Always sad to say goodbye to California. Monday morning and we packed up, left Solarena and drove to Denny's on Beach and Ellis. Don't ask me why but it has become "a thing" to have a bigger breakfast on the day we leave. It was the Grand Slam or whatever slam it was that got us ready for the trip back home. $55 later and we drove up North on Beach to the 405 North and actually had plenty of time to spare as we did not seem to hit any traffic. You see, instead of the 13:40hr departure time it was moved to 15:15hr. KLM had informed us so we had extra time before dropping the vehicle off. But with several businesses closed on Monday (morning) we decided to just drive to Hertz to drop off the Rogue. When you're not in a rush, things seem to go smoothly. The shuttle bus to the airport was right there, dropped us off at the international terminal, we dropped off the bags through the Priority lane (22.4 kilograms with a 23kg limit) and could check in the two smaller Albek/Twin Air roller bags as well, which left us with the essentials in the backpack to take on board.
With a bit of gambling we scored a window seat each with a free seat next to us. I had a bit of extra leg room and Philip was only 6 seats behind. Getting to pick your seat is nice. The hopes of having an entire row to ourselves was destroyed real soon, but no complaints.
But before we got on board, we got to hang out with the bar man at the Air France/KLM lounge.
New on the job, but not new to making good margaritas. We were still rather full from the Denny's breakfast so not much food was needed. Drinks were more important. Having a few drinks can go either way. It worked out this time as I slept 7 hours on the 11 hour flight. Didn't miss dinner (pasta) nor breakfast before we landed. I thought I would be good "jetlag-wise" but coming back from the USA it always takes longer to get back to normal, for some reason.
Luggage showed up, all of it. We walked straight through customs and took the train back. It rained, of course, and it was cold and grey. Home sweet home.
BdJ
New on the job, but not new to making good margaritas. We were still rather full from the Denny's breakfast so not much food was needed. Drinks were more important. Having a few drinks can go either way. It worked out this time as I slept 7 hours on the 11 hour flight. Didn't miss dinner (pasta) nor breakfast before we landed. I thought I would be good "jetlag-wise" but coming back from the USA it always takes longer to get back to normal, for some reason. 
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.