Monday 9/7
Once again, this was a rather late decision to run this race. I didn't register until August 14th. After not running this event for so many years, this was my 2nd time running it in consecutive years. I supposed I enjoyed it just enough to return for it again. I left the house at about 5 am and arrived at about 6 am when packet pick-up opened. I parked right at the first bend on the windy road up to the Mt Baldy Resort. Per the usual, my friend Sergio was volunteering. He was passing out the race shirts.
Race shirt
Start line
Eventually, I bumped into my buddy Dexter. We hung out a bit to catch up until it was time to line up for the start of the race. Since lately, I had been dealing with ankle issues, I didn't get too far to the front as I was planning to hike the whole thing. While continuing to wait for the start, I chatted with the guy standing next to me. It would turn out that I had run down a stretch from the Notch with him last year. Although he looked very familiar, I had to ask if that was him.
Ready to go!
Other than the steep downhill run down to the trailhead, the rest was just a hike for me as both of my ankles were quite sore. The soreness in my left ankle was mostly in the medial tendon and arch. The right ankle was a sore Achilles.
The weather made for a bit more challenging "run" up to the summit this year. While the light sprinkle of rain was nice and kept us cool, I was not liking how blustery it was especially for the final push to the top! At its worse, I was regretting not wearing my arm sleeves. After receiving my finisher medal, I went to look for a small bag of chips. Unfortunately, the guy that I asked informed me that they had already run out. I took a bottle of water and headed over to join the queue for a photo with the summit plaque. While waiting in the line, I refilled my handheld with an electrolyte mix for the run back down to my car.
Finisher medal
Hector!
Reached the summit
After taking the obligatory summit photos, I started my trek back down. The weather turned out very nice for the run back down the mountain. As with last year, I opted to run all the way back instead of paying $10 for a ski lift ride down from The Top of the Notch. However, I did make a pitstop to use the restroom.
Heading back down
Waterfall
Trailhead
Just like last year, I was pretty pooped by the time I had gotten back to my car! Before heading home, I drove over to the Sycamore Hills Plaza to cash in for my free birthday drink at Starbucks. Thankfully with my current gold level, I had an entire week to redeem my birthday treat. I went with my usual trenta salted caramel cream cold brew.
So how did I end up having the opportunity to run the TCS Sydney Marathon without having to enter a drawing? After running it in 2023, I became a member of the candidacy club once the race had met all of the requirements to become a World Marathon Major. In mid November 2024, I received an email notifying me that I could secure a guaranteed entry for 2025, 2026, or 2027. I thought 2025 was too soon, so I picked 2026.
As inflation kept causing prices of everything to increase, in late June 2025, I emailed them to see if I could change my preferred year to 2027. The response that I received was that if I opted not to run in 2026, I would forfeit my guaranteed entry. In late September 2025, I decided to go ahead and register for the race because the race will inevitably get much harder to secure a spot.
In early December 2025, I booked very cheap non-refundable accommodations near Sydney Airport. Unfortunately on February 28, 2026, a certain country launched military strikes against another country which led to sharp price increases for pretty much everything including airfare as the supply of jet fuel was affected. It got to the point where I was considering scrubbing the trip. I would eat the cost of accommodations and race registration. Finally in late July 2026, I was able to find a Qantas flight via American Airlines that was affordable.
Cheaper fares with Qantas
Wednesday 8/26
I accounted for after work traffic and timed it so that I would arrive at LAX at about 7 pm for my evening flight. Instead of the usual freeway route, I took local surface streets (i.e. Central Ave to La Habra Blvd to Leffingwell Rd to Imperial Hwy) to get onto the 105 freeway. For this trip, I had booked my parking reservation at Airport Center Parking via SpotHero. It was located right next to the Sonesta Hotel. It had been a while, but this used to be one of my preferred parking locations about 8 years ago. I opted for the cheaper fare which meant that I needed to park up on the uncovered rooftop level. After finding a spot near the eastern end, I walked over to the western end to take the elevator. There was a barrier blocking one of the elevators with a note to use the east elevators. I wasn't sure if the other unblocked one was working so I took the stairs. Once I had reached the ground floor, I waited for a shuttle ride over to the airport. The shuttle driver commented that I was traveling very light as all I had were carry-on bags for an international flight.
