Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Korea Trip: Day 1

We've arrived in Korea. Our trip here was fairly uneventful...that's a good thing! We woke up early--like 4:15 am early-- Saturday morning to prepare for our departure from Houston. Our flight from Houston to Dallas was quick and easy. Kaden slept the whole way. Once we landed in Dallas and got all of our luggage, we headed to check in with our Korean Air flight. Here, Kaden & Daddy are waiting for the rest of our party to arrive so we could check in.
This is Kaden's carry on bag. Papa and Grammy bought him this bag and filled it with goodies before we left town. He was set with snacks, toys, books & treats. The bag alone entertained him for quite a while. 
Since we had a baby, we were allowed to board our flight early. Kaden had so much fun crawling all over our seats. This plane was MUCH bigger than the planes we're use to flying on, so we had lots of leg space. We also were in the first row behind a wall, so we had extra leg space.
However, even better than the leg room, was Kaden's personal space. After we took off and the seat belt signs were turned off, they came and hung a little bassinet on the wall for Kaden. He had fallen asleep on take off, and he slept in his little bed for quite a while 
While Kaden was snoozing, we enjoyed looking out the window at the snow covered mountains. We flew up north over Utah, Washington, and the edge of Alaska/Canada before going over the ocean. 
Once Kaden woke up, his bassinet made a nice play pin. We'd throw his toys & snacks in with him, and he'd have a great time playing. We took a ball with us, and we played catch... A LOT! When the bassinet got old, we'd throw all of our bags, etc into the bassinet, and he'd crawl around on the floor and play. It was perfect!
The fight was long...really long, but it went by faster than I thought. Kaden did awesome! He hardly fussed or cried at all. Just if he was tired or hungry. They gave him a bag with a toy, color book, and stickers when we first got on the flight, and he had fun with those. The last two hours were the worst. There was one little boy who was having trouble sleeping, and he cried most of the last two hours. Kaden had trouble getting comfortable at that point too, but he just tossed & tuned in my arms. He didn't fuss once. When we landed & got off the plane, it was about 3 am our time, and 5 pm here. He was so tired!! We were too. At that point, we had been up over 24 hours. We got landed, got our luggage, and made it through customs fairly quick & smoothly. We left the airport and hopped on a bus that took us on about a 45 min ride. It's at this point I should tell you that there are 8 of us, with 9 suitcases, and numerous bags/purses/back packs, etc. It's about 48 degrees & drizzling outside. Clearly, we're all tourists, and though we have a guide, we're still semi-not sure where we're going. We hop off the bus, in the rain, all dressed clearly like we're from Texas, and head for the subway. By this time it's about 6 pm on Sunday night, so the Subway is not crowded. We all pile on and head toward our destination. The trek from the bus, to the subway, then to the apartment/hotel where we're staying was full of stairs, escalators, elevators & walking/running through the cold rain with 9 Americans, 1 Korean, & a BUNCH of luggage. I'm sure it was a sight to see. We made it to our hotel, which is more like a fully furnished, 3 bedroom apartment. By this time, it's almost 8pm. Micah's 2 brothers & his brother's girlfriend ran to the store to get some essentials, we ordered pizza cause we hadn't eaten in quite a while, and we started to settle in. That's about where my night ended. I went to lay down with Kaden and get him to sleep, and I ended up putting myself to sleep as well. I never saw the pizza. I woke up about 2:30 am (Korean time) still fully dressed. It took me a few minutes to figure out where I was. However, we slept good that night! 

0 comments: