Comments: First International Travel
August 10, 2008 09:53:44 AM posted by christopher We finally got to use those passports. :)
August 9, 2008 06:48:58 PM posted by Nonna Thank goodness you all arrived safe and sound. xxoo
This journal accepts comments only from registered readers.
You may request access or sign in.
August 6th 2008
First International Travel
We had quite the adventure on our first big family vacation. Abby and Zoë got some good sleep last night, and didn't even have much of a problem with us getting them up at 4:20 to meet the taxi service that would take us to JFK International Airport. Surprisingly the girls didn't go back to sleep at all once on the ride to the airport, they were all excited and wide eyed. Getting into the airport, we ended up having to wait in line for a good while to check in and get our tickets printed out. After we were all set with that, we went down and opened up the bag of goodies we brought along from Jonathan. He had given some granola bars as well as two crazy cupcakes. They were cupcakes with a hard chocolate shell frosting on top, then on top of that was a big mound of icing, and I mean big, with sprinkles and decorations made to look like elmo and cookie monster. I let the girls lick the sprinkles off of the icing then scraped that off and let them just eat the cupcake... breakfast of champions.
Once at the gate, we ended up having to wait longer than expected, as the plane didn't start boarding on time at all. It was there plenty of time ahead, but there seemed to be some issue with a couple having got off the plane, with the customs police, apparently being sent back to Brazil. We eventually got on the plane and found our seats. The seating was two seats on each side and four in the middle. The girls and I were in three of the four middle seats, and then Nonno Ernie and Daddy were in the two on the other side of the aisle. The girls were thrilled to see screens on the back of each seat, while I was thrilled that they had foot stools and that the head rests could be bent forward to your liking. Abby and Zoë watched some Disney channel cartoons, though they were voiced over in Portuguese because I couldn't get it to go to English. After a while they came around with food. It seemed that with the late start, they skipped the breakfast meal and just combined breakfast and lunch with a choice of eggs or a sandwich. It came with fruit and stuff though, so it was nice. I tried to have the girls rest, but it didn't happen. We did some coloring (thanks Andrea for the groovy girl coloring pages, they were the first choice for coloring!) and played a game of Old Maid and before we knew it, just when the girls started asking, food came around again. This time the choices were chicken, meat, or pasta. We all got chicken, while Daddy got the meat dish.
Finally, after about 10 hours in the air, it was time to land. When we hit the runway, everyone cheered. We got off and got through customs quickly and then went to find our gate for our next flight. This is when the girls began to get cranky, having been up since 4:30 and not having a nap and it now being sometime around 8:00 NH time. We got on our bus to take us to the plane to Recife and as soon as we got on the plane, the girls were disappointed. This was a smaller plane than the first, with three seats on each side and one center aisle. There were no tv screens, no footrests, and no comfy head rests. Abby and Zoë's behavior started going downhill. One would get to sleep and the other would be whining and cranky then as soon as she started to get to sleep, the other would wake uncomfortable and sit just crying for a while. Towards the end of this flight, both girls had fallen asleep across the seats, blocking my seat in between them, which wasn't a good thing come landing time since I had to move their heads to get buckled in. We just waited for everyone else to get off before trying to get off with our two tired and very cranky girls.
After getting off the plane and into the airport, the girls perked up and waited for the taxi, though they were in their deliriously silly mood. The taxi ride from Recife to our apartment was definitely out of my safety comfort zone. It was over an hour ride, not only were there no booster seats, with Chris, myself, and the girls all squished in the back, no one could even buckle. The roads were horribly bumpy and on top of that it began raining really hard. Our driver was good though and very nice, accommodating with my lack of Portuguese knowledge. He got us to our apartment where the next adventure of meeting the land lady and trying to communicate with her lay ahead. Though I asked, she didn't really slow down for anything. We got it all worked out though, and have finally arrived.
Abby @ 4 years, 7 months, 22 days
Zoë @ 4 years, 7 months, 22 days
Enzo expected in 1 month, 18 days
First Moments posted by Laura at 10:56 AM | Comments ( 2 )
