After 5 months planning the trip of our life we got up at 7 a.m. We picked up my sister Corine and brother-in-law Erik for their first real flight experience ever. We were all a bit nervous.
Our flight was scheduled for 12.20 p.m. First we had to fly from Amsterdam to Washington DC and then from there to Los Angeles. The total flight time would be 16 hours.
Last year we flew to Florida with Delta Airlines and although the flight was nice we wanted to fly with a newer plane this time. That is why we decided to fly with United Airlines this time. Their new plane, the Boeing 777, was comfortable and we really liked the in-seat TV-screens.

We left Amsterdam with a few minutes delay. The flight was pleasant but quite long. We saw the new James Bond movie and did some reading. The lunch we got was ok.

The second part of the flight was in the early evening and when it was dark Erik and I tried to figure out above what places we flew. During the domestic flight we had to pay for the movie. But the TV-screens were broken so after a while the flight attendant paid back our money.

We arrived at 7.45 p.m. (Los Angeles local time -9 hours time difference-) with almost no delay. After getting our luggage the first thing we had to do was pick up our rental car. An Alamo shuttle took us in a few minutes to the Alamo office. It took us a few minutes at the desk to get our car. We pre-arranged our rental car in Holland and choose a Luxury car and pre-paid all taxes and insurance. But the salesperson still wanted us to rent a bigger car. But we got him to give us the bigger car for free. Hey, we are Dutch people, we don't pay extra!!

The car, an Oldsmobile Achieva, looked very big, but when we wanted to get the luggage in the trunk it just fitted. So we were quite happy we only brought two suitcases and two bags (for 4 people) with us.

Our first hotel (of 15 hotels) was the Los Angeles Airport Hilton and was just 2 miles from the airport. So in a few minutes we arrived at the hotel and parked our car in the parking garage ($10). The room was very nice, but we were too tired to enjoy it. We had a 23-hour day and wanted to get some sleep.

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