The trip

So I just realized that we never mentioned the trip here. That's part of the experience, right? I mean, we started in D.C. and we're exactly twelve hours ahead of them now, so we're really close to being exactly on the other side of the world. That's not something most people do on a regular basis, although my brother practically has a punch card for his trips.

Part of it is wanting to tell one of my favorite jokes. Lewis Black once said, "if you ever have the chance to visit New Zealand, my advice is: don't take it. 'Cause even after you've had a drink, a movie, a nap, a meal, another drink, and another movie, you've still got thirteen hour to go!"

I just wanted to say that flying to Taiwan, which isn't too far from New Zealand, wasn't like that at all. Marie struggled, but she has a hard time sleeping on planes, period. We got on our flight about 1 am (the China Air counter in Seatac doesn't even open until 9:30 or 10 in the evening) and about two we were airborne and I was drifting off to sleep. They had to wake me for the meal and I don't remember the attendant picking up the tray.

That was the weirdest part. After all the flying we did, from Omaha to D.C., then back to Seattle, China Air was the most accommodating airline. One airline charged us for two extra bags and you could get one drink for free. U.S. Airways charged us for all four checked bags and pop and juice all cost a couple bucks. Not even a dollar for an airline glass of pop. Two bucks. China Air fed us the minute we were at altitude. No charge, just "here's your hot meal of meat, potatoes, and mixed vegetables."

Then they came around with wine and water. I don't know the logic of the wine, and there didn't seem to be a lot of takers, but there it was.

They also had mini movie screens in the back of each headrest with a bunch of movies on tap. You can watch whatever you want, whenever. Heck, they already had "Iron Man" and it was still in theaters.

I say this 'cause Marie and I spent time and money to have plenty of books to read, and music to listen to, and charged computers to watch movies, but I didn't need any of it. Marie watched a couple of the movies the airline provided. I was asleep most of the time. But we dragged all this entertainment stuff on the plane with us, and I wouldn't suggest it.

Then, an hour before we were scheduled to land they came around with breakfast. You could pick an eastern or western breakfast. The western was a scrambled egg thing that tasted powdered, and the eastern was a porridge thing that's common here. I wonder if the porridge tasted as bad to someone from Taiwan as the eggs tasted to us. But it was a hot meal.

This was all a surprise to me 'cause we thought we'd gotten a pretty good deal for flying to the other side of the world. We were told it would cost between $600 and $1,200 apiece, and we were closer to $600, and we could've spent less but we wanted to go through Seattle. I was expecting to have to pay for a seat cushion. I wonder if China Air flys from Seattle to Phoenix?

I guess I'm telling this story in case people are interested in visiting or just thinking about flying across the Pacific. Places like New Zealand and Australia are farther 'cause they're in the southern hemisphere, but I wanted to say I was generally surprised that a twelve hour flight could be that easy. That is, if you can sleep on planes, it's unexpectedly easy. And if you have suggestions for how to sleep on a plane, we'd like to hear them.