally made.

The prospect of the Grand Overseas Adventure them excited all (with the possible exception of the Father who kept thinking of all the post-flood jobs they should be doing at home).  The young Prince had been on a plane to Melbourne when he was three but he couldn’t remember the experience.  The young Princess had never been on one, and was quite beside herself at the thought of it.  That , and the fact that Disneyland was allegedly at the other end of the flights the Mother had planned.

The young Prince and Princess also got little cameras with which to document their journey.

Approximately three gigabytes of kid-photos were taken in the first few hours.  (It is rumoured that the mother is STILL downloading their efforts).  As they looked out of the window of their waiting area, they noted that the giant bird taking them across the seas was being stacked high with cherry-red luggage and other people’s paraphenalia.

And before they knew it, the family was ensconsed in their seats, and the Prince and Princess were delighting in their environment as ONLY first-timers can.

The Magic Screens (the ones inserted into the back of the headrest of the seat in front of them) held the Prince and the Prince both captive, offering Princes and Princess-type television shows, movies, electronic games and (most excitingly) the progress diagram of how FAR out to sea the plane was.  (The mother was LESS enthusiastic about this as she doesn’t like depths. Heights are fun, depths are hideous. Just so you know).

Of course lots of checking out windows are required if you are a first-timer.  Please note the headphones and neck pillow in place…

All BEFORE the excitement of LIFT OFF…

Wheeeeee…. bye-bye Brisbane!

Gentle reader… please forgive your blogger here, as she failed to take any more in-plane photos.  Instead, she read the instruction manual of her new Nikon camera (okay, she didn’t read it all, just the interesting bits before she realised that she could watch Social Network on the Magic Screen).  Then she tried to sleep (failing miserably) then she watched Top Gear and an Anne Geddes doco.  Then, some 12 hours later, VERY bleary-eyed from so much TV watching…

The plane carrying the Family started to descend through the clouds on the Other Side of the World…

The young Prince was kitted up ready for a Northern Hemisphere winter day (complete with sunglasses – he had heard about this mythical place called Los Angeles and he knew shades were ‘required apparel’).  The young Princess was more interested in Dora the Explorer on her Magic Screen.

Again, the Nikon D7000 (oh HOW the Mother loves her new toy) was packed carefully away as the Family negotiated Customs and the inspection area. The Mother and Father were nervous about this part of the trip, as the SERIOUSNESS and SEARCHINESS of US Customs and Immigration is kinda legendary.

The mother was HORRIFIED when she got through Customs only to realise that she had left the belt for her Brand New RM Williams coat on board the plane.  She hesitantly asked the serious-looking female officers at the baggage carousel how she might be able to check for the missing belt and was ASTOUNDED when the same officer personally went to the Qantas gate and retrieved it for her.  The Mother thought about giving the Serious Customs Officer a hug but decided on a smile and an internal celebration instead.

Then the last Immigration Officer (also a very serious-looking individual) the Family passed as they carted the Cherry Red Luggage towards the Arrivals area gave the Prince and Princess a high-five each.  The two young ones decided this was a Very Friendly Country indeed, while the Parents swapped Slightly Astounded looks with each other.

And despite boarding the plane at 6.30 am on the 15th of the month, and arriving almost 13 hours later at 7 am ON THE SAME DAY, and being bleary and ready for bed, the Family successfully found their shuttle who took them to this lovely hotel…

Where they all napped for two hours.

(Please note this is not recommended practice for persons entering new timezones for very good reason. Waking up after two hours is quite possibly the hardest thing the Family has ever done.  Like climbing up through mud. With someone hanging on to you ankles.)

The Family then decided to do something easy and non-taxing that didn’t require them to cross the road where all the traffic was quite CLEARLY driving the wrong way.

So they went to a Beverly Hills shopping centre called The Grove.

It was wonderful… and cobbled and flower-filled and a tad like Bath in England.

Except of course it was in Beverly Hills and everyone was speaking with American accents and pretending not to understand the Family when the ordered Chips instead of FRIES.

They found the Farmer’s Markets and all kinds of culinary delights…

Like Red Velvet Cake which they had heard of but never tried.

Then, ’cause she was a tourist and loved taking random photos, the Mother took photos of a lovely-looking butcher’s window. (Note the butcher was nice-enough looking, but she was more taken by the window!)

There was also time for coffee and chocolate brownie (The Princess’s first cultural experience) , before…

They discovered THIS place…

No, not the taxi rank, a shop called ‘American Girl’.  For Aussies, this is a place where a Princess can choose a style of doll, and dress and style it completely.  AND the Princess can purchase EXACTLY the same items to wear HERSELF.  Nothing short of amazing for one particular princess. How on earth the Family made it out of there WITHOUT a mini-Princess, they still have no idea.

They then returned to this street…

Where they had dinner…

But that is another blog Fairytale, for another blog day.

Because even though this day, the 15th of the month, was not over yet… the author of this Fairyblogtale thinks that 26 hours worth of THIS endless day is quite enough for anyone…