Flying to LA

Well, here's the beginning of our trip report! We flew to LA on Sunday evening, March 13th. This was Kristin's first time to fly, so she was PUMPED! We got to XNA, which in case you don't know, is in the middle of NOWHERE! Seriously, all that is around it is chickens and cows. But it's a nice airport and only 30 minutes from my house.



We flew Allegiant direct to LAX. Everything was going well, we boarded the plane, taxied to the runway...then stopped. The pilot told us that there were some passengers waiting at the gate who's apparently gotten there late. So, we turned around to go get them. No biggie. Well, we waited...and waited. Then the pilot tells us that the airport was having to call Arkansas TSA to get workers back there to get the passengers through security. By this point, you could tell he was getting ticked. So we waited and waited and waited....no passengers and we finally go the ok to leave. Apparently the passengers had not gotten to check in at least 45 minutes before the flight was to leave, our flight was the last the leave that night, and TSA workers were off the clock. No way were they coming back. SO we finally took off. Kristin LOVED taking off and flying.



She slept most of the way out. Then....we started our descent. Kristin woke up with horrible pain in her ears, sinuses and teeth. Once we landed she was fine, but was in a lot of pain until we did. It was sad. Landing in LA at night was beautiful!

LAX was doing some remodeling on the airport, but we had no problems finding our way around. We got our bags and called our shuttle van around 11:15 (1:15 Ark. time!) and went out to wait. The traffic coming in and out of the airport was unreal! I was so glad we got a shuttle. Best money we spent on the entire trip! The shuttle arrived around 11:30 and we were on our way. Arturo was our driver and he was awesome! He was funny and got us to our hotel safely in 30 minutes.

I've never been so happy to be at a hotel in my life. We were exhausted. Park Vue Inn was nice. Nothing fancy and directly across the street from the park entrance. The beds were comfy, carpets were ok, but I always wear flip flops in hotel rooms, so it didn't bother me. Breakfast was good and the people were nice. We did have an unwelcome visitor in the form of a large roach (the same huge ones they have in Florida!) on our second night. But they came and sprayed the room the next morning and we didn't see anything else. That roach has gotten me a nice refund for part of our stay :) Anyway, it wasn't the Hilton, but that's ok.

We dragged ourselves to bed..I slept in the queen, K on the top bunk, Mom on the bottom bunk. The beds were SO comfy!! We woke up Monday morning for breakfast and then headed to the park to meet Jim. Jim and I have a mutual friend. He's worked for Disneyland 10 years and was nice enough to sign us in every morning so we didn't have to get tickets. Thank you so much Jim!!! We had a great time and appreciate you so much!

Next post: Disneyland, California Adventure and World of Color!