Our journey begins in Orlando On a frantic Thursday in January....
We had received notice just days earlier that we were going to have to leave for Vietnam within three days. Try to imagine what it is like to be expecting to travel to Asia for two weeks in February and suddenly someone tells you to leave in three days! Actually, there is nothing to it...hmmm...let's see. I just need to get Mom up to Cincinnati, take 3 weeks off of work , find someone to take care of the cats, stop the mail, fill the pool, shock the pool, pick up dry cleaning...whoops, Mom says she's not going to Cincinnati now. Okay, talk Mom into going to Cincinnati, take three weeks off from work.... Oh, hold on, they are fighting me on the whole FMLA thing. Okay, talk Mom into going to Cincinnati, study Delta's Human Resources Policy Manual and argue it with the HR person who is supposed to know this stuff, pick up dry cleaning.... oops locked the keys in the car at the dry cleaner and Mom needs to get to the airport..........
Anyway, you get the idea about how the last few days have been. If you have ever watched the new show "Worst Week", you will know how I felt. Luckily the Gators won the National Championship and everything seems to be a little bit brighter!
After staying up almost the whole night Thursday night packing (and watching the game at same time), we rushed to the airport to get on a 7:30 am flight to Atlanta. Much to my surprise, when I went to check in, I found out from the computer that my flying priviledges had been revoked. Surprise, surprise. Our HR genius at Delta put me down for an Unpaid leave of absence (like if someone wants a year off to spend time with their kids) instead of Family Medical Leave Act. Well, since it was 6 in the morning, there was nobody to call. Luckily, I had the sense to grab some paper tickets that we use for other airline managers and we hopped a flight to Atlanta. Actually, we were originally going to fly to Salt Lake City for our first leg but it was snowing there and didn't want to take the chance of misconnecting to Honolulu.
Well, we got to Atlanta okay and then also made it onto the Honolulu flight. We were so lucky to receive 3 bulkhead seats together so Brian could play on the floor in front of us with his toys. This was going to be the first real challenge for us because Brian had not been on a flight longer than 3 hours and this one was going to be 9! The good news is we bought Children's Benedryl to help Brian's allergies (okay, so it's to make him sleep), the bad news is I had accidently packed it in the checked baggage. So Brian wakes up an hour into the flight (we were over Memphis at the time) and declared ALL DONE! You can imagine the horror in our eyes when we heard this. Luckily Rick had brought the DVD player with his favorite DVDs. We popped in "Tyrone" (Backyardigans) and he was off in never-never land with his headphones on and his container of Pringles ($3 onboard).
3 hours later, as we were watching Mama Mia on the plane's movie screen I noticed a "low battery" light flashing on Brian's DVD player out of the corner of my eye. NOOOOOOOO!!!!! Please keep in mind we were just over California at this time and still had 4.5 hours on the flight. Okay, yes there was crying and yes, all of the people around us were annoyed but luckily, just at the right time...>ZONK... he was out like a light until we were about an hour from Honolulu. All in all, he was quite good for a 2 year old on a 9 hour flight.
When we got to Honolulu, I let him run up and down the sidewalk outside baggage claim whle Rick waited for the bags. There was a lot of pent up energy from the flight! After a taxi ride through rush-hour in Honolulu, we got to our Hotel in Waikiki, the Outrigger. It is a very nice hotel and has a beautiful view of Diamond Head from it's beach. We have spent the day today out on the beach and right now Brian and Rick are taking a nap. After we were on the beach and had lunch, Brian had determined that he wants to go to Disney World now. (something we often do after going to the beach on Saturdays). We tried hard to explain to him that Disney World is not near this beach but he didn't seem to care. It was up to us to find out how to make it closer, I guess!
We get up early tomorrow morning to catch a 7:15 am flight to Taipei, then a flight to Hong Kong, and then to Saigon.
Going to make sure Benedryl is in the carry-on this time!
We had received notice just days earlier that we were going to have to leave for Vietnam within three days. Try to imagine what it is like to be expecting to travel to Asia for two weeks in February and suddenly someone tells you to leave in three days! Actually, there is nothing to it...hmmm...let's see. I just need to get Mom up to Cincinnati, take 3 weeks off of work , find someone to take care of the cats, stop the mail, fill the pool, shock the pool, pick up dry cleaning...whoops, Mom says she's not going to Cincinnati now. Okay, talk Mom into going to Cincinnati, take three weeks off from work.... Oh, hold on, they are fighting me on the whole FMLA thing. Okay, talk Mom into going to Cincinnati, study Delta's Human Resources Policy Manual and argue it with the HR person who is supposed to know this stuff, pick up dry cleaning.... oops locked the keys in the car at the dry cleaner and Mom needs to get to the airport..........
