TRIP TO USA ON THE A380 SUPER JUMBO JET

Well I went to California on January 19th and few on the new Airbus A380 super jumbo jet in business class.  The entire upper deck has 80 flat bed seats which were nice and there was an open bar and lounge on each end of the upper deck.  Down below there was a small duty free shop at the rear of the aircraft.  I first flew to Seoul and was picked up by the driver from the Grand Hyatt Hotel and driven there to freshen up, then had breakfast with Peter Walshaw, the General Manager and President of the hotel.  After breakfast I had an inspection of their outdoor ice rink which I was involved with when it was first installed about 12 years ago.  It was in pretty good condition and the view of the city was as spectacular as ever on the hillside.   Around 1130am I went back to the airport,  which by the way was new and really fantastic,  and took the afternoon flight also on A380 to Los Angeles.   We arrived at 8am at LAX and I was met by friends for the drive down to Laguna Hills.   On arrival I was still jet lagged and this continued throught my entire 12 days there.   On the 24th of January I flew up to San Jose,  rented a car, checked into the hotel,  and went to the HP Arena to watch 12 year old Nathan Chen compete in Junior Men's nationals.  It was the long program and if you'd like to see it,  just click on above link  and it will play. He blew away everyone with a flawless presenation to the music of The Godfather.  Had a standing ovation at the end. The only skater to get that.  That night after the competition we went to a late dinner with his two coaches,  mom,  David Liu, Richard Dwyer and my friend from Oakland,  Kevin Jim.  Was a great evening.  The next morning I flew back to John Wayne Airport in Orange County.  The next days were just lounging around, not doing too much.   That weekend  Nathan and his mom drove down from Arrowhead and we had lunch before they headed back to San Jose so that Nathan could do the gala which was broadcast on NBC Sports.  On the 30th morning I hoped back onto another A380 and headed back to Seoul for a 3 hour layover and then on down to Hong Kong so I did 4 flights on A380 and it was a memorable experience.  I had flown on just about all types of aircraft except the new Boeing 787 and the newer 747-8.   I did flight on the Concorde in 1994 from London to New York and that too was a highlight. So thats my recent holiday to America.