s07e24 - The Return

2 weeks have passed since my last blog, which is quite frankly pretty damn slack of me, but these things happen and can't be helped and so I offer up the final in what is Series 7.

I guess I should head all the way back to Las Vegas which would serve as a "jumping off" point before heading home.

Why Vegas? You've already been this trip, haven't you?
This is pretty true, but after travelling all the way across the country again from Calgary to Toronto, the trip back towards the west coast was going to be cheaper if it zeroed in on Vegas rather than Los Angeles. The accommodation was also crazily cheaper in Vegas too, so that was a big factor.
Vegas the second time around was, again, a lot of fun. This time I was on my own and staying mid-strip at the Imperial Palace, which for the uninitiated, is directly across the road from Caesars palace and nestled between Casino Royale and Harrah's.
The place was pretty cheap and it kinda showed in the accommodation side of things, but for under AU$40, who was I to argue.
It turns out my timing in Vegas was slightly off as I was there from Monday night till Thursday lunchtime. Two significantly large conventions where starting in Vegas on Thursday evening. One, was the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which showcases all the latest technologies, the other .... the Adult Video Entertainment Expo (AVEE) which, well, you know .... has a lot to do with porn!
Either would have been awesome to go and have a look at, but alas, neither happened as I flew out of Vegas on Thursday afternoon, into and then out of Los Angeles and back ... finally to Sydney, Australia.

The journey home wasn't exactly without incident though, nothing too major like a water landing in freezing cold waters ... in fact it was more a discomfort than anything else.
For those of you out there that are unfamiliar with the checking in procedures at LAX, you know longer deal face to face with a person to check your bags.
You walk up to a little kiosk, scan your passport or ID, confirm your flight details then you have the option to change your random seating assignment before a boarding pass and baggage tags are printed.
The seating assignment was the big issue for me as I don't exactly have the frame for middle seats in economy for a period of just a tick over 14 hours.
22 seats remained available ... all of them in the middle. I was doomed. The attendant there explained that I should just take one of those middle seats and then see gate staff about the possibility of getting the seat changed, but not to rely on that happening as it doesn't happen that often.
Oh crap ... what to do now?
Luckily for me, United Airlines has two upgrade options available. US$748 extra will get you upgraded to Business class, while US$128 will get you a seat in "premium Economy" which offers an extra 4 inches of leg room.
Now it doesn't sound like much, but that extra couple of inches is a godsend over 14 hours and so I upgraded to Premium Economy and got my aisle seat, which at the very least gave me the option of throwing a leg out on occasions (provided the food or drink cart is going up and down of course as those things will just mow over anything in the aisle)

The trip home was full of ordinary movies and equally ordinary food and despite my head not wanting to leave, the heart was happy to touch down in Sydney where I would spend the next few days lounging around Bondi Beach before the final 3 hour flight home ....