Carefree, Arizona
The flight from Phoenix's Sky Harbour International Airport back to LAX was the 5th flight in just over a week. It's made this trip feel like I've been out of New Zealand for 3 weeks at least.
I'll honestly be happy if I never see the inside of an airport for months - but unfortunately we still have catch our flight to Calgary next week.
I woke up early (9am) on Tuesday morning and packed my carry on. I'd looked at the weather for Phoenix the previous week and it was meant to be in the early 30s so I didn't pack anything warm - so my bag for once was pretty light - although I was worried that for a carry on it would be too heavy.
Once packed I sat down to have a coffee and waited for my Cousin, Uncle and Kieran to get their ass into gear. The plan was to leave at 11am since my flight was at 1.30pm.
We were all almost ready to go when at 10.30am the doorbells goes.
Dave goes to check who it is and a whirlwind forces itself into the Living room. It's Candice's friend Claudine from down the road and she is a PER-SON-A-LITAAYY let me tell you. Super bubbly and friendly and loud, she fills the room with her energy and sunshine and I loved it! What I didn't love was that it was almost 11am and we were running out of time. So Dave and I left Candice and Kieran with Claudine and headed to the airport.
When I checked in the lady behind the counter told me my flight was delayed till 2.05pm and wanted to know if I wanted to change to the later flight - I wasn't too fussed as I wasn't in any hurry so I said I'd stick with the 2.05pm flight and be done with it.
After going through yet another security check I found Gate 9 and settled in to wait for boarding.
At about 1.35pm they started lining people up for boarding.
We waited, and waited and then the flight attendant who had asked people the line up walked back in from the gate and closed the door. The air was tense. Over the loud speaker I hear, "Hi Folks! Please don't shoot the messenger. But the flight is going to be further delayed as the part we need for the plane is going to take about 2 hours to come in."
The groans and grumbles that follow are understandable but the "OH FOR FUCKS SAKES!" that comes out of the mouth of the clearly irate business man was not. He stormed out of the room to go to complain to lord knows who. I messaged my family to let them know and settled into wait. About and hour later I was at the back of line waiting to get my $100 voucher and boarding pass for the next available flight at 4.30pm.
After a bathroom break and finding the correct gate I settled in for the 2 hour wait, but thankfully before too long it was time to board (on time!) and I was on my way to Phoenix.
So, for all of this hoohah about America being this great country, I was quite disappointed about their airlines and the flight attendants that work on these airlines. And I wanna say that it's just because I'm used to Air New Zealand and how well presented their flight attendants are but I've flown via Singapore & Emirates and both of those airlines' flight attendants are just as impeccable.
When Kieran and I flew with Air Alaska over from Vancouver we made comment on their flight attendants as well - and the same went for Southwest. 1). Most of their flight attendants were pushing elderly (and I don't know whether that's because all the airlines I flew with before had an age restriction) and 2). The all looked unkempt; like they'd just rolled out of bed. Their hair, make up (nails included) & uniform looked like it was left to their own devices. There was no cohesion between them and it almost left me feeling quite uneasy to be flying with them - almost as if they had no clue what they were doing. And I guess that's judging a book by it's cover but still - I feel like most airlines hold themselves to such a high standard and to be in a country that thinks of itself as the best I'm surprise they don't show off the best.
The flight over to Phoenix was a very quick one. From boarding to flight to landing it all took only one and half hours. I barely waited for my Aunty and her new husband, Gary out on the road before a tiny white haired man walked towards me and said "Cassie?" hopefully. I said "Gary?" in reply and we introduced ourselves with a hug. He took my bags and popped them in the boot then opened my door for me (ever the gentleman - even allowing me to sit in the front seat so I could catch up with Av) and we made our way to dinner.
The absolutely insane thing that I've found about the places I've been to so far in the North Americas is that everything is open exceptionally late! By the time we got to the restaurant for dinner it was already 8.30pm and it looked like it was only just filling up - and this was a Tuesday night. Back home in New Zealand most of the kitchens in restaurants are already closed by 8.30pm. So we sat down to order Pizzas and beers, and for myself a cider. It was nice chatting and catching up with Av and Gary. Surprisingly - for how opinionated my aunty usually is, she has been the only family member who hasn't seen me since I was a kid and doesn't still treat me like a kid which was a nice change; as when I went back home to South Africa all my auntys and uncles still spoke to me like I was 12 rather than 21.
By the time we finished dinner and headed for home it was about 10.30pm. They live in this cute little gated community that now for the life of me I cannot remember the name of. All the houses look the same. They're all the same tan and terracotta colours of the desert. The only thing that makes each house distinguishable is the different desert gardens & cars that are parked out front. Their house is one level but it's big and open with these beautiful high ceilings. I suppose it keeps the house cool in summer and warm in winter. The rooms are huge and the living areas are spacious. They have a very cute outside area with a pizza oven, Jacuzzi and a pool; Gary even has is own little 'mancave' leading off of their bedroom where he can enjoy retirement watching baseball and smoking cigars.
After getting the full tour I went straight to bed.
I only had one full day to spend with Av so I was awake bright an early at 9am to get ready and head out to town. We visited the cute little cowboyish town, stopped in at the thrift store and wandered around the Carefree Desert gardens. Av stopped off at the 'Cock' Rock - aptly named because it looks like a giant penis - so I could get a picture and then we headed to the supermarket so we could pick up some things for lunch. When we got home I made a sandwich, did my nails, ate ice cream outside in the sun (as it'd been raining in both LA and Arizona up until then) and lounged on the couch just enjoying Av's company. We had dinner at home and watched some late night trash TV before retiring to bed at about midnight.
I was up once again bright and early the next morning to repack my bags and head off to the airport. My flight was delayed yet again till 2.05pm but thankfully this time it wasn't any later so I found myself boarding at 1.35pm. We had to taxi a bit on the ground till about 2.30 due to unforseen traffic on the LAX side but before long we were off again. I snoozed for the majority of the flight and before long I was exiting onto the busy LA streets to wait for Candice and Dave to get me once more.
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