25 Hours

Readdddddy? OKAY!

Here's where I FINALLY tell you about how I went to Guam, went to Tokyo, met a pirate, met a team of anti-terrorist intelligence dudes, ate some weird stuff and avoided sunburn.

Or part 1a, anyway.

I wish I could go back to the beginning of our journey from San Jose to Guam and count the number of alcoholic beverages we had because we traveled for something like 25 hours and had drinks at every opportunity. We were working on a sleep-as-much-as-possible strategy, which worked well with our existing enjoy-airport-bars-as-much-as-possible strategy.

But first, let me tell you that Delta is not the smartest airline on the runway. Our original tickets were from SFO to LAX to Tokyo to Guam. Carrie came into town the night before we left so I dragged her along to Dailey Method with me the next morning. When we were done, we checked our phones and had both received vague messages from Delta telling us that our flight had been canceled and to please call them back.

[Insert moment of panic.]

She called them back and it turns out that the SFO to LAX flight was canceled, but instead of booking us on one of the dozens of similar flights from any of the three major bay area airports in the twelve hour window we had to get to LAX, they just rebooked the whole thing for the next day.

NOT COOL, DELTA.

Carrie figured it out though and we ended up flying from Oakland to LAX with plenty of LAX bar time before we left for Tokyo.

(And I have to say, everyone at Delta, between that phone agent and up until the flight attendant on our last flight home, was OVER THE TOP AWESOME. Not even just regular, but pretty kick ass.)

(Also, note to any retired 3rd grade teachers out there who think that life as an air hostess will be sexy and glamorous: It probably won't be, so don't be a cranky bitch when people have THE NERVE to exist on your airplane.)

But anyway, it all worked out.

First official vacation cocktails:



Yeah, that's a Chilli's. VIP ALL THE WAY at the Oakland airport.

When we landed at LAX we spent a couple of quality hours at the bar with an assortment of international travelers and one dude going home to NYC. (Whose offer to entertain her in the men's room Carrie wisely declined.)

Off we go, but not without a BPOTD to mark the occasion!



And then we flew to Tokyo.



Why yes, Totally Awesome Flight Attendant, I *would* like to wash my sleeping pill down with a couple of giant cups filled with boxed wine!!

(I recommend the red, even though it was cold...it was sweet enough that it seemed sort of like sangria.)



And then we were in Tokyo! Thank you for the kind welcome, Japanese Boy Band!



And then we hung out at the Haneda airport for a couple hours until the first shuttle to Narita left.

The Haneda airport seems sort of like a mall / Dave & Busters. There was a whole entertainment complex and it seemed ripe with possibilities but alas, we were there at 5AM and there wasn't much to do other than eat a questionable Japanese airport breakfast and go outside to the observation deck to watch the planes for as long as we could stand the freezing cold pre-dawn weather.

When we finally got to Narita it turns out that OOOOOPS! Check in was closed because we got there only an hour before our flight and we were supposed to be there TWO hours early. We'd have to get our seats assigned at the gate, she told us.

Okay, fine. Whatever, Slightly Annoyed Looking Lady.

So we got to our gate and the lady at the counter says "Oh yes! I've just printed out your boarding passes!" and I saw a big "3A" on the paper in her hand.

3A is probably first class, isn't it?

What?

Surely not.

Except HELL YEAH IT WAS!!!!!!!

We're not quite clear on how it happened (there was something about how we overpaid for our tickets or something, but there was a language barrier and we didn't really care WHY), but we lucked into free first class seats from Tokyo to Guam and HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOY, after spending the previous 20 hours cuddled up next to each other, IT WAS EXTRA BONUS AWESOME.

Pre-flight champagne?

SURE!





And then she came around with orange juice, so we made mimosas:



This final leg of our long journey was lovely, but Carrie did note an important princess problem: The pillows they gave us were too large and squishy.

We perservered and filled out the appropriate forms (Hafa Adai!):



And then landed!



And there we were! In Guam!



Part 1b, GUAM! will come later. Probably by Christmas, at the rate I'm going.