“Oh, you’ve just been back to America–how did the kids do with the travel?” It’s been the most common question since we returned to NZ from our one month trip to the States.
I have to admit, flights with the kids are easy now that they are both enthralled with screens. While watching they will proclaim neither hunger nor fatigue. They will watch like zombies to the exclusion of all else. It’s magic.
Our flight from Christchurch to Auckland was mid afternoon, and rather than sit around the airport for six hours waiting for our evening flight to Los Angeles, Jeremiah organized a bus into Auckland. We hit up a couple playgrounds for the kids.
This one had an under-water theme.
The Sky Tower in Auckland (designed by BECA, the company Jeremiah works for) is an iconic landmark. Naomi insisted on wearing that faerie skirt for the trip!
We purchased our first ever airline upgrade for the overnight flight to California–the “sky couch.” Little flaps under the seat snap up and make a sleeping platform, a concession for my bad back, but the kids liked it too. It’s still in “cattle class,” but it revolutionizes the overnight trip. Of course, the kids only slept once we turned off their personal movie screens.
We sent my mom a heads up on the quantity of luggage we were toting by way of a photo of our car on the way to the airport. I like the idea of traveling light….but I also like the idea of bringing presents back to family and friends, and then returning with new clothes from America. We were definitely NOT traveling light.
We certainly felt like we were traveling heavy when we got to Los Angeles and the walk from terminal 1 to terminal 7 was approximately 1.2 miles. Actually I have no idea how far it was, but it was long enough for us to appreciate that we were not in little NZ anymore.
“Welcome” and “US Customs and Border Protection” don’t normally go hand in hand, and the friendly verbage lost a little of its bounce as we descended the one-way escalator to the LONG winding line with attendants shouting “keep moving, don’t stop!”
We joined the queue of babbling humanity awaiting entrance to the USA, and at long last, as we are neither terrorists nor illegal immigrants, we made our way through and on to our last plane to Chicago.
Give It A Burl 
Welcome back! I loved your seat upgrade 🙂 Love Teena
You folks make the LOOOOOONG travel look too easy!
Another post where I read and giggle, and then Martyn asks what I’m laughing about so I end up reading it aloud to him. We’re flying in April. Depending on how many airpoints we’ve got, may upgrade towards a skycouch, too. 2 hours to Auckland, 13 hours to Shanghai, 11 hours to London. Fun times!
ooh, trip back to the UK! I hope you’re staying at least a month to make all that travel worth it!
4 weeks in EU 🙂