Airport Center Parking
Rooftop
East elevators
Not sure if the west elevators were working
My flight was out of the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Per the mobile app instructions during check-in, I got in line to get my boarding passes. The gate for my flight was over at the West Gates, so it was a long walk over.
Heading over to the west gates
The flight left on time at just before 10 pm. It would be about 15.5 hours for the long haul flight out to Melbourne. I'm not sure how prices were set by the airlines, but it would've been a slightly shorter trip to Sydney Airport. However the cost was less for me to have a layover at Melbourne Airport. It was a fairly full flight. While I was assigned a middle seat, thankfully the aisle seat was empty. I slid over to give my row mate some space.
During the flight, I caught Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. I was definitely glad that I did not spend money to watch this in the movie theater. It wasn't bad, but it just felt like watching 4 consecutive episodes on Disney+. The charm with "baby Yoda" was definitely over. They really need to come up with better character development and story-telling. They cannot just slap on the Star Wars name and think it will be a successful film. After that I tried to get as much rest as I could, waking up only to eat.
The Mandalorian and Grogu
Dinner
Tim Tam Slam
About halfway there
Breakfast before we land
Friday 8/28
The plane landed early, just early enough that our gate was still occupied. The pilot informed us that we had to wait as they were not going to assign us to another gate. I got off of the plane into the international terminal 2. Although I was given a paper incoming passenger card to fill out, I didn't do that as I had already filled out the digital Australia Travel Declaration on the Qantas mobile app to get a QR code. Apparently, they were still transitioning over to the digital format as none of the Border Force agents knew what to do with that QR code. After taking care of that, I exited the terminal to head over to terminal 1 to catch my short flight into Sydney.
I had a seat in the back of the plane, so I was directed to take the stairs down to the tarmac and board the plane from the rear door. I think more airports should do this as it sped up the boarding process. There was a short delay in takeoff, but it was a short 1.5 hour flight over to Sydney.
Boarding the plane from the rear door
Banoffee Pie Cookie
After landing at Sydney Airport, we were allowed to exit from the rear door into domestic terminal 3. Once I got outside of the terminal, I headed east along Shiers Ave. The road curved north into Seventh St. Once I had reached Qantas Dr, I headed east until I got to Sir Reginald Ansett Dr. There I turned south to reach Ross Smith Ave. My hotel for this trip was on this street. Check-in time was at 2 pm, so I headed over to the McDonald's to get lunch.
Walking over to my hotel
Kingsford Smith Sydney Airport
ibis Budget Hotel
Ironically, international McDonald's tend to be much better than back in the States. However, Australia was pretty much identical to its American counterparts. In fact, they seemed to be in competition with how many patties and ingredients they could stuff into one sandwich or burger! I opted for the Quarter Pounder Deluxe meal.
McDonald's
Quarter Pounder Deluxe meal
After finishing my meal, I headed out towards Mascot Station for the race expo. I didn't want to deal with storing my bags at the hotel, so I just brought them with me. On the walk over, I noticed that there were a ton of Uber Eats deliveries being made with e-bikes as they were all riding on the sidewalk. Unlike back in the States, I was not used to having them on the sidewalk. I definitely had to look over my shoulder more often as they do not give you any warning of their approach. I used the travel pass that they had emailed to race participants about a week ago. With the pass, all public transportation was free for race participants.
Mascot Station
I took the T8 line over to Central Station. I got off and followed the signs to take the event train. They had special trains for the race weekend to take people straight to the Olympic Park Station. From the train station, it was a short walk over to the Sydney Showground.
