Return to CA - "Proximo Anno" - Sept 27

Dad and I both arose before our 6:00 a.m. alarms as we wanted to get an early start on return drive to Zurich airport (some 140 miles from Gordevio). G & V were already waiting for us with breakfast and coffee on the table when we ventured to their house around 6:15am. In each of my trips, leaving has always been emotionally draining -- and this morning would be no exception. In fact, it was the most difficult yet because I had been able to share the trip with Dad who had not been back to Switzerland in 13 years and it was not at all certain when, or if, he might return again. Shortly, Marco and Emma arrived, having made their way in the dark, to say their good byes -- and the tears flowed for all. I don't know much Italian, but as with previous visits, my utterings of "proximo anno" ("next year") as I said good bye to each gave me some comfort -- hoping that they understood that I would do everything I could to return.

The return drive to Zurich was beautiful -- and though the roads were dry, the alps were still peaked with the first snow. I hadn't really studied the routing back to the airport, allowing the GPS to guide me -- but I've made a mental note to do a little more homework on the route next time as the GPS routed me into what appeared to be some of the central city -- with accompanying traffic delays -- that got us back to the airport with less time than I had hoped.

The rental car return went without a hitch -- but entering the airport from the rental car parking area brought us on a direct route to the gate without going to the main check in. I didn't realize my mistake until we found ourselves at the end of a tram ride to the gate and were faced with baggage inspection with bags that we had expected to check. Thankfully, our bags were small enough to be considered "carry-on" and the only loss at security was an oversized can of shaving cream in dad's bag that would have made the trip if we had correctly checked our bags. Our flight was a nearly on-time departure with another packed plane. We squeezed into our seats emotionally and physically exhausted -- and the captain announced that our flight would take 12 hours because of unfavorable head winds.

Neither of us slept much as the cabin stayed pretty bright as we were traveling with the sun...and though we traveled 12 hours, our watches were only permitted to advance 3 hours. We set out at 1:30pm from Zurich -- travelled 12 hours -- and landed 3 hours later at 4:30pm. I wondered how the various languages translate "jet lag."

Immigration and processing in LAX was disappointing particularly when contrasted to the efficient and friendly Switzerland process just a few days before. I couldn't help but ponder why US processes are so sadly different but I'll spare readers of this blog my political musings.