From One Side of the World to the Other in Four Flights

Summer is the time when at least half of Nichada goes home, wherever home may be.  In a chicken and egg scenario there are almost no summer camp options in the area.  There are lots of options downtown, but they're expensive and ultimately too difficult to get to for us to consider seriously.  Add to that that Jeff was planning to be out of the country for work for the entire month of June, and I decided the girls and I should spend the summer with my parents, within easy driving distance of friends and summer fun options.

Bangkok is a post that qualifies for R&R (rest and recuperation), which means that twice during our tour we get money towards a trip.  My job became fitting what we wanted to do into the government provided budget.  We had already booked a Disney Alaska cruise to celebrate Jeff's 40th birthday this summer, so I knew we had to break our trip back to Thailand in Vancouver, which is the departure port for the cruise.  Since I was flying to the States with the girls by myself, I was hoping I wouldn't have to go through Vancouver on the way to my parents' as well, but when I did the research, I found out it would be $1000 more per ticket to have a different itinerary in one direction, so I bought two round-trip tickets, one from Bangkok to Vancouver, and one from Vancouver to Virginia, and braced myself for the trip.

The girls started off with smiles.  I got them an Auntie Anne's pretzel at the Bangkok airport, so they were munching happily.

The flight was about five hours long, and it got rough as we went along, because the girls were tired, but didn't want to sleep.  

We had enough of a layover in Seoul to grab some food and play for a bit.

We had been lugging two full sized pillows with us, so that the girls could sleep comfortably, and it paid off on the nine hour flight from Seoul to Vancouver.  The girls also got stuffed Pororo toys.  Love you Korean Air!

We put the pillows in the middle seat and the girls cuddled up like puppies.  It was so cute, but of course I was half holding Elena on my lap, so I couldn't get a picture.  I managed to doze a bit too, so the longest flight actually ended up being the easiest.  Luckily, I crammed some food in before the flight started, because airplane meals with a one and half year old just don't work, even when she has her own seat.

We had a ten hour layover in Vancouver.  Just the thought of that with two kids was enough to give me nightmares, so I checked to see if Vancouver has an airport hotel that we could stay in for at least part of the layover.  It turns out, they don't just have a hotel, they have a five star resort, The Fairmont.  I called to make a reservation for six hours in a room.  I asked for a crib for Elena, and, not only did we get a lovely wooden crib, we also got complimentary Johnson and Johnson baby bath products, a bottle warmer, and diaper disposal can, five stars indeed.  

Unfortunately, the room service prices were also five star, as in ridiculously expensive, but I figured that after airplane food (in Vivi's case) and no food (in my case) we deserved to splurge.  I got salmon and she got pancakes with fresh strawberries, yum!  I gave both the girls a bath, took a shower, and then we all took a nap.  Elena quickly realized that Vivi and I had the better set up, and demanded to join us.  Luckily, it was a king, so we all fit.

We slept for a couple hours, and then packed back up to check out.  The hotel is on the opposite side of the airport from the Air Canada terminal where we needed to check in, but, no worries, one of the hotel people got us an airport luggage cart and pushed it all the way to the other side of the airport with us.  

The Vancouver airport is not very big, and it's lovely to walk through.  There are wooden beams, totem poles, and a view of the mountains.  I'll have to take some pictures when we fly back through in July.  We enjoyed hanging out there for a while before our flight.  We found another fun play area, and the girls ran around and even made a little friend before we got on flight three.

This flight was about four hours.  Vivian didn't sleep, but Elena did.  I was busy stressing, because I realized that we were getting closer and closer to the boarding time for our next flight from Toronto to D.C., and you have to go through U.S. customs in Toronto before you board.  My stress was justified.  First of all, the Toronto airport is not just user unfriendly, it's user hostile.  There was no gate number on my boarding pass, and no information boards anywhere!  As I was dashing through the airport pushing Elena in the stroller with Vivian jogging behind, I finally stopped and asked a man at one of the money exchange booths where the flights to U.S. boarded.  Luckily he knew, but, again, there was almost no signage.  Customs was the usual time suck, and then I was "randomly selected" at security to have everything double checked.  

As we were running down the next part of the terminal we heard the dreaded "this is the final call for the Goerss party."  I could see our gate, so I shouted, we're coming!  But when we got there, there was no one at the booth.  I shouted hello?  Wondering where the person was who had just paged me, but there was no one around.  I had a moment of total despair.  There were closed glass doors leading to the jet way, and I looked through them to see if anyone was there.  On a whim, I pushed on one, and it opened.  I grabbed the stroller, yelled for Vivi, and we ran down the jet way.  At the bottom, they were just getting ready to close the plane door.  I begged them to let me on.  It was touch and go for a minute, but then they caved.  One of the baggage handlers took the stroller, and whispered, "I was rooting for you.  I told them to wait."  I just about cried.

The flight was just over an hour, and I spent the first half of it still stunned that we had made it on the plane at all.  Since we had already gone through customs in Canada, we got off the plane and just walked into the airport.  Vivi looked ahead and said, "I see Safta!  Can I run to her?"  I said, "Go for it," and off she went.  We had made it.