Central Station
Platform
It felt like a very slow train ride with frequent stops even though there would only be a couple of station stops. Once we had reached the destination, it was a mass exodus towards the Sydney Showground. I pretty much followed the crowd, assuming that everyone was headed for the race expo. I joined the queue along with everyone else. While waiting in the queue, I spotted my friend who was done picking up his race packet and was heading out. It got quite warm while waiting. They had people at the entrance of Hall 4 controlling the amount of traffic heading inside. I ended up chatting with a couple that had flown in from Melbourne for the race.
Willie!
Long queue
Hall 4
Sure this venue was much further away than 3 years ago, but it was much better and larger than The Venue over in Alexandria. Once inside we were split up according to our starting group. There we were assigned a bib number and given our race shirt. Unlike 3 years ago, we were given our finisher shirt at the expo instead of after crossing the finish line. The expo was a bit crowded and busy so I rushed through it with the plan of coming back again tomorrow.
Entering the convention hall
Bib pick-up
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Graffiti Wall
TCS World Map
Abbott World Marathon Majors Wall of Fame
Sabrina!
Reptiles!
Participants name columns
Found my name
Sydney 2000 Olympic Torch
I also left as quickly as possible as I was pretty wiped out from the long haul flight. I headed over to the Olympic Park Station to catch a train ride back to Central Station. I continued to backtrack and took a train ride to Mascot. I walked over to the nearby Woolworths to buy some drinks and snacks for the weekend. I purchased a 4 L jug of spring water, 1 L bottle of Maximus sports drink, and a bag of Red Rock Deli honey soy chicken chips. I paid for my items using one of the many self checkout kiosks.
Olympic Park Station
Red Rock Deli honey soy chicken chips
Finally, I walked back to the ibis Budget Sydney Hotel to check into my room. I was assigned to room #538. Staying here was part of my shoestring budget for this trip. My 4 nights stay here was under $400 including taxes! But hey, you truly get what you'd paid for as my room was incredibly basic. Thankfully, everything was clean and in good working condition. Well, everything except for the sink faucet as it was not mounted properly and was loose. This was my first time staying at one of these hotels. It belonged to ALL Accor as one of the economy hotels.
Hotel hallway
No frills basic room
Bathroom
Fire alarm penalty
After getting settled into the room and relaxing a bit, I went back out to get dinner at McDonald's. I tried their Cheesy Quarter Pounder which include a deep fried cheese patty. I like cheese, but not in this form! This was probably my least favorite variation of the QPC.
High chair
Cheesy Quarter Pounder
I did my best to get quickly adjusted to the new time zone. I was feeling pretty wiped out, but I waited until their evening before I went to sleep. I wasn't able to get very good continuous sleep as I was trying to find the sweet spot with the room's air conditioning. It was either too warm or too cold.
Saturday 8/29
My only plans for today was to spectate the 5k. At about 5:30 am, I headed over to McDonald's to pick up breakfast. I ordered a Birdie's brekkie meal. I got it with a sausage & egg McMuffin, hashbrown, and a medium café latte. The only thing that made it different was that the sandwich came with Birdie's Signature Pink Sauce, a savory-sweet tomato mayo.
Birdie's Brekkie Meal
Birdie's sausage & egg McMuffin brekkie meal
After finishing my breakfast, I headed out to the Mascot Station to catch the T8 train up to St James Station. This walk over to Mascot would become my daily routine for the duration of my trip. Originally, I was planning to spectate at the north end of Hyde Park as the 5k course went through that area a few times. However, once I saw that the speakers located at that location was going to be quite loud, I started heading north up Macquarie St towards the start line.
St James Station
Il Porcellino Sydney Hospital
Sydney Mini Marathon start line
Runners warming up
The first group of runners were released at 7:15 am. They were in the preferred start. The requirement for this start was a sub 17 for men and sub 22 minutes for women. The second group was released 30 seconds later. This group comprised of 18 promising young distance runners from the TCS Sydney Mini Marathon Youth Invitational organized by NSW Athletics and the We Run Foundation. After another 30 seconds, runners in start A were released. I thought that there would be a gap between starting groups, but it was just a steady stream of runners!
