Hawai’i Bound
Up at 0300. Out the door by 0315. Lawd, it's been a day. Good thing I'm experienced traveling with man cubs. I can get my boots and other items loaded and unloaded by myself through security check quicker than the people traveling without kids. True story.
By the way, is anyone else aware that it's a 23 minute flight from San Diego to LA? Are you also aware that the taxi portion of the trip time is actually longer than the flight itself? Also, no flights can take off in San Diego prior to 0630 or the airline gets a fine. And Hawaii is 2300 miles away from the mainland which is roughly the same distance from San Diego to New York. But it's entirely flying over water, not land. Yeah, not overly excited about flying over water. Me no likey... Interesting things I've learned this morning.
The United plane for the second flight is HUGE. I've never been on a plane like this. First thing, 10 seats in each row. A lot of people....Nice to see a fellow mom with her cub in a Moby Wrap as well. We got dis momma. Next, the overhead bins are huge and they don't hang over the seats so far you crack your head on them standing up. In fact, these bins are so much larger, that if you are a short person, you cannot close them. I witnessed a flight attendant stand on the seats multiple times to close the bins. Tall people would be comfortable on planes like this.
Downside to the trip (besides flying over water for BOTH flights) is the aisle seat. Without a man cub, aisle seat is no problem. With a man cub, I have one more thing in my lap to move. My thought is, I've been up since 0300, and I ain't had no coffee cuz I'm trying to cut back (only a little), I'm gonna sleep. Rule of Mom: PB4UFLY---Thankfully, neither of my row sharing compadres got up the entire 5 1/2 hour flight.
Picture this with me people: You're on an airplane, you have a mini man cub with you and he is wet. Time for a butt change. You head back to the lavatory, find one open, get in and look for several minutes for the drop down changing table. There ain't one. No problem. Change the mini man cub in your lap. Done.
Then, you need to pee something fierce. That tea you had this morning needs to make an exit. Leg up like Captain Morgan, hold mini man cub at waist across your arms, and use both hands to unbutton jeans. Then you have to alternate hands to pull jeans over your curvalicious bootay. That took way longer than it should have with turbulance happening every time you swapped hands. Back to the alternating hand dance to pull the pants back up. Use the same Captain Morgan position to button your pants again. All done right? No.
Now to wash hands. Wet hand, add soap, wash palm. Switch hands, repeat. THEN, you still gotta wash the back of each hand. Hand holding baby, get wet, add soap, wash back of hand. Annnnnd repeat. All through this, David is grunting and smiling as if he's amused AND uncomfortable. What did we learn from this story? Next time, wait for the lavatory with the changing table symbol on it.
Did I mention we flew over water? Yeah. I was handed an infant life vest for the first time in my life because THE ENTIRE FLIGHT IS OVER WATER! Lawd, help me! The flight attendant is all chill about it. Says "If nothing happens, just leave the vest on the seat after we land." Can anyone see my face right now? Can anyone imagine the individual sarcastic and concerned responses I had in mind to retort the second that life vest package was handed to me? Gah!
Paul took a different flight so we traveled alone for majority of the day. He missed out on all our fun but he had some nasty turbulence on his plane as well. Not the best flight experiences for us as far as turbulence is concerned. We met by the baggage claim in Oahu, picked up the rental car and hit up the hotel.
One of the perks of having a husband who travels often, is the upgrades on the hotel rooms he gets. When I get to come with, it's a bigger bonus. ;) The resort we're staying at doesn't look like much from the outside. But the inside? Wow.
We're ready to turn in for the night. It's 0620 PM Hawaii time. That's 3 hours behind Cali, and 5 hours behind the Midwest. I think we were awake a total of 21 hours and traveled a total of 14 hours. The drive around the island doesn't count as traveling ;) That was simply beautiful. I'll have some amazing pictures from our island drive excursion and another adventurous story to transcribe tomorrow.