San Fran and beyond

We have to update you from a few weeks back.  Many of you know that we are very fortunate to have a friend who is a pilot for United and one of the perks is that we get to fly for a reduced cost by being his "companion" and there is always a chance that we could fly First Class!  Of course we have to look nice if we are flying first class since we are a companion of a pilot representing the airline.  This means that we have to have nice shoes.  Matt went to a thrift store in Maui to get a pair of nice saddle shoes...he was very proud of his $7 shoe knowing that now we would have a good chance to fly first class.  Matt and I got to the airport and waited with our fancy clothes and fancy shoes.  (well almost fancy...I brought my Chacos as a versatile shoe...I could hike in them, be casual in them and wear them with my traveling dress...very practical)  We were called up to the desk to receive our stand-by tickets and the woman looked at my shoes and denied us first class!  You can believe that Matt didn't let me live that one down.  I let him down in the fashion arena - oh the irony!  Economy Plus it was (an exit row) and we were off to San Fran.  Arriving at 7am we wandered around the airport getting our backpacks and then re checking them for our flight later that night (10:30pm).  After a short snooze in the airport meditation lounge we headed into the city to find me a pair of shoes.  As we were finding me shoes, the sole of Matt's fancy $7 shoes came apart!  We added shoe glue to our shopping list.  The day of shopping in thrift stores was a success...we were ready to fly first class to Australia.  Four hours before we were suppose to fly for our international farming adventure I lost my wallet.  Oh the sickening feeling.  I tore apart everything several times.  No where to be found.  Clock ticks away as we scour the streets and stores leaving our names and email address (no phone since we were leaving the country).  I canceled everything and tried to close down my checking account but it was 9pm on the 30th of December with us leaving and not arriving in Australia until 8am on the 1st.  This all equated to I wasn't going to be able to get ahold of anyone until the 3rd of January - Australia time.  With a sick feeling in my stomach we left for our trip - not exactly the way I had wanted.  However the icing was we did get Business Class - basically first class.  Our seats laid down flat, free alcohol, our own entertainment system, and really nice personal attention.  Did I mention the free baggie of socks, eye mask, toothbrush, earplugs, and more!? Matt was in a major dilemma about the entertainment - movies, TV, games, music - which one?  Luckily the flight was 14.5 hours so we had plenty of time to do everything. The remedy to having jet lag is to (be rich or know a pilot and) fly Business or First Class.  We slept for 8 hours or so and arrived in Sydney refreshed - well a shower on the plane would have been nice:)  We got our rental car and headed west to the mountains.  No time to spare in the city...our comfort is camping in the woods.  As we headed west we stopped for lunch at a cafe with free wireless.  I downloaded a message with the subject: Wallet!  Everything turned out fine.  The wallet was found in one of the shops with the money gone but everything else still there.  A bummer for sure...emotionally tiring and out $100 but I feel blessed that was all.  We had a good night sleep by a stream at the end of dirt road and our first day in Australia was a success.  -J