Gellin' Like Magellan Part I

Over Christmas break we flew to Hong Kong and Tokyo.  Ever since Brooke was born I wanted to go back to Hong Kong and have my grandma (mama) meet another one of her great-grandkids.  She met the oldest one, Jason, when he was 11 months old.  He's now 10.  Troy's brother moved to Tokyo about 1 1/2 years ago and we wanted to visit them so we decided to take the plunge and travel half way around the world.

We left Denver Saturday, Dec 19 in the evening.  We had a short 2 hour layover at LAX before crossing the Pacific.  I had already mentioned that to Troy that I wasn't comfortable with such a small window at LAX but there wasn't much we could do.  When we landed in CA we had to book it to get to the international terminal.  Thankfully we made friends with a small group of college age girls from the University of Wyoming that were headed back to Australia for the holidays.  They were so helpful in getting our stuff to the terminal.  It wasn't easy for us to carry Dylan on our back, 2 carry-ons, a car seat, and 2 kids through the airport at 9:30 Denver time.  Although Brooke and Connor were excited for the big trip you could tell they were exhausted.  We made it to the ticket counter to check in Dylan around 9:45 and we had 10:30 flight to catch.  We got him squared away and proceeded to head to security.  We had to show our boarding pass prior to getting in the security area and found out that the ticketing agent in Denver had given us the wrong tickets so we had to go back to the ticket counter and get the rest of our tickets.  We went through priority screening which I don't think was any faster.  They weren't too happy with the gallon size bag of pouches that I had brought for Dylan so I ended up having to get patted down instead of TSA testing each pouch individually.  By the time we headed to our gate it was well past 10 and we walked right on.

The kids were pretty excited to be on such a big airplane and to have their own TV screens.  After taking off we were quickly fed dinner then they dimmed the lights for the duration of the flight.  Dylan didn't last too long after dinner and spent 8 hours sleeping on the ground.  He started out in the carseat then we transferred him.  I like to think that the hum of the plane's engine helped keep him sleeping.  Brooke and Connor stayed up well past midnight Denver time watching movies but we finally had them settle down.  They started in the sleeping position posted above but then we quickly moved Connor to the floor and they both slept for a good 7 hours.  The adults didn't sleep very well but at least we had some good flicks to watch.

We arrived in Hong Kong around 6:00 am.  The kids did awesome on the flight.  We quickly found a bathroom to freshen up and headed towards baggage claim to meet my parents.  Then...Dylan had the biggest blowout.  We didn't have our luggage yet so we had to change him back into the dirty clothes he wore the day before.  And I had to dig into the recesses of my brain to figure out how to ask for a plastic bag to put his yucky clothes in.  It was difficult but I managed to get a garbage size bag.  We met up with my parents then hopped on a bus to drop our luggage off at my aunt's apartment.  The kids were beat and quickly fell asleep on the hour long ride.

We met up with my aunt then headed off to dim sum.  Yum yum!!!!  We were able to meet up with Mama at lunch and had a nice short visit.  Afterwards we walked around the harbor, visited a fireboat museum and a small playground.  The kids were happy to stretch out their legs and get a good amount of energy out and we were just happy to not be on an airplane anymore.

Then we headed to Mama's apartment.  I have fond memories of when I visited when I was a little younger than Brooke's age.  I told Brooke of a time that we visited when I was around 5 or 6.  Yeye (my grandpa) was still working at that time and would ring the apartment when he was leaving for work or coming home.  We could watch him on the security camera on their TV.  I remember thinking it was the coolest thing to see my Ye Ye on tv.  He's famous!

We decided to make this a short day.  We had an early dinner then headed back to our apartment that we were renting.  I really wish we had taken pictures of the place.  It had to have been somewhere between 500 and 600 square feet for 9 people.  It was our family, then Brett & Taylor, and Heather and Jackson.  There were 3 bedrooms--literally rooms for beds.  Brett was too tall for the beds so he and Taylor ended up sharing the sofa bed.  Brooke slept in the maid's quarters on a tiny bed just perfect for her.  The boys shared a bedroom, Heather and Jackson were in another, and Troy and I were in the last.  For tight quarters I think we managed it very well. 

That's it for Day 1 in Hong Kong.  Stay tuned for Day 2 & 3!!!