LAX, Newark Liberty, Shannon IRE Airports

We left Santa Barbara at 5:30AM hoping to arive early enough to the airport. After seeing a bus that had recently caught fire on the opposite side of the freeway (101N) we hit traffic, pushing our arrival time to 7:30. Checking our bag at LAX was easy, but the TSA guards at security are enough to give anybody an anxiety attack. There was something in our carry-on rolling back-pack that must have excited these guys cause before we knew it, there were 5 "professionals" looking at the x-ray screen. After putting it through again, then taking everything out of the bag, including all of Ahn's makeup, they concluded the mystery object was a massage travel pillow (thank you Dan Michealsen). Now that sounds dangerous if you ask me.
While Ahn was dealing with this which literally took 30 min. I ran to our gate and pleaded for the lady not to shut the doors (since our plane was scheduled to take off in 5 minutes). When we finally got on, they had given away our seats, so we were forced to sit separately. It wasn't too bad though because Ahn sat in the middle seat in the row directly behind me. Thus began our journey to beautiful Newark, NJ for our connecting flight.

We chowed down some bluecheese burgers and split a chocolate milkshake at Ruby's Diner in the airport. I hit up the duty free shops and sprayed myself with Hugo by Hugo Boss (the cologne I wore in college) to surprise Ahn with...(she fell in love with a guy who used to wear it :).
The flight to Shannon, Ireland was about 6 hours and we were tired (with the time change and all.) I did manage to watch a little bit of "Casablanca" and "Back to the Future" however.
HIGHLIGHTS:
1. The guy sitting next to me on the aisle that smacked the back of the flight attendant after he didn't serve him a egg & cheese biscuit breakfast sandwich right away. "WHO just hit me?!?"
2. In-flight entertainment screens
3. Seeing New York from the sky.

4. ZZZs...