Hearing we have to wait 7 hours in a hot, stuffy, waiting room broke my spirit. My pregnant body was exhausted, my two year old was exhausted, my husband was exhausted and I was now beyond annoyed. Many of the family members rushed to the front to speak with the Airmen. Let us at least get some of our stuff off of the airplane we cried! They finally agreed and Garrett was allowed to go back and get our food. He also grabed the spare dress I stashed in Nora’s carry-on. Nora had been in sweatpants and a shirt and the building we were in was very hot. The Air …
I need to provide for my little darling!
As you read here, we FINALLY made it on the plane, headed to Okinawa.
We arrived in Yokota, Japan after nine and a half hours of flying and two meals. They only had one vegetarian option on the flight so Garrett, Nora and I ate the same meal of over-cooked pasta twice. However we were thankful for the free food and thankful to be halfway done with our “18 hours” of travel. Once we arrived, the flight attendants told us we’d have a two hour delay in Yokota while they refueled and we needed to take everything we would need …
Nora and Mommy hanging out at the airport
Read about attempts #1, #2, and #3.
At 10:30pm we caught the hotel shuttle back to the airport and waited in line yet again to check our bags.The families lined up in the ‘family line,’ just like we were told to do all of the other times. (Last time we were told to make a family line so families wouldn’t have to wait as long as single military). Somehow, however, the family line was completely ignored and all of the lines began moving except for the family line. Finally we were told to get out of line …
My traveling toddler
Read about attempt #2 here.
At 9am the next morning, we got to the airport (finally feeling well rested for the first time in several days!). We were very anxious and excited to get on the airplane. Nora kept telling us that she wanted to go on an airplane to Okinawa. She didn’t understand why what Mommy said was going to happen days ago had not happened yet.
When we got to the airport for attempt #3 there were even less people than there where at 3am. Puzzled we waited to unload because we didn’t want to pay for a cart we didn’t really need …
Read about attempt #1 here.
Me with all of our luggage
Diligently we woke up at 2am the morning of August 12th excited to catch our plane to Okinawa. Nora, Grammie, Pawpaw, my pregnant belly and I piled into the minivan with all 10 of our suitcases (6 checked items and the rest carry-ons). We got to the airport at 3am, paid for a cart, and unloaded all of our belongings from the car. When we got inside we realized no one was in line like they were yesterday. There were a ton of unattended military bags and pretty much no one around.
A fellow traveler, whose children were …
Grammie and Nora
Editor’s note: We will be publishing the story of Kelly’s trip overseas in a series of seven posts. These will publish consecutively for the next week, starting today.
There is a joke among the military community that the military’s philosophy is “hurry up and wait.” I’m finding moving overseas to be no different. We were scheduled to leave on a flight August 11th out of Seattle. The flight is a military flight full of Marines, Airmen, Sailors and Soldiers and their families. However it is a chartered flight so it is a civilian aircraft with civilian flight attendants.
We were told the flight left at …
Hearing we have to wait 7 hours in a hot, stuffy, waiting room broke my spirit. My pregnant body was exhausted, my two year old was exhausted, my husband was exhausted and I was now beyond annoyed. Many of the family members rushed to the front to speak with the Airmen. Let us at least get some of our stuff off of the airplane we cried! They finally agreed and Garrett was allowed to go back and get our food. He also grabed the spare dress I stashed in Nora’s carry-on. Nora had been in sweatpants and a shirt and the building we were in was very hot. The Air …
