Sorry For the Disappearance

We had been planning a trip home to the States for awhile.  Then suddenly it was here and then due to unforseen scheduling it was time to leave early.  That is why I didn't get a chance to leave a note explaining my lack of blogging.  I know, they have internet in the States, but I was on vacation and for the most part unplugged.  It was so nice.

I will share the travel logistics to be sure we never forget and incase anyone in the military thinking about Space Available travel.  Space Available travel is super nice, it doesn't cost anything.  You get on a list and you wait for your turn to take a flight on what ever aircraft is going that has room for passengers.

We flew to the states on a C17.  They are big and very noisy.  Thy give you earplugs to wear, of course the kids don't want to wear them.  They have important things to do like play games and watch movies.  The nice thing about the flight was that Tennyson  could scream and nobody could hear her.  You only knew she was throwing a fit, if you looked at her.  This was a big stress reliever for me.  The C17 is a big aircraft that can hold 3 Blackhawk Helicopters in it.

 We should have brought blankets and pads to make the journey more comfy.

Getting to the States was a breeze.  1 try, direct flight, super easy.  Getting back to Okinawa was another story completely.  We decided for several reasons to try and get a flight back to Okinawa on another noisy aircraft.  Our first attempt - the flight was changed to a fly-over.  So we drove a few hours and visited more family for 2 days and then tried again.  This time the hotel near the airport had only one room left - with  one bed, Awesome.  The fire alarm went off in the middle of the night, even more Awesome.

We did get a flight that morning to Hawaii, about 10 hours on a KC135. I froze on the flight.  If you were warm, your feet were still ice.  Unfortunately our layover in Hawaii was only for over night.  We were supposed to leave the next morning for Guam and then onto Okinawa.  They had issues that they needed to fix so the delayed and delayed until they changed the flight to having only room for 3 passengers.  So we spent the entire day in the airport waiting to be told sorry.  Hawaii has a nice family lounge with an outdoor playground and movies and things to entertain.  The next attempt to leave to would be the next morning, so again no time to enjoy Hawaii.  We stayed that night in the airport.  They had 2 cribs, so we put Grahm and Charlotte in to sleep.  Tennyson slept in her car seat and the rest of us snoozed where we could.  We left that morning for an 11 hour flight on a KC135.  We were so glad to be home.  A KC135 is medivac plane and it also refuels other aircraft in the air.  Jason and Grahm checked out he refueling pod and Grahm was also a patient for a training exercise.

Yup - I have bangs... still trying to decide if I like them in the humidity.