Sunday, July 17th
Like crazy people, Mason and I got all our bags packed,
house in decent shape, and ducks in a row in about 6 hours to leave on an International
2.5 week vacation. Thankfully, we were
able to get all our stuff into 3 checked bags, and 3 carry on backpacks. We decided to rent car seats with the car
rentals and this ended up being so nice because I don’t know how we would have
managed that extra luggage without some headaches.
Our first flight was from Guam to Manila, Philippines. This United Airlines flight was scheduled to
take off early, so we left the house at 3:15am.
I slept about 20 minutes, Mason slept about 2 hours, and the kids slept
around 6 hours and were thankfully in good spirits. Mason has had several of these early morning
flights out of Guam now, and it’s a little unpredictable how busy things will
be in the mornings. The Guam airport is
surprisingly busy all day long. We were able to get checked in, bags checked,
and to our gate with plenty of time to spare.
The kids munched on some bagels, and I think I dozed off for a few
minutes since my body was still in lack of sleep mode.
The flight from Guam to Manila was pretty uneventful. It’s about a 3.5/4 hour flight which is about
the amount of time I seem to do okay on a plane these days. I don’t know if it’s pregnancy or age, but
flying isn’t as fun as it used to be. I
guess I’m more aware of the time. We
landed and I am so thankful that Mason had been here two weeks prior because
it’s not a place I ever want to travel to without my man. The Philippines is not top on my travel list,
nor Mason’s after his recent trip there.
We had to go through immigration, pick up our baggage at the baggage
claim, go through customs, and then we managed to find a bus to get on that
would take us to a different terminal for our next flight. Woodrow loved the bus ride. Mason and I kept an eye out for any signs
that we were being taken to our untimely deaths. Seriously, no sense of traffic laws/rules in
this city.
We made it to the next terminal for our Philippine Airlines
flight and had to check-in, fill out departure cards, go through customs and
security again. I never really though I
wanted leashes for my kids more. Not
because they were doing anything wrong, but I had this strong sense that if we
took our eyes off of them, they would be snatched up. There were so many people giving long glances
at them, or even touching them…it just felt uncomfortable, but maybe it was my
vibes after what Mason said he saw when he was there for work.
Once we got into the area by the gates, there were very
little food options, which was disappointing since we were hungry for more than
the snack foods that I brought with us.
Mason had some pesos left from his trip so we were able to scrounge up
some tasty chocolate pastries and drinks.
There was a small kid area, but they started to call the passengers for
our flight into a different blocked area.
This was crazy…we basically had to go through security again and you
couldn’t have any liquids, even though we’d already been through security
already. This was just a roped off
seating area before boarding the flight, so we quickly ate our food and moved
into this area. We found out we could
come and go (although had to go through security/show our passport again) from
this area which was nice since preggo bladder needed to be emptied a few times,
but it was an annoying process.
For our flight from Manila to Syndey, Australia three of our
tickets were in the Business Class section because we booked the flight so
late. We could have had all 4 seats, but
decided to save some money by putting one of us in the back of the plane. I think Mason offered to take the seat in the
back secretly so he’d get a little break from the kiddos, but he ended up being
the unfortunate one. We got on the
flight, and it was like a Godsend for me to be in the Business Class. Um…this is premiere travel, and I felt
absolutely horribly that Mason was sitting in the back; especially when he came
up to visit us a few hours into the flight and he told us how the seats were so
small and they had full side panels so he was super squished in and next to
someone who was taking up part of his armrest.
But seriously, the kids and I had seats that reclined into
beds. We were served drinks as we
boarded the plane, we had a multi-course meal.
I’m sure the adults were looking at us thinking, are you seriously
traveling up here with these little kids.
It made the plane ride almost bearable for the 8.5 hour flight. My body really appreciated being able to
stretch out and have space, and the kids actually slept pretty well which was
huge! I just felt really bad Mason wasn’t
sharing the experience, especially since he worked so hard for us to be able to
afford the whole trip.
When we arrived in Sydney it was around 10:00pm. Same time zone as Guam, but we were all
beat! We did the repeat process of
lines, baggage, etc…and navigated our way out to the hotel shuttle. After waiting for a bit and then finally
asking someone who was collecting luggage carts, he said the shuttles stopped
at 11pm, so we hopped into a taxi to take us to our hotel, The Holiday
Inn-Sydney Airport. This was a close 10
minute drive. The kids thought the taxi
was super cool, and they liked not having car seats. Mason was brave and sat in the front, which
was weird since they drive on the left-side of the road. We checked into our room quickly and passed
out super fast. 
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