Since the airport seemed to be more crowded than usual the originally 20 minute drive from our hotel to the airport took about 30. Once we actually arrived in the airport it was extremely crowded so we had to wait a while before an employee at the car rental service would come see us and take our car back in, as we waited we each got more anxious as the minutes passed because if the car service was busy that would mean that the actual check in and security lines would be extremely long once we got inside the airport. After 15 minutes of waiting we were finally able to give the keys back to an employee and rush into the airport so we could get in line for check in. As we opened to doors to the Delta portion of the airport our mouths dropped, the lines were outrageously long and showed now sign of moving quickly, so we ran to get in line as quickly as we could. While we were in the line for checking in John constantly checked his phone to see the time and while he was getting more anxious Jill and Alyssa were looking back at old photos reminiscing on the trip which at some points brought tears to their eyes. After roughly 20 minutes of waiting in the long check in line we finally were able to check all our bags, to our surprise Jill and John's bags went over the weight limit so they had to pay a $50 fee to check their bag in. Although we were upset about the check in incident we rushed over to security so we could get to our gate as soon as possible yet as soon as we got in line people started getting aggravated with the employees and were causing the long line to move even slower than needed. Once we finally got the the end of the security line and placed our bags onto the conveyor belt we started walking through the large machine and started getting scanned up and down by security. Everything was going pretty smoothly in security until when it was Rachel's turn because as soon as she walked through the metal detector it started ringing very quickly and loud which caught a lot of the security's attention, because of the Rachel had to step off to the side while 2 of the security agents when through her carry one before clearing her to continue. When Rachel got pulled aside we all got very nervous because if Rachel were to have stayed behind we may have had to leave without her and she would be left alone in New Zealand. The entire security ordeal with Rachel took about 5 minutes to get resolved which made the time we actually left security to head to our gate around 7:55 am which we were very lucky for because our flight was scheduled to board at 8 so we had to run across the airport to our gate and we barley made it before boarding, but luckily we did. After we sat down for about 3 minutes our flight started boarding so we got in line an waited to be seated on the plane, sadly on this first flight we all had seats spread out around the plane so none of us sat next to each other which gave us all the perfect reason to sleep on the flight. After take off we all passed out and woke up about 15 minutes before landing so we just played on our phones and listened to music until then. Our flight was only about an hour and 45 minutes because we were flying to the Sydney Airport which we hat a 2 hour and 35 minute layover at.
Once we got off our plane we immediately headed over to get some food because we had no time during our hectic morning so we decided to grab some snacks from one of the shops in the airport. John decided to get a healthy breakfast bar along with 2 bags of his favorite candy because he knew that one bag wouldn't last him both the layover and the next flight. Jill and Alyssa got a large coke and a few bags of chips to share throughout our day of travel, and Jackson got a large bag of normal skittles to share with Rachel. We still had another 2 hours to spare after we got our snacks so we headed over to our gate and found a few outlets where we could charge and play some games on our phones while we wait. Surprisingly the 2 hour wait when by pretty quickly because we were all so invested into what we were doing on our phones that we didn't even notice the time flying by.We boarded our 12:20 pm flight from the Sydney airport to the Los Angeles airport, or LAX, but because of the time change we will actually be arriving in LAX at 7:15 am.
Once we board the long flight we have ahead of us we all decide to put our ear buds in and get as much rest as possible because we don't have much to do during this flight. After a few hours pass Jackson wakes up and rushes to the bathroom and stays in there for about 15 minutes, for most of the time Jackson was in the bathroom everyone else was still asleep but Rachel woke up and was confused at why he wasn't in his seat. After a few minutes of Rachel waiting for him to return he tells us that he just got sick and is not feeling well, once Rachel told Alyssa this Alyssa immediately told a flight attendant. Luckily the flight attendant was very nice and took Jackson into the back and gave him some medicine to hopefully help him feel better, the medicine should also make him very tired for the next couple hours which is great because he will just be able to sleep through the flight. Rachel, Alyssa, and Jackson went back to sleep quickly after that and it wasn't for another hour until John and Jill finally woke up. Once John and Jill where awake they couldn't fall back asleep so they decided to play a card game on their pull out trays because they were sitting right next to each other. Once John won the game of Phase 10 Jill didn't want to play again because she knew that she would most likely just loose again therefore she pulled out a book, put in headphones and started reading a book which left John bored playing on his phone. Rachel and Alyssa started waking up a bit before the flight was going to land so they started getting their bags ready but didn't want to wake Jackson up until he had to get off the plane considering he was sick. After the plane had a rough landing we all starting getting off the plane and Alyssa informed John and Jill about how Jackson got sick so we decided that once we got off the plane we would go buy him some medicine in a store and hopefully he would feel better.
We were very upset because we had a 3 hour and 15 minute layover at the LAX airport and had to wait for our 10:30 am flight from LAX to RDU. We decided that we would go to the cafe that was in our section of the large Los Angeles airport and order some food which would hopefully help Jackson with his sickness. Once we sat down to order we realized how expensive this restaurant was because they charged us $8 for a glass of Diet Coke. Although the cafe was very expensive we enjoyed the food very much, we all got the mac and cheese with a side salad. Eating at this restaurant took about an hour and a half which knocked a lot of time off of our layover. Jackson said he started feeling better about 30 minutes after eating which was great, so we decided to start watching a movie while we waited to board our plane. Once our plane started boarding we quickly got up and ran over to the gate to get on our last flight so we could hopefully have a smooth plane ride home. As we got onto our plane we all started falling asleep and decided against finishing the movie and just taking a long nap, we all slept for about 3 hours and then couldn't go back to sleep so we just went on our phones and talked about our trip until we landed. Once we landed in RDU we all were very emotional about leaving each other while we gathered our bags form baggage check. We said our emotional goodbyes and slowly started leaving one by one in a cabs that were going to take us home. We all enjoyed this trip very much and and hope to return again sometime soon. This vacation was not only relaxing but involved so much learning and new experiences that we all enjoyed which made our friendships grow stronger.
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