Dateline Sunday - Sunday, December 23

We left Los Angeles at 10:40 p.m. and 15 hours later landed in Sydney, Australia on Monday, December 24 at 7:50 a.m.!  What does one do on an airplane for that amount of time?  Eat dinner, read a magazine, sleep 7 hours, stand in line for the bathroom, stand and stretch a stiff body, read an entire book, eat a snack, eat breakfast, fill in Australian arrival card, sleep some more, and before you know it, you've arrived!  We breeze through customs and the first person we talk with about our luggage knows instantly that our bags left San Francisco last night and are scheduled to land in an hour!!  We are so happy to finally get some good news!  Unfortunately we won't be able to make the ship since our bags haven't caught up with us yet.  We freshen up at the Sydney airport, take a bus from the international terminal to the domestic terminal and catch the plane for the three hour ride to Cairns.  Yeah!  More flying time!