He said:It was a nice hotel room but a horrible sleep. Not enough room for the kids, so we used our quilts to make a bed on the floor for Ryan. I was stressed, I was upset, the light was on because the kids were a bit off, and I was freezing. I barely slept. Still, once again the kids were amazing. I can't say enough about how proud I am of them. We did everything with carry ons this trip too, so they all had a suitcase and laptop-size bag to carry. Up at 4, breezed through customs, breakfast at Chili's. Flight to Seattle boarded on time, then we sat on the Tarmac (that's three for three if you're keeping track at home). Long wait, plus some deicing. I thought we'd never get off the ground and I was never so happy to leave the ground. Ryan was unfortunately unprepared for it plus it was unusually turbulent, so he started to cry a lot and say he wanted to get off. He was also next to Mara, instead of next to a parent, with the seatbelt lights on, so that was rough. But we made it! Landed in Seattle with an hour to spare, not enough time to eat as planned. Quick change to summer clothes, then we boarded the next flight. In row 30, the very last row. There was ZERO carry on room. As Shannon rightly pointed out, I think everyone is doing carry on now due to the fee. They were repeatedly playing messages at the airport reminding people to reduce their carry on and every boarding they told people to stack them, not put everything in over head, etc. We were spread out all over the plane, our luggage. Anyway. We were at the back of the plane. Last row, where the noise must've exceed some sort of safe working level. It was crazy. Had to yell to be heard. Plus it was right next to the washroom and there is a ton of caulking around the top of the wall that was broken. I think it must break often. Which would explain the smell throughout the trip. We could've set up a lemonade shop in the row, there was such a constant stream of restroom patrons.
I did have a nice trip with Gillian though. She was tired, she laid her head on my shoulder, things like that. It was nice to spend some time with her, and know that we're still close.
We then landed in LA where we sat on the tarmac for almost 30 minutes because there were no openings for us to gate (that's four for four!). But eventually we were in LA! We picked up our rental car, an Altima, and drove to the hotel. It was around 1PM, we'd been up for a day, and Universal closes at 6. There was no way I was going to try to get 4 hours of use out of those tickets. We were cooked. We arrived at the hotel around 2 their time, making it just over 25 hours from door to door. I could've driven. The room wasn't ready yet so we walked over to Bubba Gump's for lunch and returned later. We had a nap/break/zombified tv viewing period in the hotel (far longer than we should've), then a walk to CVS for some supplies, a dip in the pool and hot tub, and early to bed. Hopefully we'll be better tomorrow.
She Said:Again, not much to add. I was worried the walking and standing all day in Disneyland would be hard on my back, but no. It was the sitting for hours and hours and hours. And then having a 2.5 hour flight (3 if you count the tarmac waiting) on the last row of the plane - which doesn't recline. Blah. To have to start out the trip with a sore back is not what I wanted. Grateful for the day of rest today though.