Above: Probably the Grand Canyon before descending into Los Angeles.
We landed in Los Angeles around 1930. Again, we had a 2h transit but this time we didn’t have to collect our bags, clear immigration and run upstairs to check-in. We only had to tolerate an immigration clearance in a makeshift transit area. A much easier transit than on our outbound journey. International-to-international transits don’t really exist in the USA, so we technically had to be stamped into the country in a special corner of the departure area.
For this flight, we managed to get our paid upgrade on a last-minute basis. We were seated in the first row of Business Class. Kim got talking to a young English guy who was studying medicine in Cambridge, and he was coming to visit his mother in New Zealand. It sounded too coincidental and it turned out he was the son of a colleague of mine, Elizabeth.