The Lihue airport was a special experience. Hawaii is very protective of live plants coming and going from it's island. This means extra check points, not only before the ticket counter but also at the gate. So here we are with our cart full of four suitcases, two car-seats and our back packs. We walk fifteen feet and have to load everything onto a conveyor for the first screening and then of course load it back up. We shuffle our mess over to the ticket counter and wait for an automatic terminal to be available. Once there we quickly learn that there is a new system and have great difficulty getting checked-in. We finally have boarding passes in hand and are double checking them, only to realize that we don't have any for Elizabeth and no indication of a lap child for Grant. Ahhhh, we start over! The agent actually pulled out a hard copy manual to figure out how to deal with Grant's boarding pass. Then we start unloading again to have our bags weighed and tagged...only to load again to shuffle them over to security. We were lucky that grandma and grandpa were entertaining the kids, because this was no short process and we haven't even waited in the security line yet! That is our next stop. It wasn't the longest line I have ever seen, but it moved very slow. David and Sara's flight was about the same time as ours so we were able to spend an extra hour with them. We go to our gate and get to do this agricultural scan again! At least we only had half of our stuff!
The flights had gone so well before that we knew we'd be lucky to have a repeat performance. What we really underestimated was the kind people sitting around us previously. We were not so lucky this time. I have referred to them as "kid haters." I am confident that the row in front of us did find one ounce of cute in our family. The lady turned around once and said, "I don't know if you are aware, but your child is bumping my seat." I lost it and started crying. The man then starts turning around and giving us dirty looks and glares. My sister in law says it best, it is harder for the parent's than it is for anyone else listening or feeling your children kick. It is embarrassing and if you could do something about it, of course you would! The kids really weren't being loud, they were just squirmy. On this six hour flight, Grant did not nod off or even act sleepy. Elizabeth managed to take a nap, but I also hauled her into the bathroom to explain the situation of having less than happy people in front of us and that we had to try better. We landed in SanFran around 11 pm and grabbed a bite to eat and boarded the next plane. This was only a three and a half hour flight and we were confident that Grant was ready to crash. Brandon tried to get him to sleep before we took off, but had no success. So yes, we are those parent's who pulled out the Benadryl. Elizabeth thought it looked good, so we let her have a little too! Definitely not winning any parenting awards here, we know! It was time to take off and he started screaming as I had him trapped in my lap. I think at this point someone turned around and looked and I said, "he's a baby, he's going to cry, go ahead and stare!" I got an, "Alison" from my husband, I rolled my eyes and continued to try to calm Grant down. (planes are loud, I really don't think the guy heard me) He carried on, loudly for five minutes, but then collapsed and slept the entire flight. Elizabeth slept for a few hours. The kids were so soundly asleep when we landed that I was beginning to wonder how we were going to get them off the plane. However, they roused and we made it. Only another two and half hours in the car and we would be home! Do you know what it feels like to have had one hour of sleep and it be 9:00 am? Brandon and I were semi-functional at best. We ate lunch early and everyone took naps! The kids slept for over four hours, which made for a less than pleasant bedtime, but we all needed those naps! We had all Sunday to catch up on things. Brandon sorted the laundry and in the process has earned a new job assignment. I always have at least ten loads after a trip and with his sorting I had half as much and nothing turned a funky color! Good job honey and thank you!
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| This is all of the food that we had leftover! I might have over packed on the snacks. We have a new "snack bowl" now and we have been home for over a week and it is still full! But boy, we sure did appreciate the variety! |
We had 20 hours of travel, just in the air, that doesn't include all the other time before, after and in vehicles. All things considered they both did well. We never had prolonged crying or screaming or absolute chaos, just our typical little outbursts. Brandon and I did pretty well too, we only had to give each other a pep talk once!
I'm so glad you said something to that person on the second flight!! 20 hours of air travel is insane, and your kids are amazingly good travelers:)
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