LOST-Day 1, Saturday

Carrie had submitted some data to the American Society of Human Genetics conference, which was accepted for a poster presentation. It's kind of big deal. This year, the conference was held in Hawaii. Unfortunately, Lily and I decided that Mommy couldn't be trusted to be on her own, so it was best if we came with her.

Two months ago, that seemed like a really great idea. As our departure date got closer, though, I realized that we had just decided to take an 18- month old on a 5hr plane trip to Seattle, a 6hr layover, and then a 6hr flight to Honolulu. Not only that, but for 4 days it was going to be just me and Lily (no mommy). It may sound strange, but I have never been entrusted with that many consecutive days of unsuperivised baby supervision. What in the world were the two of us going to do all day? What were we going to talk about?

Finally, the day came and we were all up at 5:30 AM. Bags? Check (there were more bags than people). Activities and toys for Lily (and me)? Check. Cautious optimism? Check.

The journey through the Cincinnati Airport was smooth sailing. We got there with >2hrs to spare, however there is a time warp in the security area of the CVG airport. Just like a worm-hole, you emerge with 5 minutes less than you need to get breakfast/lunch and still make it to your gate. There are mysterious quantum mechanics at work there.

The flight to Seattle was as good as could be. Lily was a little restless, but able to be coralled in our own private row (Although not required by FAA law, we decided to get her a ticket, so she had a seat. best. decision. ever.).

I think Carrie was a little more nervous about keeping her entertained than me. By the time we had flown through Illinois, Mommy had whipped out the nutritious snacks, the new toys, the dvd player, more new toys, the candy, and finally the blanket. We had four more hours to go.

We arrived in Seattle around 12PM PST (3PM on Lily's clock), with 6 hrs to kill. I had spoken to a friend of mine who flies through Seattle a lot and she had informed me that the Seattle airport had a playground in it, that could occupy some of Lily's attention. After lunch, we quickly found it.

I am not sure "playground" is the word I would use. Maybe a more appropriate name is "Baby ThunderDome". The play area was a collection of rubber covered play things centering around an airport theme (an airplanes, luggage, air trafice control tower, movable walkway, fire truck?!?). To put it mildly, the other children were tired, cranky, and wildly unsupervised. One young child in particular was on his way back to Juneau, Alaska. I believe that maybe he had gotten too much sunlight while in the "lower 48" and had caused him to lose all self control. His father was deeply engrossed in his iPhone. I wanted to introduce him to the term "behavior management" and ask if there was an app for that!

Eventually 6PM PST (9PM on Lily's clock) rolled around and we took off for Hawaii. Lily slept most of this flight, which was icredibly boring due to the lack of any sort of video display device on the plane (Thank you, Alaska Airlines). She woke up right before landing in rather cheery mood.

We touched down in Honolulu at 8PM HAST (that is 2AM on Lily's clock). She was awake, happy, and running through the airport.

We had made it with only a couple of tearful meltdowns. Lily on the other hand did great!

We spent the rest of the evening taking a shuttle to the rental car, installing an unfamiliar carseat in an unfamiliar car, in the dark, in the rain, with the wrong instructions.

We drove to the hotel without getting lost (thank you Garmin!). Our hotel reservation however was nowhere to be seen. I took Lily to look at the fish, while mommy introduced the hotellier to the full force of her personality.

By 10PM we were all three ready for a Mai Tai and some sleep (4AM on Lily's clock!).

Aloha, Hawaii!

Here are some pics from Day 1