Home safe and sound!

fww, guys.
that was a LONG ASS DAY.

i think total traveling time (including layovers and car time) came out to over 24 hours >_o

(how do i know?
I woke up at 8:30 PM pacific, and the plane landed in sacramento at 10:05 pacific the next day)

got around four/five hours of sleep in there during that time... so it wasn't all bad.

but still D:

ANYWAY, so.

wake up at 4:30 or so, shower, say goodbye to pat and we're on our way to london from cardiff.
We get to the airport three hours early, which turns out to be a good thing, since we're easily confusable. . . . check in, check our bags (which requires us going through a mini-border.... and we totally predicted which guy we'd be talking to)

And then it's through security (which was a minihassle because kriz accidentally grabbed both of the london-jfk tickets, leaving me with ONLY the jfk-sacramento tickets. . . and he likes to leave immediately after he's done his thing, which means we have to yell at him to get him back over to us for ticket trading purposes. :C

mm, security itself is no big thing. . . and then it's waiting around for an hour and a half or so until our plane boards. . .which is a pain just because apparently london doesn't know what gate things are at until the planes have been at a gate for half an hour.

eh... anyway, we start heading toward the gate where we do that thing where we have to show the people at the desk our boarding passes. . .

and then they pull me aside for additional security screening O-o
I get the impression that my name was on a list of people they had ready BEFOREhand, just by the way it all went down.

They were pretty cool about it. . .(spent the first minute or so trying to get my baseball cap onto my dragon plush so that a: he wouldn't fall down and b: he'd be able to see) but it did get fairly awkward just because there was a pat-down, and then they decided that they'd be swabbing all of my electronics. . . which wouldn't have taken as long if the only available swab-testing machine wasn't ten gates away. >_o

bah well.

anyway, so onto the plane and i did that thing where i forgot something again. . .

and this time it was my backpack D:
so i run back out and then back in. . . .

and Zach starts getting pissy because the plane is filling up and we're seated in a full five-person middle area. (but we're on the end, so i don't see what the problem is.)
There ends up being this REALLY nice set of british people sitting behind us (like, amazing. it's. . . two women and then one of their kids... who wants to sit next to the window but not next to his chaperons) . . . but yeah. loved the hell ouit of them...

and once the plane takes off there's plenty to do, given there's free pseudo-videogames, movies, and a coupla shows and such. . .

plus two meals. . .

we watched Iron man 2. . . again, and part of Shrek 4, an episode of CSI, and an episode of bones. . . and between those things and a nap, the flight went very quickly.

anyway.. then we deplane and go through the border again. (and i swear to god, if every single trip to the border entails a LONG ASS WALK from the terminal, i will laugh/cry.)
...

anyway, this time... we had a little more fun, because JFK wasn't under construction (like heathrow is) so they had up these TV things trying to sell the U.S. to people who were already coming in anyway. (which was especially funny considering everybody in this particular line. . . ALREADY LIVES THERE)
it was the single most pompous, self-absorbed thing i have ever heard, and i hope everyone else who lives here gets to hear it someday so that they can laugh.

. . .

anyway, so that goes by smoothly enough, and then we have to wait to pick up our bags. . . and then finish going through customs. . . and then make a left (LEFT KRIZZLE, NOT STRAIGHT READ THE DAMNED SIGNS) to re-check our bags. (there's a kiosk made just for it)
and then. . .

back through security.

the people there were extremely helpful getting us through quickly, too. (oh shit, your plane boards at 4? go into that line!) but the other passengers, not so much.

there was one couple who, like. . . squeezed in front of us in line somehow and needed like a bazillion buckets for their shit. . .

and then the woman forgot to take off her necklaces.

nuh-uh. no way you're getting through the metal detector still wearing all your bling, honey.
NO.
WAY.

. . . anyway, so then we dart through to our gate (which we knew because thankfully american airlines tells you these things even though your boarding passes don't) and sit to wait for a bit. . . during which many phone calls are had.

and then.. ONTO THE PLANE.

which ends up leaving like half an hour late because of DUMB (i mean, uh, construction)
and in the end results in
"if you are on the continuation of this flight to sacramento, you will have to deplane and go to gate C28"
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFf

now.
we landed in terminal A.
Terminal C.
that's two terminals over.

MONORAIL TIME.

we made it JUST IN TIME, too, holy fuckin' shit.

and in the end our flight actually landed five minutes early..
which doesn't mean anything because apparently nobody knows how to open the airplane doors. (in both the dallas and sacramento landings, like half the plane was up and ready to move,but NOBODY WAS MOVING, and it wasn't because of one fucker taking up space, i think)

... so, anyway, we get confused for a moment because our plane docked in the alaska/horizon/jetblu/continental side of terminal B, instead of the American (and whatever else is there) side of terminal B.
. . .

so we had to walk extra far to find our baggage. >>

and we get outside to find out that Mom's gonna be a bit late picking us up because there's apparently some sort of god-knows-what on I5 and everyone has to stop going northbound because OH NO THERE'S A FLARE ON THE ROAD ARGH.

but yeah.

and then we got home.
and slept.