Preferred start
Youth Invitational
After capturing just about 5 minutes of video, I started scanning for some of my friends. Although I was able to spot a few of my friends, there was just way too many people for me to find all of them! After about 20 minutes, I crossed over to the other side of Macquarie St via the temporary bridge to catch them on the return for the finish line.
Alex!
Koala!
Winnie the Pooh!
Gretchen!
Koala!
Gretchen!
加油!
COYS!
After about an hour of spectating, I decided to head on out. Although I was feeling quite tired, I decided to head over to the race expo again as I had gone through it rather quickly yesterday. I took the train from St James Station over to Central Station to catch an event train over to Olympic Park.
Victoria
Archibald Memorial Fountain
Sydney Tower Eye
Central Station Event Trains to Olympic Park
Before heading to the race expo, I stopped to use the restroom at the train station. It was much easier to maneuver around the race expo without my bags. I was able to check things out at a more leisurely pace. I don't usually try food samples, but I did get in line for some YoPRO. The taste was good, but the consistency was a bit weird. Before heading out, I had a chat with one of the Marathon Tour representatives. Eventually I would like to run the Petra Desert Marathon with them.
Shokz Kangaroo
Stage
Marathon Tours & Travel
Once I had reached Mascot, I decided to explore the area around the station. There was a lot of good food and market options. I mostly wanted to check out JJ Asian Market. Unfortunately, the aisles were very narrow and just crammed with so much food products. I had thought about buying some prepared food, but ultimately decided against it. I thought it was a bit funny that they had a screen outside shaming people that had shoplifted items. Eventually, I went back to Woolworths where I bought a package of Belgium Liège waffles and a bottle of apple & mango juice.
Western Legend BBQ
JJ Asian Market
Hello Kitty Macaroni
Belgium Liège waffles
Apple & mango juice
Once I got back to my room, I proceeded to veg out. In lieu of a proper lunch, I started going through the Belgium Liège waffles. I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's marathon to make sure that I had packed everything for the race. Later in the day, one of the channels was showing the highlights for this year's Paris Marathon back in April. I had been wanting to run that race and it was as if they were reminding me to do so sooner, rather than later.
Flat runner
Paris Marathon 2026 highlights
Female winner Shure Demise 2:18:34
At about 5:30 pm, I headed over to McDonald's to pick up dinner. With the huge time difference, I wasn't hungry at all, so I ended up only getting a Quarter Pounder Deluxe. I took it back to my room to enjoy. After finishing my burger, I went back to lounging in bed and watching TV. Eventually, I took a shower and called it a night.
McDonald's
Quarter Pounder Deluxe
Sunday 8/30
I was tired, but still excited to run this marathon. I got ready and left the hotel at just before 4:30 am. As I reached the sidewalk, I bumped into a couple that was also heading to the race. They were just getting onto their e-bikes. I had plenty of time to head to the race, so I opted to walk over to the Mascot Station. Eventually, I joined up with a few other runners coming from other neighboring hotels. Prior to my arrival to Sydney, I was a bit wary about making the early morning walk. However, I found the area to be quite safe. Once at the station, there were plenty of fellow race participants at the platform all heading to the race start over at St Leonards Park in North Sydney. Once the train had reached Central Station, I got off and headed for the platform to catch a M1 train over to Crows Nest Station.
Catching a M1 train from Central Station
I had arrived at the Crows Nest Station at about 5 am. According to the event guide, the arrival time for the green assembly in start 2 was 5:50 am. Since I had almost an hour to pass, I lagged behind the crowds that had arrived on the same train. I ended up chatting briefly with a runner from Taiwan. Eventually, I took the escalator up and hung out near the entrance of the station hoping to bump into a familiar face. After waiting about 20 minutes, I decided to start making way my over to the park.
