The Flight to Beijing

Our flight was scheduled to leave LA at 1:40 and probably took off around 2 a.m.  Heidi is the world traveler.  I've flown on countless domestic flights at this point, but never international. This Boeing 777-300 was bigger than anything I've ever flown on.  Each row had three seats on the left, three in center and three on the right.  Walking through first class was really something.  Boy did they look comfy.  Some of them had their seats flattened out to a bed and were out like lights.  

No complaints about our coach seats though.  Every seat had its own LCD touch screen monitor so we all had our choice of personal entertainment.  Heidi played Sudoku, some balloon game, Pac-man.  We each watched different movies, and I even listened to a Chinese pop album.  The artist was good and had a pretty voice that sounded like Jewel's.  The titles of the album and songs were listed in English, but the singing was Mandarin I guess.  I certainly didn't understand it, but it sounded nice.  I finally watched Wreck-It Ralph and caught an episode of Phineas and Ferb.

The screens had a map option that let you zoom in and change views and track the flight.  It was really cool to know what you were flying over when.  I thought it was really cool to realize we were flying right over Alaska!  I've never been there, but have always wanted to.  It was dark as we were approaching Anchorage, but as we continued flying I was able to get some decent pictures of the state before we flew through it.. You know you are on a long trip when you are flying past Anchorage and the screen says it is still 7:30 hours until you've reached your destination :)  

The timing on the flight meals was strange for us.  They served some meal right after we boarded, but most everyone was asleep.  Then they served dinner after we all woke up.  I don't think there is an easy way to pick the right time to feed people when covering that distance and serving customers from either side of the world.  In any case, most of you won't be surprised that I declined the meal I was awake for.  Heidi ate it though.  She is such a good girl :)

Plenty of space to get up and walk around on that big of a plane, and they had a little self-serve center for water, soda and snacks in the middle of the plane.  The tricky part was waiting for the nice gentlemen between us and the aisle to wake up so we could get out of our seats for a bit.  It was neat to use the map to watch as we got closer.  I must say, though, it was a sweet sight to see the map screen say 0:00 to destination, Beijing!