Day 1

November 18, Los Angeles, 9:30pm

Australia, it turns out, now requires visas. I was told that these visas are usually issued instantly. In "very rare" cases there may be a slight delay of up to 12 hours. This isn't a big deal unless you learn about the new visa requirements two hours before your flight! Kristin and the girls were in the "instant" categorty. I, however, was in the very rare 12 hour category. Somehow we managed to get our tickets to LAX (despite Delta's policy that strictly forbids it). Thankfully, my visa cleared while we were somewhere over Arizona. We are now almost certain that we will be in Sydney in a mere 16 hours.