Day 0 - From Arizona to California
So this naturally pointed to flights. From memory there were 3 flight options for flying from Flagstaff to LA before William's arrival - none were direct flights, they all routed us through Phoenix Airport which was interesting because that's exactly where we were going through on our flights to Hawaii. None of these flights were cheap either, and then there was the matter of getting to Flagstaff airport - there was no public transport so it would have to be a taxi. It wasn't really looking good from a "Trying to save money" perspective. But, there was another option that didn't occur to us straight away.
Amtrak's Southwest Chief - the very same train we'd arrived in Flagstaff aboard. It continued from Flagstaff to Los Angeles, overnight. We'd missed considering it initially because we were focused on trying to depart and arrive on the 21st, but once we twigged to the possibility of catching the train overnight to arrive in LA the morning of the 21st, suddenly it seemed like the perfect answer. It would save us the cost of an extra night's accommodation, it was cheaper than flying, and we'd arrive in LA in the morning before William did. We'd be sleeping in the seats again - we did look at the cost of a sleeper cabin, but most were booked out and only the really expensive ones were left.
So this is how we came to be back at the Flagstaff Amtrak station, awaiting a delayed Southwest Chief - the staff told us it arrived in Albuquerque late but left on time, but somehow became heavily delayed en route. About 2 hours late - quite how the train can get delayed by that much over a 4hr journey seems almost unbelievable, unless they never left Albuquerque on time. So we just sat on the platform in the warm night air, watching speeding double-stack freight trains wizz past every 10-15 minutes. Eventually it arrived, and we made a beeline for the conductor (no one else seemed to be moving though all the passengers seemed impatient), who told us what car to go to. We then meet our car attendant by the carriage door, who gives us our seats, and then we hop aboard. We're on the opposite side of the carriage than last time, and a few seats back compared to where we were. We quickly settled in and prepare to sleep - Sasha has for a long time had travel sleeping tablets she uses for overnight travel like this, and always offered to be to use them but I never had. However after last time, I was keen to try and get as good as a sleep as possible so took one - and while sleep wasn't instantaneous, I did fall asleep and solidly too.