Anyway, you get the idea about how the last few days have been. If you have ever watched the new show "Worst Week", you will know how I felt. Luckily the Gators won the National Championship and everything seems to be a little bit brighter!
After staying up almost the whole night Thursday night packing (and watching the game at same time), we rushed to the airport to get on a 7:30 am flight to Atlanta. Much to my surprise, when I went to check in, I found out from the computer that my flying priviledges had been revoked. Surprise, surprise. Our HR genius at Delta put me down for an Unpaid leave of absence (like if someone wants a year off to spend time with their kids) instead of Family Medical Leave Act. Well, since it was 6 in the morning, there was nobody to call. Luckily, I had the sense to grab some paper tickets that we use for other airline managers and we hopped a flight to Atlanta. Actually, we were originally going to fly to Salt Lake City for our first leg but it was snowing there and didn't want to take the chance of misconnecting to Honolulu.
Well, we got to Atlanta okay and then also made it onto the Honolulu flight. We were so lucky to receive 3 bulkhead seats together so Brian could play on the floor in front of us with his toys. This was going to be the first real challenge for us because Brian had not been on a flight longer than 3 hours and this one was going to be 9! The good news is we bought Children's Benedryl to help Brian's allergies (okay, so it's to make him sleep), the bad news is I had accidently packed it in the checked baggage. So Brian wakes up an hour into the flight (we were over Memphis at the time) and declared ALL DONE! You can imagine the horror in our eyes when we heard this. Luckily Rick had brought the DVD player with his favorite DVDs. We popped in "Tyrone" (Backyardigans) and he was off in never-never land with his headphones on and his container of Pringles ($3 onboard).
3 hours later, as we were watching Mama Mia on the plane's movie screen I noticed a "low battery" light flashing on Brian's DVD player out of the corner of my eye. NOOOOOOOO!!!!! Please keep in mind we were just over California at this time and still had 4.5 hours on the flight. Okay, yes there was crying and yes, all of the people around us were annoyed but luckily, just at the right time...>ZONK... he was out like a light until we were about an hour from Honolulu. All in all, he was quite good for a 2 year old on a 9 hour flight.
When we got to Honolulu, I let him run up and down the sidewalk outside baggage claim whle Rick waited for the bags. There was a lot of pent up energy from the flight! After a taxi ride through rush-hour in Honolulu, we got to our Hotel in Waikiki, the Outrigger. It is a very nice hotel and has a beautiful view of Diamond Head from it's beach. We have spent the day today out on the beach and right now Brian and Rick are taking a nap. After we were on the beach and had lunch, Brian had determined that he wants to go to Disney World now. (something we often do after going to the beach on Saturdays). We tried hard to explain to him that Disney World is not near this beach but he didn't seem to care. It was up to us to find out how to make it closer, I guess!
We get up early tomorrow morning to catch a 7:15 am flight to Taipei, then a flight to Hong Kong, and then to Saigon.
Going to make sure Benedryl is in the carry-on this time!
I hope you print this and make it into a book for Kevin. This is entertaining enough to even pitch to NBC as a mini-series! Oh, the joys and inevitable challenges of parenthood. So I see someone let you in on the Benedryl trick, yes on long trips I've often convinced myself that a clearing of the throat by a toddler is clearly an allergy attack that needs Benedryl, STAT! I can't wait for the next episode...
ReplyDeleteHi Big Brother, I am sooooooo proud of you! You are handling all of this all so well. And to top it off you have found the time to write such a great blog! You have two lucky sons who couldn't have asked for better parents. Have fun in Saigon and use the wooden chopsticks in paper whenever possible. I can't wait to meet Kevin and hear about the rest of your trip. Love you, Jeni
ReplyDeleteAwesome blog! You are becoming quite the computer guru! Looking forward to reading more and seeing y'all soon!
ReplyDeleteHey Jim! I'm so glad I stumbled onto this....can't wait for the next post. Don't drink the water! Hugs and kisses to the boys!
ReplyDelete