At about 3:00am on Friday Dave and I got up, got ready, finished packing last minute things, got sleeping Madison, got a cab, and headed to LGA for our 6:00am flight...
と～っても辛い大泣きのお別れをした後ゲートに向かって出発...荷物が多くてバガブーがあって心配していたセキュリティチェックも問題なく通過してあっという間に搭乗ゲートに着いていました。今回の旅行は一人で行くことを理由にビジネス/ファーストを取りました！ダラスまでのファーストクラスは成田までのビジネスクラスよりもぜんぜん狭くてやっぱり国内線のファーストって大金払う意味全然無し！搭乗まで待っている時に僕にも小さい赤ちゃんがいるって写真を見せてくれたパパから良いアドバイスを受けました。その人はやっぱりちょくちょく仕事で旅行するみたいで、赤ちゃんは離陸とか着陸中に耳の調整が出来ないからすごい痛くなって泣いちゃうんだって...だからそう言う時に何か飲ませたり食べさせたりすると良いって...そのアドバイスを実行するために出しておいたミルクを乗ってすぐ見つけてしまいそれを今すぐ飲みたがったマディソン、困ったなーと思いながらしぶしぶ飲ませてあげる事に...奇跡的に半分しか飲まなかったから離陸寸前にまたあげたんだけど、それをまた離陸５秒前に終わらせてしまってもうどうしようｰと思っていたら本人は離陸中に眠ってしまいました!なーんだ心配して損した～。そして私が朝ご飯を食べる直前の１時間後までいい子に寝てくれました... After a really hard, tearful farewell at the security gate we were off... I was a bit nervous about going through the security check with all the things I had plus the bugaboo, but everything went smoothly and before we know it we were already at the gate waiting to board. Some of you already knew about this but since we used our mileage for this trip we were able to book first/business class seats to Japan, yay! The first class seat to Dallas was actually smaller than my business class seat to Narita, Japan and did not love it at all... Flying first class for domestic flight is not worth paying big bucks for! While waiting to board a nice man gave me a good tip when he saw that I was traveling with a baby(he showed me his 6 month old baby's picture and he sounded like good daddy so I kept talking to him for a while instead of giving him a "go away" gesture:-) He said that babies can't pop their ears during take off so make sure she is chewing or drinking something... So as soon as we sat down and had to put all our bags for the take off I specifically took out her milk bottle to give her during take off... Well Madison spotted her bottle sitting on the window sill and wanted to drink it so I broke down and gave it to her when I couldn't explain to her that I was saving it for later for her own good... She drunk about half of it so I was relieved and waited until the plane was cruising to take off... I was kind of happy to see that my plan may actually work BUT just a second before the plane started accelerating I heard her bottle make those empty sucking noises... Shoot! Magically Madison fell asleep during take off if you can believe it and took a nice snooze until I woke her up with my not so good first class breakfast smell an hour later...
思ったより早くダラスに着けたので次のゲートにのんびりと到着そして、もうすぐ乗ることになる飛行機が見える巨大な窓の横でおやつを食べながらパパに電話をすることが出来ました。ここではビジネスクラスだったんだけどやっぱりビジネスクラスで子供好きな良い人の隣に座るのは夢のまた夢かもしれない...残念ながらすでに座っていたのはゴツイおじいさん...というかそれ私の席なんだけど...俺、窓際が良いとかブツブツ言っているのを無視しながら私の予約した窓際の席に座って少し神様に疑問...でも他に空いてる席も無さそうだし仕様が無く話し掛けるて発見したのがこの人はこれから成田経由でオーストラリアに帰るらしくなんとマディソンとほとんど同じ年の孫がいるらしい...なるほどそれであのアクセントか～、でも全然子供好きに見えないんだけど...とりあえず、私もオーストラリアに行った事あるよーとか言った後会話終了!一先ず仲良くはなれそうで良かった：-）でも最後の最後で窓際のせき騙し取られちゃったんだけどね～。これから眠るからもう外出れないとか何とかで...でも良く考えると泥酔いの変なおっさんよりこの良くわかんない窓際ラバーの方が良いよね！どっちも嫌だけど...
