A Long Day (or 2 really)

We checked out of our cabin at Bellows around 8:45 this morning. We had hoped to have some free breakfast at the lodge, provided by Bellows Services, but it was not a come and go thing as we thought. so we decided to just skip breakfast and head into town.

Our first stop was at the Navy exchange in Pearl Harbor. It is huge! It puts the Bx at Wright Patt to shame. I wish we had had more time to look around and more suitcase space, I could have dropped some cash in that place! We had breakfast there and then headed downstairs to the commissary to stock up on food and bananas for Price to have for the flight. We found the base gas station and filled up and headed to the airport.

Unfortunately, we had our cell phone service disconnected before embarking on our journey to the airport and we took the wrong highway. The highway we took, led us back to the other side of the island (no exits for 10 miles), in the complete opposite direction of where we needed to be going. We ended up going about 30 miles (round trip) out of our way. We finally made it to the airport 2 hours before our flight was scheduled to leave.

We got all 16 of our bags out of the car and onto the shuttle, then out of the shuttle and through the 1st round of baggage checks. We were only allowed to check 9 bags, so Don and I had to carry on 7 bags, the stroller and the car seat. We knew we were the people everyone else going through security would hate, so we stepped out of line and got organized and let as many people go ahead of us as possible. We did everything right, but they still felt the need to hand search several of our bags. I didn't mind too much, except that it seemed like we were in security for 30 minutes, and the clock was ticking to departure time.

They also confiscated Price's bananas. This may not seem like a big deal, except on the flight to Hawaii, bananas seemed to hold some magical power and could instantly (much to the delight of our fellow passengers) calm the kid down anytime he got fussy. I literally shed a few tears as I shed the bananas, fearing that we might have an unpleasant flight.

Luckily, no bananas were necessary on the flight to Guam! We had awesome seats, and except for a few short incidents, we had a peaceful trip. We did however, cross the international date line, so when we landed in Guam a mere 7 hours after leaving Hawaii it was already Friday evening.

After navigating ourselves off the plane and through the airport with all 7 of our carry on bags and then retrieving our 9 additional checked bags we headed to customs. At this point, I was taking deep, calming breaths trying to go with the flow as I knew once we headed through customs, we were "home."

Our arrival was wonderful and welcoming! Our relocation company met us with drivers from the hotel, who immediately relieved of us our luggage. Don's flight was also there and greeted me with a plumeria lei- it was gorgeous and smelled divine. They also had snacks and water for us so we wouldn't have to worry about trying to find food for dinner. Everyone was so nice and warm and our first impression is very good. Price was a super trooper. He was smiley and flirty with everyone- in such a good mood- especially considering how long he had been on the plane and that he had a poopy diaper! Once our welcoming party disbanded, we were whisked away to our hotel to settle in for the night. Our bodies were so tired, Price went to bed around 7 and we followed quickly and passed out before 8.