Crows Nest Station
Walking over to St Leonards Park
I Love Pho
The coffee shop just across the street from the metro station was packed, so I continued walking. As I came up to Willoughby Rd, I noticed that a small coffee shop looked to be open. The name was Hue Coffee Roasters. Their posted hours for the weekend was 7 am, so I had to ask. They were open earlier today for the marathon. I got a latte for A$5.50. I had my coffee at one of the little tables outside. I ended up chatting with who I believe was the owner. He told me that they had just recently opened for less than half a year.
Latte
After I was done with my coffee, I joined my fellow race participants in the walk over to the park. We got to see a nice beautiful sunrise. I arrived at the park at about 6 am so I was able to go right in. They were not letting runners in the later starts enter until their post arrival time. That was smart as the park wasn't that big.
Early Sunrise
Green Assembly at St Leonards Park
Once inside, it was nice to see just off to the right were urinals for male participants. From what I could tell, there were not adequate amount of portapotties as the queues were very long if you needed to use one! During my wait, there were people handing out sample bottles of Ryde energy shots. Nothing new on race day, right? I'll hang onto it in case my race really turned south.
Long portapotties queue
Ryde energy shot
Runners in start 1 waiting to get into the starting corral
Sun Wukong, the Monkey King!
For the most part, I waited in the areas of the park that was away from the crowds. Eventually, I got in touch with my friend that was starting in start 3. He was in the portapotty queue. Fortunately, based on his description of his surroundings, I was able to locate him. I grabbed a selfie with him and eventually headed over to the group of people waiting to enter the start chute at 6:40 am. Although those with start 2 bibs were allowed to enter, they were still trying to get runners in start 1 to begin their race. That was fine as we were still on schedule for an approximate start time of 7:11 am.
Eric!
Time for me to get in for start 2
Queued up in the corral
I crossed the start line at 7:16 am. The course started with some nice stretches of downhill even with the cool bridge crossing. Eventually, I settled into roughly a 9:25 min per mile pace. I had a really rough race last time, so I came into this race with a strategy to avoid those debilitating leg cramps. I went through the first 8 miles feeling pretty good. There were then climbs up through mile 10 which slowed me down. I tried to maintain that slower pace through the halfway point.
1: 8:49
2: 9:04
3: 8:27
4: 9:20
5: 9:22
6: 9:23
7: 9:26
8: 9:27
9: 9:46
10: 10:21
11: 10:13
12: 10:39
13: 10:42
First half: 2:08:28
Crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge during mile 2
I definitely started struggling in the second half. The pace just kept slowing as I kept taking walk breaks. I knew that my goal of finishing in under 5 hours was out the window when I reached the loop around Centennial Park and one of my mile splits had gotten slower than 15 minutes. With the leg cramps coming off and on, I just couldn't get the legs to cooperate. I still had the out and back section out to Mrs Macquarie's Chair! It really sucked that I could hardly jog the final downhill stretch to the finish line!
14: 12:39
15: 12:39
16: 13:05
17: 14:21
18: 13:37
19: 13:56
20: 14:46
21: 15:12
22: 14:22
23: 15:13
24: 14:06
25: 14:03
26: 15:06
26.2: 6:57
Second half: 3:06:30
Mile 20: Taiwan Runners table next to the One More Shot Pond
Mile 21: Almost done with Centennial Park
Mile 22: Allianz Stadium, not Allianz Arena in Munich!
Oh my goodness, I got it done once again with leg cramps! It did not help that as soon as I crossed the finish line, I came right up against a wall of people. Runners that had finished just ahead of me were taking pictures. I can hear those behind me muttering for people to move. It was certainly hard to blame them as it was such an iconic location for a finish line! I moved further down and off to the side before I got my phone out for a selfie with the Sydney Opera House in the back.
