California 2014 - Leaving Los Angeles for Home

we started our final day in los angeles very early. we settled our packing and locked all the bags and set aside our clothes the night before. we got the boys up at 6.30am. the shuttle to the airport was supposed to pick up at at 7.20am. we had a quick breakfast as we were not yet hungry.

we got down to the lobby just in time but the shuttle was nowhere to be seen. we waited a while before i checked my email to track the shuttle. apparently, since it was christmas day and there was no traffic, the pick up was set back an hour. i was nervous about getting to lax on time but the front desk staff said not to worry, it will get us there on time.

it did, though. it only took half an hour form the hotel to lax. we were the last to be picked up and the first to be dropped off.

checking in was a breeze. japan airlines had excellent ground staff. there was no queue, everything was quick and in order. ours took a bit more time as they had to check us in all the way home. they also changed our seating arrangement to sit all of us together. one million points above the malaysia airlines ground staff who had separated us despite us pre-booking & paying for seats - boo malaysia airlines because of that!

we had a couple of hours before our flight and had a quick breakfast and looked around the duty free shops before walking to our gate.

we absolutely love the japan airlines plane, the sky wider, they call it. the seats were spacious, there's so many compartments in front of each seat, the tv and remote were so cool. japan airlines crew were excellent. we ordered muslim meals and they even took the time to explain the ingredients in the rice crackers they gave as snacks.

the flight was a long 11-plus-hour but it was comfortable. before we knew it, we were in touching down in narita.

our first stop was the day room. we booked a room for two hours, thinking it would be sufficient for a quick shower and prayer and short rest but the boys were itching to walk around so we cut short to just an hour. we had a quick dinner at the bowl bowl restaurant and waited for our next flight.

the flight to kl was about 6 hours. we left at 10pm and arrived home at 4am. we were out like a light before the plane took off as we have been up for almost 12 hours and missed the dinner served. the crew was nice enough to keep the boys' meal until they woke up.

we got home at 5.30am. i was a bit worried about everyone suffering from jet lag but we kept ourselves busy with unpacking, laundry, ps3 and football and hang on strong the whole day, alhamdulillah.