In the US of A

Did you know that the flight from Dubai to New York is 14 hours long? In the daytime. With two children who don't sleep during the daytime.

14 hours is a long time.

But really, the girls were traveling angels. I give them full credit. Stephanie only lost it once (around hour 10) when she'd simply had enough of watching movies while sitting quietly in her seat or my seat or on me in either seat and was ready to get off the plane right now, thank you very much. Understandable. I knew she just needed to move a bit so her body would feel tired, so I suggested a walk with Papa. "Is there a park?" Um, no (though it was a good question; the Airbus 380 is mighty big). And the tantrum resumed. Fair enough. When she finally fell asleep about an hour after that, I ordered a glass of wine at the bar (no park but yes there was a bar!), thank you very much. Whew.

We thought our flights to the US were going to be a huge debacle due to errors in our booking. The non-traveling travel agents, in their wisdom, booked our international flight and domestic connection to DC as separate tickets. We didn't expect to make the connection at all. When we asked for help at check-in in Dubai, we were stonewalled, told that we had to accept what was booked as it was in the system. Then, something went hideously wrong with their system for accepting my husband's visa and we had to wait and wait and wait while they figured it out. An hour later, we were checked in and checked through to DC, just as we hoped, no questions asked. Hooray!

So far, so good. My mom came to the airport and spent time with us for a while that first night since she has to work for the next two days. We went to visit my grandfather yesterday afternoon. The girls really cannot comprehend the vast amounts of time spent in the car. It is so completely out of their frame of reference. Our world in Perth was so small. Any car ride beyond 20 minutes seemed long. Here, an hour to get here or there is pretty average. Today, we'll stick close to our hotel and keep it simple for a day. We're all feeling the jet lag. The girls passed out by 4pm yesterday. Ellie and I have been awake since 3am. One day at a time...