The Big Flight Recap

We woke up Wednesday morning (17th) at 3am after getting a crummy 4 hours of sleep. We headed out the door by 4am to get to the airport. Check in took a LONG time but the desk agent was very nice. Security was HELL, and was not helped by a realllllly long line and a SCREAMING Jackson. SCREAMING the whole time. Going thru Security, which I had not been thru since pre-9.11, you have to take off your jacket, shoes, take out the laptop, take kids out of strollers, fold strollers up, take out ziplocks of liquids, etc. I was probably suppose to empty my pockets too, but they didnt ask, and I didnt have time anyway.

My view on the new security measures? The think they are covering all the bases by asking you to do really silly thinks, but in my opinion, they dont have you do enough of the important things, and too much of silly little things.

By the time we got thru security we needed to move quickly to our gate. The first flight was small, 2 seats on either side of an aisle, and Jax and I sat on one side, where I nursed him the entire 1 hour flight, and Emma and Cathy (my MIL) sat on the other side.

Arriving in DC, it was cold and rainy. AND!!! We had to disembark the plane down a crazy steep set of airplane steps onto the tarmac, wait for our strollers from under the plane, and then up a another steep set of wet slippery metal steps into the terminal.

WHY DO THEY NOT BRING ALL PLANES RIGHT UP TO THE TERMINAL??

I had Jax in one arm, a very heavy bookbag on my bag, a boppy pillow hanging somewhere around me, and a heavy car seat/stroller in the other arm. Not cool. And they do not offer assistance to anyone by handicapped people, so no help from airport staff.

We hurried on to our next flight, which was about to board, and found out that our seats were not together (like, Jax and Emma were in different rows and Cathy and I were no where near the kids or each other) and the flight personnel basically said, "Oh well! You're on your own!" You would think it would be illegal to issue a ticket for a tiny little person all by themselves.

Once we were on the overbooked plane, we asked the passengers to help us out and switch up some seats, and Jax and I ended up sharing a row with a big burly older man (who was very nice and didnt seem wierded out by my breastfeeding), and Emma and Cathy sat together a few rows ahead of us. BIG thanks to nice passengers. And to the flight attendant that held Jax while I strapped his car seat into his seat.

The 6 hour flight from DC to Seattle was crowded, our seats were waaaay too small, and it was very difficult to even feed Jax without his feet hitting the big burly guy, or getting smooshed up against his carseat.

United Economy seats? FAIL

When we landed in Seattle, we had about 1.5 hours before our next flight. We grabbed some bagel sandwhiches from the food court and then found an empty area of the terminal to let Emma run around. She was an EXCELLENT traveler on the plane rides. She watched some movies, walked to the restroom and back a few times, and slept some as well.

Our next flight was 10.5 hours to Tokyo. Originally, the kids and I were on one row, and Cathy was on another row. We asked a young Japanese man on my row to switch with Cathy and he agreed. BLESS HIM. There were several meals on the plane (not very good), and they offered drinks all thru the flight. The kids slept for part of the flight.

By the time we landed in Tokyo, we were starting to get tired and ready to be DONE. Our flight getting in to Tokyo was late and we had to hurry to get to the gate for our final flight to Seoul, Korea. I had a small delay at the gate because my passport is in my maiden name, but they let me thru.

For our final flight, Jax and I were on one row (with three other babies!), and Cathy was in another row with Emma. Near the end of the flight, Jax just became really upset and I couldnt do anything to settle him. So, he screamed a lot. Sigh.

Once we landed, we headed thru Immigration, and then onto to Baggage. I thought Jason was meeting us at baggage (we had 8 big heavy bags!) but we still had to go thru Customs before we met Jason. Unfortunately, the porters that you can hire to help you carry your luggage were already gone for the day. Cathy and I were very worried about how to get two kids in strollers and 8 bags thru Customs. Clearly we couldnt push all of them. Hardly anyone spoke English, but one night airport woman came up to us and could see us struggling and said "You need me". And she pushed the big cart of baggage thru customs for us, while we pushed the kids THANK GOD for her. I have no idea how we would have made it thru otherwise.

Once thru Customs, we looked for Jason but didnt see him. We were started to get pretty nervous, so I walked down to the USO desk to find some English speaking person that could help us. An American Army woman was working the desk and she helped me call Jason's cell phone (I was crying at this point from exhaustion and fear I would never find Jason). He had been waiting on the otherside of the terminal for us, but would be over to us shortly.

Eventually, Jason(carrying flowers for both me and his mother) and our friends TJ and Melissa (carrying sandwhiches and cookies for all of us) found us and we loaded up all our bags into two cars and headed to our new home in downtown Seoul.

(sorry, for only one travel pic. It was hard enough to do everything else, I couldnt manage to take any others. I do plan to share apartment pictures and city pictures soon!)