We got to Dallas faster than I had anticipated so I didn't have to run through the airport trying to get to the next gate like we had imagined and we even got to fit in a snack time by the huge windows with a view of our plane to Japan. So we were taking business class at this time and was hoping so desperately for a nice someone who loves babies and kids but I guess those people are hard to come by in business world... Instead we got this semi-old man(not Japanese!) who looks like Locke from Lost and who actually was sitting in our window seat when we got there. I told hime that he was in our seat and his reply was that he wants window seat.... Well why didn't you select a window seat when you were booking the flight!! then he asked me if I am flying with a kid... well what do you think, I didn't just borrow someone's kid to take on a plane with me!!!! Oh I was just soooooooo disappointed that we are gonna be stuck with this guy!! After I settled in OUR WINDOW seat I noticed that he was constantly looking around I guessed to see if there is another open seat so I kind of got annoyed and decided I don't want to be stuck with this man either and got one of the Japanese flight attendant's attention and asked her in Japanese if there is another seat in business class available... She said she will check and see... So a few minutes later I told him that I just asked that lady to look for another empty seat... To that he answered he wasn't looking for another seat so it's okay... In my head I told him "Are you crazy!! What kind of okay person keeps looking around acting like he just possibly could not be in that seat a second longer!! Grrrrrr!!!!!!!!" but then I toned it down and told him that I thought you were looking around for another seat... Then he told me that he would really like a window seat but it's okay. Well I did not give him our window seat since I was still hoping he will move to another seat somewhere we would never have to see each other ever again. Well it did not happen... So I decided that I did not want to be feeling annoyed the whole 12+ hours and tried to be nice to him... I really can't remember what I said to him first, but somehow I found out that he is from Australia and that he has a 14 month old grand daughter... I could not believe the grand daughter part because I could not pick up an ounce of love for babies from this man, but anyways I told him that I went to Australia for a month for a mission trip and he asked me which part and I said something like Woy Woy(not sure of the spelling...). After talking and getting to know him I felt a bit better and was really glad I did try talking to him. Later on he even showed me a picture of his grand daughter on his Iphone... and told me that he really adores her! Well maybe he should put that on his face all the time then nobody will misjudge him! Oh by the way I think he has some kind of mental issue with not being by the window... Maybe he really was in LOST! LOL!!! Anyways, he actually tricked us into switching seats with him towards the end of flight by saying that he is planning on taking a sleeping pill and when he is deep into his sleep we won't be able to get out, or something... Well I think he closed his eyes for like a half hour at the most for rest of the flight!! Oh well... I guess I will take this strange LOST guy over some drunk person that wreaks of alcohol any time:-)
Two days ago Dave noticed an email from AA saying that if I would like a special traditional Japanese meal for my flight then I need to call to request it so I decided that since it will be a once in a life opportunity I should. Well, I was very surprisingly disappointed... This famous chef(sounded like Bok Choy but I know that's a vegetable...) from Hawaii supposedly created this menu but I didn't eat half the stuff... What I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED about flying business was that I had so many movies and TV shows(pretty much anything you can think of) to choose from!! and I can start a movie anytime I wanted. I did not have to wait for mass movie schedule that economy people have, I picked a movie I wanted to see and started when I was ready and paused or rewinded if I needed to! PLUS they let us borrow Bass headphones that totally cuts off the plane noises so when I put it on I could only hear the movie and nothing else! It was amazing!! Anyways, I watched a lot of chick flick movies that I would probably never see with Dave like Valentine's Day and... I just went blank and can't remember other chick flick movies I watched, but when Madison was awake I just put on Chipmunks movie since I thought she may enjoy watching animals dance on a magic screen... Some movies they had available that I didn't watch were Shutter Island, Invictus, The Book of Eli, Parcy Jackson something, etc...
Madison did mostly great except she was frustrated with how little space she had to move around... Wait till we have to fly back in even smaller space! but she will mostly be sleeping then and that's why we got business for flying to Japan since she would be awake most of the time. Well she was able to go around in circles in a space between first and business class seats where flight attendants prepare foods and drinks and pretty much hang out... Luckily they really liked Madison so we got to go in circles and talk to them and kill time a bit during our long flight... Overall flying business was so so worth it! and if I could I would do it in a heart beat! Seat flattens so I was able to take naps with Madison laying beside me and not on top of me and I enjoyed the free snacks, extra storage on the side of seat, adjustable seat and privacy from people behind me, etc... Only I could have extra 10 grand laying around all the time!
When we landed at Narita airport it was like a ghost town and not crowded at all so we flew through the immigration check, the luggage pick up and the customs in a matter of 10 minutes max! All of a sudden we saw people waiting with "Welcome" signs and I spotted g-ma in the crowd! G-pa got to meet Madison for the first time finally:-) Although Madison must have been exhausted from the trip she did not cry a bit when she saw my dad and even put on a big smile for my parents and some picture moments! Good girl!
P.S. I know we thought we would be fine to be away from each other and plenty of my Japanese moms do that but I NEVER WANT TO DO THIS AGAIN!!! It seemed like a great idea at the time and it is great to be able to save a bit on rent and to be able to see my families, but it's too heart breaking to have to say good bye at the airport on that day... BUT let the record show that Daddy was the first one to breakdown...:-) I was able to put on a brave face for a second longer... Since we are never going to do this again we will make the best of this visit and enjoy seeing each other again:-)
That's good that you had a nice flight and that Madison did well. We had a domestic business class flight when we went out to CT for Christmas and it was nice. I bet different airlines have different things. This business class just had extra large seats that had leg rests and reclined as well as personal tv's and pillows and blankets and free meals. The great part was that we didn't pay extra for it. We just got upgraded since our flight the previous day had been canceled. For international flights, it would be really nice to have business or first class seats. I don't know about $10K worth it, though... :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, it would be really tough to be away from your hubby for that long. Jim had to travel for 3 weeks when Lily was about 3 months old and it was really hard, even though I was home and had all the comforts of home. But enjoy it while you're there since what's done is done you might as well!