Finished at Sydney Opera House!
Next I got my coveted hard-earned finisher medal. It was vastly better than the one that I had received 3 years ago. I kept walking until I found an open spot off to the side to take a selfie with my finisher medal once again with the Sydney Opera House in the back.
Finisher medal
Back side of finisher medal
Post race medal selfie
Finally, we came upon the post race recovery bags. There were no volunteers or staff watching them, so I witnessed one guy take 3 bags. Dude, there are other runners still out there on the course! Why are there always people that lack common decency and have to be told to only take one?
Post race recovery bag
I then messaged to see if my friend was still in the post race area inside the park. Even though he had started in start 3 after me, I just knew that he had finished well ahead of me. It took a while for me to locate him, but I eventually found him in the shade underneath a large tree. After going over how our races went, we started making our way out of the park. It was a bit tricky as the signs weren't very clear as to where to go. Thankfully, there were enough volunteers and staff to point us in the right direction. We were able to get out onto Macquarie St. I was able to just catch a glimpse of my friend pacing the 5 hour group. Although she couldn't locate me in the crowd, she did hear me yell out her name.
I wanted to get onto the other side of street so I needed to get in line to cross over on the temporary bridge. My friend needed to head further south, so we went our separate ways. I got to cheer on my fellow runners as I headed down to St James station to catch the T8 train back to my hotel. As I got to the platform, I saw a kid wearing an Arsenal jersey. I asked if they were Gunner fans. The dad said only his boy was. They were originally from London. I told them that I was a Spurs fan and my experience with visiting London for the marathon. The wife was from Leicester. I don't recall if the dad supported a club. Once the train pulled up, I ended up sitting in a row behind 2 ladies. They turned around to congratulate me. I believe the younger lady (Taylor?) worked for the Gold Coast Marathon. She told me to run that race if I was looking for a much flatter course. While stopped at a station, I saw through the train window that the kid was waving goodbye to me when him and his family had gotten off. The walk from Mascot Station seemed a bit longer having just run a marathon! As I was crossing Joyce Dr, one of the cars waiting at the red light honked to congratulate me. I gave him a thumbs up to acknowledge him.
After getting cleaned up, I ate the apple and drank fluids to rehydrate myself. I was definitely a bit dehydrated. I then proceeded to lounge around until at about 5:30 pm. Like clockwork, I dragged myself out of my room to go get dinner at McDonald's. As my recovery meal, I made sure to load up on protein. I ordered my favorite Quarter Pounder Deluxe and a Big Arch to go with it.
Quarter Pounder Deluxe and Big Arch
Big Arch
Monday 8/31
After yesterday's struggle in the marathon, I slept in a bit this morning. I didn't head over to McDonald's for breakfast until a little after 6 am. I ordered a bit more food. I went with the double breakfast sandwich meal. It included a sausage and egg sandwich, a bacon and egg sandwich, 2 hash browns, and a medium flat white.
A double breakfast sandwich meal
Sausage and Egg McMuffin
Bacon and Egg McMuffin
After finishing breakfast, I relaxed a bit in my room until closer to lunch time. Although I was traveling on a very tight shoestring budget, I wanted to eat something better to celebrate another marathon finish. With the race over, I had to actually pay for the train ride from Mascot over to the Circular Quay Station. It was quite crowded and busy as soon as I exited the train station. There were a ton of people out wearing their finisher medal and enjoying the nice weather. After getting the photos that I wanted, I turned around to go get lunch.
