Finally Leaving!

This post brought to you by my mom. She had very specific ideas of the pictures I should post.

I'm finally leaving for my trip! It feels like I've been talking about it and planning for it for ages. It decided to snow at my parents' house as a send off for me this morning.

The car right before we left the house.  Mom is peeking out from the porch.

Mom drove me down to the airport, and I'm posting this from LAX.  I've already had my first hiccup when I tried to check in for my second flight here.  I'm doing a few open jaw tickets on this trip, where I fly into one country, and leave from another.  In this case, I fly into Auckland, and then leave from Sydney on February 26th, and I haven't yet decided when I want to make my way from New Zealand to Australia.  China Southern Airlines wouldn't check me in until I had a flight out of New Zealand, because they get fined if I'm denied entry.  So I had to make my way over to Quantas Airlines and buy a $1000 ticket from New Zealand to Australia before I could get my boarding pass.  It's fully refundable, so I just have to remember to call Quantas once I'm through customs, but I'm really glad this wasn't a tight connection.

Anyways, farewell America!