October 10, 2002 Today was the grand and long awaited departure day from the warm (not really) sunny (absolutely not) and depauperate (at least in sheep) California for the great white south. Many days, weeks, and months of preparation have gone into day and I believe the rest of the team and myself are sharing the unifying thought… "I know I forgot something, I hope it isn't important."

The Five Moss Landing contingent members met at the marine labs early in the morning (by my standards meaning 10:45) and loaded up the schools van. When I say loaded up, I don't mean it lightly. We put all six of us, including Laurie McConico a fellow Moss Landing Graduate student who was kind enough to drive us (thank you Laurie), and our bags. The bags consisted of 15 bags, every single one over thirty pounds and many of them near the maximum size of the limits. Dan won the award of the most annoying bags due to his Kite Surfing/ Surfboard gear which he plans on using on the return trip through New Zealand. Oliver won the least baggage award with hardly two bags. Needless to say the van was full.

We reached the check in counter with three hours to spare, a nice feeling in these times of tight security and high risk of shoe removal at the metal detector stop. The surf board for some reason baffled the kind people behind the counter to such an extent that it took us a full two hours to check in and get our seats (none of which were together for the flights to New Zealand.) The battle wore on until finally the computer spit out the correct luggage tags, we got seating assignments, and amazingly we were off with a battalion of varied boarding passes and luggage claim receipts, tickets and the like. (see the picture, that is just one person's one way portfolio.)

To my surprise, the metal detectors were easy and I didn't even get searched! The day took a turn for the better upon reaching the starbucks and finding no line! In San Jose airport I have never seen this and it brought a caffeinated smile to my face.

In LA we had a pretty tasty dinner and got on the plane. A great big thanks to Jo and Laurie for their wonderful cookies which made the flight enjoyable even though they served us a lovely dinner of beef stir fry (MSG on Rice) and some cheese cake type dessert which was almost edible (but only the top half.) Through all the complaints and things that could have gone wrong, for a departure day it was easy and fun. The twelve hour flight doesn't sound like quite as much fun, but at least we have the opportunity to see toilets flush the opposite direction at the next stop of our journey. I have bad movies to watch and a person sitting next to me to avoid talking to for the next eleven hours so at this point I wish you all well.

Aloha,

Andrew