Circular Quay
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Sydney Opera House
Circular Quay
I decided to check out the Westfield Sydney mall. This mall was huge and the layout was a bit confusing. Thankfully, they had good signage at the escalators. I had eaten at the Yayoi over at The Galleries mall on my last trip. I wanted to check out the Yayoi Westfield Sydney location. Eventually, I was able to locate it up on the 6th floor. Although I knew how the ordering process worked, there was a sign asking customers to wait to be seated. Once seated, I scanned the QR code to place my order. They were having a salmon fair, so I ordered the aburi salmon don (light flame seared salmon rice bowl). Sure it cost more, but it was a nice change from eating at McDonald's. :)
Sir James Martin
Yayoi Westfield
Aburi salmon don
After my meal, I headed over to the St James Station to take the train back to my hotel. When I reached Mascot, I decided to check out A Taste of Taiwan as they were closed during the weekend. The food spread actually looked good, so I decided to get some food before heading back to my hotel. I got their 3 items combo. My choices were bitter-melon & beef, scrambled eggs with shrimp, and braised pork belly (焢肉). The portions were decent sized and well packaged for the walk back.
St James Station
A Taste of Taiwan
Inside the restaurant
Food spread
To-go bag
3 items combo: bitter-melon & beef, scrambled eggs with shrimp, and braised pork belly (焢肉)
Tuesday 9/1
Well, it was time for me to head home. Per the usual as a morning person, I woke up pretty early even though check out time was at 10 am. I took my time packing up for my trip home. Once I checked out of my room, I hung out at bit in the lobby before heading over to McDonald's for a quick lunch. I got the usual Quarter Pounder Deluxe.
Garmin wished me a happy birthday!
While I had considered going into the CBD to catch a movie before heading to the airport, I just didn't want to deal with the hassle of spending more money with the cost of everything continuing to climb. Also I now had my bags with me again, so I would be tempted to ride to the train over to the airport station which would incur a rather hefty fee of about $19. Instead, I decided to walk over to the T2 domestic terminal to catch a free T-Bus ride to T1 International Terminal.
Caught a free T-Bus ride from T2 to T1 International Terminal
T-bus
Once I got off at the T1 International Terminal, I headed over to the food court area that was right before the security screening. As with my previous trip, I decided to get food at Hungry Jack's. I used the ordering kiosk to order a Whopper meal. I got a standard Whopper with small thick cut chips and a bottle of Mount Franklin spring water.
Whopper meal
Whopper
Just as I was getting my bags in order after going through security screening, I noticed a guy wearing a LAFC jersey. I asked if he was a Son fan. He said yes and he assumed I was as well with my Spurs cap. I then came up to a gate where I had to scan my passport for entry. The gate opened, but they needed to check out something. After a rather lengthy wait, they returned my passport to me. They never told me the reason why, but it could be because I had a mobile boarding pass. It felt quite unusual for someone trying to leave their country. Oh well, no big deal as I had several hours to pass before it was time for my flight.
Eventually, I wandered over to the McDonald's at the food court near gate 25. It was a very unique McDonald's as they had a cool food delivery system. The kitchen was located on the upper level. Once the food was ready, it would get transported to the lower level for the employees to distribute to customers. I used an ordering kiosk to place an order for a McSmart meal. I selected a McDouble plus a chicken & cheese sandwich, small fries, and a small water. Food was pretty standard for McDonald's.
McSmart meal: McDouble plus a chicken & cheese sandwich, small fries, and a small water
Chicken & cheese sandwich
Happy birthday!
Lego stormtrooper
Kangaroo jerky
Almost time to board the plane
Snoopy!
Tasmanian Devil
Thankfully, my flight home was a nonstop flight with a window seat. Here were the movies that I watched:
Pressure: This was a rather intense movie about the weather forecasting that helped the allied forces succeed on D-Day.
In Bruges: One of my favorite movies. Kind of funny and sad at the same time.
Wicked: This was much better than I had expected. When it was first released, I didn't think much of the cast, so I had never gotten around to watching it until now. This turned out to be probably my favorite movie adaptation of any musical or book.
Pressure
Snacks, water, and juice
Dinner
In Bruges
Bulla Murray St Ice Cream
Purgatory...
Roast Chicken Toastie
Wicked
Breakfast
Approaching LAX
Heading east past the airport to queue up for landing
