3. Welcome to the USA?

Our flight to Los Angeles left London mid afternoon which meant that the 10+ hour flight took place entirely during daylight hours. Our routing took us over Scotland, just south of Iceland, across the southern tip of Greenland, across Hudson Bay, Manitoba, Montana and in to Los Angeles international airport. There were some cloudless areas where the frozen wastes and pack ice below looked stunning from 40,000 feet....all very well from the comfort of an aeroplane seat, but inhospitable at ground level. The snow covered ground stretched well into the North American continent and it was not until we were overhead the rolling plains of southern Saskatchewan that earthy tones of green and brown became much more prominent and signs of human activity were visible. We also had great views of the city of Los Angeles as we approached the airport.

Upon arrival we discovered that the immigration process was now "electronic", so we went to one of the kiosks and followed the instructions. All very quick and easy and we thought it was a vast improvement over the old manual process. That was until we were then directed to the immigration inspection line which stretched for miles. An hour later we made it to the border control inspector who just stamped our passports and waved us on. Job done in 10 seconds. Why on earth make the process electronic if you still have to queue up for an hour? We were also concerned about the time as our onward transportation was not going to wait for us for more than an hour after arrival....thankfully we just found the driver as he was on the phone to the depot saying no that we were a no-show. Not what you want when your body clock is telling you it is 4am. Welcome to the USA indeed.

Anyway, we made it to the hotel but not b fore a stop at the local Hooters bar as our driver needed a bathroom stop. I'm sure that's the closest I'll ever get to one of those establishments. We both slept remarkably well and embarkation of Star Princess follows later this afternoon.