We woke up at 5am and began packing immediately. During the
night it had been raining heavily and thunderstorming as well. I was a bit concerned that might cause issues
with flight departures but there was nothing to do for it but head to the airport
anyway. We had a short breakfast at the lounge before getting down to the hotel
lobby and picking up a taxi.
The ride was without traffic and it didn’t take long to get
there. We got in and I checked in to my flight quickly while Daniela checked
her luggage weights and redistributed before trying to check into her flight.
They said since she was so early (she was supposed to leave at 3pm) that it
would be better to take an earlier flight because it would avoid air traffic
problems in Shanghai. They said the later it got the more likely flights would
be significantly delayed. So they gave her a chance on the 9:30 flight where I was
to leave at 10:30. We agreed and she got
checked in. Then we had to run to the
gate as quickly as possible. We had to take a bus to get there and that was a
slight delay so they were already on last call for boarding when we got there.
We had very brief (much briefer than
enjoyable) good-bye before she boarded.
I immediately turned around got back on the bus and then
took the train to my own gate. They were just lined up and only a few moments
later started boarding. The main gangway
was broken so everyone boarded the 777 from the first class entrance. I had seat 3D. It was still raining out but we got out
mostly on time. I waited until they
served the lunch before I tried to go to sleep. The lunch was a beef fillet
that was good but more cooked than I would prefer in a brown gravy with mashed
potatoes and vegetables. I had a the shiraz to go along. The dessert had
cheese, crackers and grapes but I only took the cheeses and some port. Following that they had an ice cream sundae
which I did chocolate and caramel only on the vanilla ice cream. I also had some tea. During the meal I watched the Muppets Most
Wanted which was cute but like the
opening act said was not as good as the previous.
After the Muppets I put on Robocop but as I expected I didn’t
find it enjoyable and fell asleep during it without much issue. I could tell
they took something that was originally a tongue in cheek humorous movie and tried
to make it serious which was a huge failing. I guess it is better it wasn’t a
word for word copy of the original but still it was not really something I
wanted to watch. I continued to sleep for a couple hours after the movie was
over. When I woke up I watched The Monuments Men as I started typing my entries
for the day before and today on the computer.
Since I wasn’t fully paying attention to the movie I couldn't give it a
complete review but I don’t think it was bad. From there I watched another movie called Fall of Ming which was a based on fact story about the end of the Ming Dynasty and a specific "doctor" at the time who learned a lot about virology 200 years ahead of his time. It was interesting and I liked it overall. I then fell asleep again until they turned on the lights with about an hour and a half to go on the flight and served a breakfast of sorts. I had cornflakes and fruit and some coffee then watched the flight map until we landed. The girl next to me (who was not the one originally there but must have been a granddaughter to the Jewish couple that was there was flight sick most of the flight and used up about 10 airsickness bags over the last 8 hours or so. Her grandfather kept opening the window shade while I was sleeping which was also annoying. The flight was very bumpy but I have well gotten used to that by now.
We landed and I checked through Global Entry and had to wait quite a while for my bags. Then it was on to customs which was quick then rechecking the luggage. Apparently the tram system in Newark is being serviced so I had to take a bus from the B terminal to the C terminal. I got to go through TSA Pre again but they were letting non-TSA Pre people through from the regular line into that security check and I got some kids that left too much metal on and that caused a brief delay. I got to the gate when they should have already been boarding but the plane was late at arrival and they changed planes to a different one to head to Boston or something so we ended up being set back about 45 minutes. I took that time to get some McDonald's and then headed back to the gate and boarded. Even though I was boarding group 1 I was in economy class and seated in row 29 of a 737. The two people next to me were both huge and I was happy to lean into the aisle most of the flight. I slept almost all of it.
I arrived in Boston got my luggage and then couldn't find the limo for about 15 minutes before the company called me and we figured out where each other was. I was in the "Limo" area and he was in the shared van area. No wonder I couldn't find him... In any event it was a quick and traffic free drive home and I was there at about 7pm. It certainly could have been much worse.
No pictures for the last day of the trip out of laziness...
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