Ford’s Filling Station, Los Angeles LAX Airport, CA USA

Ordered at Ford's Filling Station in Terminal 5 of LAX.

Excellent family vacation. It was great to return to a very, very busy Pasadena – when we left in August of 2020, nearly everything was shut (even the playground swings had been removed), covid was ever-present, and forest fires were rading. ~9 months later and life was essentially back to normal. It’s amazing to see how quickly the vaccine returned our lives.

We were able to enjoy amazing meals during our time in Pasadena, and it definitely made me miss having such awesome food options so close by.

What I didn’t miss: experiencing LAX.

Returning a rental car to LAX with 4 checked bags and a toddler is just as awful as you’d think it would be – and it took almost 45 minutes to get from parked car to Terminal 5 via the Hertz shuttle… and that’s at 6am on a Sunday with 0 traffic.

While life had returned to Pasadena, staffing had not returned to LAX, and food options consisted of either extremely long lines or completely closed concessions. I’m sure we weren’t the only ones frustrated by this new (hopefully temporary?) travel reality

I chose Ford’s Filling Station, which had the only line that seemingly would take less than 30 minutes – and luck was on my side, as their disheveled shelving held one last club sandwich. A moment of happiness in an airport full of frustrated people.

We piled onto the plane and did our best to spend the beginning of our flight catching Z’s. As though we were all on the same jetlagged schedule, Trevor, Rachel and I all popped out of our naps at the same time. Hungry, tired, we reached for food and all decided to share the club sandwich.

It did hit the spot in this weird “I need food really badly” kind of way… although make no mistake: the three of us were glad we shared it, no one wanted the entirety of it. Healthy serving of ham and turkey. Solid. Dense. Salty and dry. Bacon was disgusting. How do they even make it this bad? Did they forget to cook it? One slice of thin tomato on each half lead to terrible ratio. Why even bother to put the piece of lettuce. And no mayo… just a little too dry for anyone’s liking.

OK so now you know how bad the LAX travel experience was if something this terrible hit the spot. Sadly it was probably one of the best items available at 7am in Terminal 5. Lines everywhere for fast food. Packed airport. Not enough food options and definitely not enough employees working at the ones that were open.

I’m glad we took the only nonstop flight back from LAX to BOS… we couldn’t wait to be in the comforts of our home. Of course, we’d never let that travel experience dampen our love for California; our trip was excellent!!

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