{"id":2841,"date":"2019-08-14T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/?p=2841"},"modified":"2025-07-09T19:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T19:26:11","slug":"leaving-the-usa-for-this-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/2019\/08\/14\/leaving-the-usa-for-this-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaving the USA for this time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We got up at 8:30 for showers and breakfast, followed by packing the bags. Since I have two duffle bags, I have to be extra careful with stuff that might take a hit in the baggage handling of the flight industry. We checked out and left a total of five items at the reception. Split up again, Dad to the Grammy museum, and I&#8217;m looking for some shopping. Hard to find any malls around our hotel, you know, these large structures with AC and a bunch of stores gathered together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Found a couple of items, and then we met up for our last meal together, lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant. Tasty food, but too much for us both. Got back to the hotel, where dad changed clothes, and then we said our goodbyes. He left for a bus, and I went over to Live LA to catch a movie before heading to the airport. It was commercials before 15:30 (announced show start), trailers for 18 minutes from 15:30, then commercials for another four minutes, making the movie begin 22 minutes after the announced start. In Sweden, that only happens to like IMAX 3D movies. Hobbes and Shaw is a movie that fits Statham and Johnson perfectly, let&#8217;s leave it at that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68529068_638641469955887_4510163896471912448_n-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2842\" srcset=\"https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68529068_638641469955887_4510163896471912448_n-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68529068_638641469955887_4510163896471912448_n-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68529068_638641469955887_4510163896471912448_n-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68529068_638641469955887_4510163896471912448_n-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68529068_638641469955887_4510163896471912448_n-107x60.jpg 107w, https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68529068_638641469955887_4510163896471912448_n-840x473.jpg 840w, https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68529068_638641469955887_4510163896471912448_n.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Got back to the hotel and switched clothes. Would have loved a shower, but none available. Asked the reception to call me a cab, and they offered a private driver who charged $60 flat. I accepted, and after a few minutes, he showed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we started the drive, he put on a Lyft meter, and I asked about the flat rate. &#8220;Americans like meter, it&#8217;s more precise,&#8221; was the answer. I made sure I could pay by card, and he said, &#8220;I happily stop at an ATM&#8221;. Not the greatest start to what I thought would have been a smooth ride. He had some funny topics to talk about, as well as not having the best English led the drive to be a bit awkward at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I picked up the subject of price and payment when we were getting closer to the airport since the meter passed $70. He could charge a card, but &#8220;the machine takes $5 extra&#8221;. When we stopped, he pulled up another app, so the price on the Lyft app didn&#8217;t matter. I gave him some tips in the app and got into the terminal. I&#8217;ve written to the hotel to mark my displeasure about the whole thing, just as feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check-in went smoothly, no line. Security got my backpack because I had two candles in it. The guy whose bag got checked before me took a while since he had some metal parts that got extra scanned, and in the end, he couldn&#8217;t bring them. Apparently not worth the money for extra checked luggage cause he threw them away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I&#8217;m sitting in the Star Alliance lounge at Los Angeles airport, waiting to board the LOT flight LO24 to Warsaw. Another trip in business class, we&#8217;ll see how this one is compared to Air Canada. I&#8217;ll probably use the time to get some sleep; it&#8217;s been four long weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"576\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68268540_638641519955882_2641898662250151936_n-576x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2843\" srcset=\"https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68268540_638641519955882_2641898662250151936_n-576x1024.jpg 576w, https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68268540_638641519955882_2641898662250151936_n-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68268540_638641519955882_2641898662250151936_n-768x1365.jpg 768w, https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68268540_638641519955882_2641898662250151936_n-864x1536.jpg 864w, https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68268540_638641519955882_2641898662250151936_n-34x60.jpg 34w, https:\/\/backeman.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/68268540_638641519955882_2641898662250151936_n.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We got up at 8:30 for showers and breakfast, followed by packing the bags. Since I have two duffle bags, I have to be extra careful with stuff that might take a hit in the baggage handling of the flight industry. We checked out and left a total of five items at the reception. Split&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/2019\/08\/14\/leaving-the-usa-for-this-time\/\" rel=\"bookmark\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Leaving the USA for this time<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2019-wsj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2845,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841\/revisions\/2845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}