The flights

The Sierra Nevadas out the window of the plane.

Anyone that says traveling with a toddler is easy must either drug their kid heavily or take a sedative themselves 'cause I've gotta say that as gung-ho as we are about travel, flying internationally with Adelaide was a nightmare at times.

We went from Austin to San Fransisco. From there to Tokyo and then on to Bangkok. Total flying time equaled about 20 hours with layovers/ time going through customs equaling about 7 hours. The United agent in Austin hooked us up with Economy Plus seating for the first couple of flights which was super awesome; an extra 3 inches of legroom makes a huge difference.

The first flight to San Fransisco wasn't too bad. It was only 3.5 hours or so and Adelaide slept about an hour of it. She was pretty whinny at times but it's to be expected after being awakened at 4:30 am. The layover was great. We ate our last Mexican food for the next 6 weeks or so and Adelaide ran around like crazy.

The next flight was the one that made me want to jump off of the plane. It was the crazy long 11 hour flight that I always dreaded before Adelaide was in the picture. I decided I'd go ahead and dope up both Adelaide and I so we could sleep well. I took Tylenol PM and Adelaide took Benadryl. Adelaide was super tired so she did fall asleep fairly easily but she didn't stay that way very long. She woke up groggy and fussy after about an hour and half. And she stayed that way for a really long time. That was super hard for me to deal with because I was groggy myself from the Tylenol.

She wouldn't eat anything much and once when we tried she swatted at the spoon and food went flying everywhere. The flight attendant graciously got us a new seat cushion and lots of washcloths from first class which was great because we needed every one of them.

About 15 minutes after the food swatting incident, Rocky was holding Adelaide and she vomited. And vomited. And vomited. And vomited some more. Seriously we thought it would never stop. Rocky awkwardly held Adelaide and the pool of vomit in his shirt as I very carefully tried to undress both him and her with a minimum amount of spillage. So here we are on a crowded plane, Rocky and Adelaide both half naked and me holding a bag of vomit. Dehydrated apples look alot like french fries once partially digested BTW.

Unfortunately we were also in the middle of our row. On a 777 there are 2 seats on one side, 5 in the middle and 2 on the other. We were in the section of 5 with the 3 in the middle. You'd think that after all the food being thrown, the diapers being changed, and the vomit that one of the Japanese neighbors would have switched with us but no. I wanted to cry at times.

The Narita airport was awesome. Adelaide and I made friends with a Thai mom and daughter and we hung around with them the entire layover. Adelaide and the little girl, DeeTa, played and me and Ta, the mom, talked. She was really cool and we hit it off right away. I got her number so we can hang out together sometime.

The smoothest flight by far was the flight to Bangkok. It was nearly 7 hours but Adelaide slept about 5.5 of it and we actually slept too. Awesome. We made it into the new Bangkok airport a little after 11pm and fully expected to be going through customs and immigration for an hour or more but the new airport is super fast. We were through in about 20 minutes with baggage claim and everything.

Some Thai staff met us and we headed to our guesthouse. I've got to admit, I had very low expectations for our place but was pleasantly surprised. We are all in one room but there's a dark corner for Adelaide's pack n play and there's an attached bathroom with a western style toilet and tub. We did have 2 twin beds but we pushed those together, stuffed pillows in the middle and made a king out of it. There's sufficient storage. Outside on the landing there are 2 chairs and a table so we can hang out there while Adelaide goes to sleep (there is no AC outside of bedrooms however which is common in Thailand) They are doing construction downstairs which can be loud at times, but the guesthouse is attached to the office so Rocky's commute takes about a minute. All in all I'm happy. Getting used to sharing a room with Adelaide and not having a kitchen will be the hardest adjustments I think.

We unpacked the necessary stuff for the first night and then went to bed around 1:30 or 2. We were up at 5:15am though so that wasn't so great. Man, it really helps the transition to be able to sleep in when you want. More on our adjustment later.

Adelaide with Libby, a teammate on the 1st flight.

Rocky and Adelaide on the first flight.