The Journey

Greetings from the future! I write this in Singapore at 10 AM on July 5th and it will post in the US on the evening of the 4th. Hope the fireworks are good! Here is a bit about our journey so far:

You'd think that traveling on the July 3rd would be a breeze. I did. But I was wrong. Boston on the 3rd is terrible. Storrow Drive is already down to one lane. Traffic backs up. The tall ships come to town. Even more backup. We rode to the airport in style in a fancy bus. Yep, they called it a van, but thing was a bus. But we do have 5 of us and the 10 big suitcases and the car seats and the backpacks and the laptop bags and, well you get the idea. It was close but we made it. Traffic was snarled all over Boston, in town and out. The fine folks at United met us at the curb and helped us get inside quickly. Luckily there wasn't much of a line. Finally, see it is good to travel on the 3rd. We got everything checked and labeled and headed to the gate.

The kids were already getting a lot of attention. Through security, the Boston TSA folks gave them security badge stickers and one guy gave Zoe 12 cents he had found. She was pretty excited about that. The flight was already boarding but we made it and took right off. On board the plane, the kids were given United wings and tons of attention from the crew. And guess what? They were perfectly behaved. Whew, one hour down, only 18 more to go.

When we booked the flights we knew we wanted to land in Newark ridiculously early so it would be impossible to miss the big flight. We got there at 6:15 and had to figure out what to do until our flight at 11. First we went to a Chili's and had dinner. As is often the case with airport restaurants, it was not crowded so for a bit the kids had their own dance party in our corner. Then we rode the monorail for a bit. We eventually made our way back to our terminal where the Singapore Airlines representative said he had been looking for us. He said all he had to do was print out our boarding passes and we could be admitted to the business class lounge. Nice! Here we are hanging out, recharging the iPad and iPod and enjoying a--hey, what's that?--Sam Adams Boston Lager. A nice farewell to Mass, I think. Zoe and Wyatt had minor meltdowns here but I won't get into that other than to say that this is when we decided it was time to feed Wy his first dose of Benadryl (angels singing).

A man came to help us pre-board. Amazing. Really, parents can't be expected to watch their children and carry the family's bags onto the plane by themselves. We truly deserve--no, need--help with that! We were immediately given champagne.

The kids were not. They did drink some juice and settle in. Zoe settled pretty quickly.

They asked us before we took off if we would want more champagne after getting in the air (um, yes!) and then later they even brought more (my second glass spilled) accompanied by cheesecake!

I settled into my bed, yes completely flat bed, to watch Friends with Kids on demand. 

(Sorry for all these pics, but I'm just trying this out guys. Also, I spent almost 19 hours on a plane so I had to do something besides watch fun movies and sip champagne and eat amazing food)

Wy fell asleep eventually but with the cool headphones on. There was no movie, no music, just his headphones.

Ella stayed up forever. The beautiful and beautifully-dressed flight attendants kept offering us tons of stuff and she had a hard time saying no to anything. Then, she would tell them how beautiful they were, how hard they were working, how this was the fanciest plane she'd ever been on, how she was going to live in Singapore for a whole year. They would just sit on down and have a chat with her. So she was up until 1:30? 2?

Here's a pic of my husband Ted just because he made all this possible. Love that guy.

Here is something unexpected. It was dark for the whole flight. We took off at 11 PM in Newark and our path took us over the North Pole, then over Siberia, China, Thailand, and Malaysia. It was dark when we landed as well as when we reached our apartment complex too. Sunrise and sunset just before 7 here in Singapore I was told. 

We landed and we're all a little foggy. Wy had a major meltdown in Customs that was sort of embarrassing. But then he got excited again about picking up our luggage. We met the driver who took us to our new home for the next month while we look for more permanent housing. I am excited to explore this city/country. the driver says we made a great choice. Singapore is the best. This seems to be a theme with people from here. Everyone loves it. He said the major difference between Singapore and most places is that every place has laws, lots of laws, but Singapore actually enforces them so folks feel safe. 

It's pouring right now so we're waiting for that to let up before we explore and go for a swim in one of our pools. How ridiculous does that sound? I know, that's why I typed it.

Oh, you know how maybe you heard about beds being shorter in Singapore? Here's your proof:

Talk to you soon!