Paris to Phoenix

Casa Grande, Arizona
Leisure Valley RV Resort

Bill and I were up early as the luggage needed to be put outside our hotel door by 6:30 am.  We were still early by the time we finished our showers so we put our luggage out about 6 am and then went downstairs to the dining room for our provided breakfast.  I will never forget French scrambled eggs and also the way the French cook bacon.  

We said au revoir to all of our traveling companions.  Isabelle was making sure that there were no last minute glitches and all the luggage was accounted for.  Bill and I had given Isabelle a tip the night before, but we handed her a bottle of champagne to celebrate the end of the first trip of the season.  

I was waiting by a a glass showcase that had French souvenirs in it.  There were some bracelets that had an Eiffel tower charms.  I saw a sign with items listed but didn't see any word that might be bracelet in French.  I asked Isabelle what the price on the bracelet was.  She read the card and said it wasn't listed.  She immediately went over to the desk to ask a hotel employee.  The girl came over and opened the glass case and pulled out the bracelet.  She but it on my wrist and said something to Isabelle.  I started to take the bracelet off but the girl put it back on my wrist.  Isabelle said "it's a gift".  I was shocked but Isabelle wasn't.  

The van was right on time and six of us left for our flight.  George and Linda were scheduled for a departure 15 minutes after ours.

When we arrived at the airport, a Grand Circle representative was there to greet us and take us to our airline check-in.  She had carts ready for our luggage.  

Everything went smoothly and we were told to go to Terminal M.  We took a train a short distance to our terminal.  

I've never seen a cleaner airport than this terminal.  They had lounge seats that you could take a nap on.

Our plane was a double decker Airbus.  We had upstair seats and they were very comfortable.  There was so much leg room I couldn't reach the footrest.  I brought the noise cancelling headsets but didn't need them as they were supplied.  No problem there was a compartment by the seat for stowing purses, jackets, books and stuff.  

It was a 10 hour flight but went relatively quickly.  I believe we landed on time.  I was quite surprised at how quickly the plane emptied out.  Los Angeles was very busy but since we have a Global Entry Card it went smoothly.  We bypassed all the lines and went over to a kiosk to put our passport in.  No filling out any forms.  

We had to retrieve our luggage as LAX doesn't do a transfer.  There was a lot of construction and we ended up walking from the international terminal to terminal 2 with our luggage.  

The terminal was packed.  I guess I didn't realize it was spring break.  

Our flight was overbooked and they were offering $600 a piece and you'd take the next flight out in the morning.  When it got up to $800 which also included hotel and transfers we still decided not to take it.  Sherry and Dave would have probably already left for the airport.  

Once we were on the plane we both said, we should have taken the $1600.

Turtle Safely........