My little sister is traveling with me for the next 3 months! Yet, she almost didn’t make it through the first leg of the trip.  Ladies and gentlemen, Julia Wetherhold made it to San Francisco!  We were lucky enough to be on the same flight heading to Australia.

Julia flew Harrisburg Washington DC-San Francisco to Sydney. I flew San Diego-San Francisco-Sydney. Meeting in San Fransisco was ideal.  But did I think she was going to make it out of the east coast to meet me in San Fransisco?  Nope.  There was a huge nor-eastern predicted for the entire eastern seaboard.  I was talking to her a couple of days before she flew out. ‘Are you worried about making it out here with the whole weather situation?’ I asked her.  ‘Meh, I’m not really concerned,’ she responded.  Okay then.  I would be complete the opposite.  Pacing around the house, snapping at any poor sap who may ask me if I’m okay and ready to for the trip.

Well Julia was fine.  She had good reason not to be concerned because the storm was a near bust.  What she should have been concerned with was acquiring a “visa” to enter Australia.  She called me in a panic 2 hours before her flight was set to board, telling me that the agent at gate wouldn’t let her through because she didn’t have the proper visa.  WHAAAATTTT?!!! Still being in San Diego, I was able to quickly google “Australia Visa.”  Let me tell the Australian government does not exactly make it super clear that US citizens need to pay a fee to enter the country. Luckily, the ‘visa’ is very quick and easy to process.  We both acquired ours in less than 15 minutes and Julia was able to board the flight.

I felt so ill-prepared not knowing that I needed this until hours before boarding my flight in San Fran I got an email from my friend Jackie who we were meeting in Australia.  She was flying in from New Zealand to meet us in Australia and the email said “Theresa!!  I am in the Auckland (New Zealand) airport and we were just told we need a visa to enter into Australia.  We had to buy it just now at the airport!  Do you have this?!’  Okay if Jackie didn’t realize we needed a visa, and she has everything planned out, I’m not going to beat myself up about not knowing of it!

Despite a Nor-eastern and a visa snafu, Julia Wetherhold made it to San Francisco.