A Very Long Journey Here But We Made It!

Those who read my personal blog and follow me on Facebook and Twitter would have already known that we have touched down safely in Marlborough, Massachusetts, in the United States.  This would be our home for the next several months.

I still can’t believe we’re here though.  There were many obstacles along the way which we had to overcome, tired though we may be; but we eventually did.

Well, first of all, the packing and shipping was a big rush given the short timeframe, so undeniably, there were many late nights, with insufficient sleep.  Our flight out from Penang to Hong Kong on November 17th was at 7:40a.m. in the morning, and we were expecting our cab to arrive at 6:00a.m.  With the last minute packup and check of our home before we left, we had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 4:00a.m.!  I only went to bed at close to 2:00a.m.

Well, we made it to the airport on time though 🙂 – and although the check-in officer took a LOOOOOOOONG time to get our boarding passes ready, we boarded on time and were well on our way to Hong Kong.

Our first connection to Hong Kong was a relatively short one, and the kids were not tired at all initially.  Hannah fell asleep towards the end of that flight, but only for a while.  The child’s meal served to the kids were excellent, way better than the adults’; in fact a little too much for little tummies to handle.

We only had about 2 hours before our next flight out from Hong Kong to San Francisco, and that precious time was cut short because there were some issues at the transfer counter (we stopped by to request for seats together on our US domestic flights, but wasted time there because the Hong Kong staff could not do anything about it), and also some delays at the security checkpoint.

Long story short, when we arrived at the airport lounge, we only had very little time to relax.  However, we still managed to take quick showers (very glad we did because it was invigorating, and we definitely needed that for the next long-haul flight).

Our following connection from Hong Kong to San Francisco was a long one: approximately 10 hours in length.  The kids were getting rather tired given that they woke up so early that day.  Food did not appeal to them as much, and they fell asleep for most part of the journey, which was actually a welcome for us adults too, as we got to sleep as well (never mind that it was not as comfortable as a bed).

We reached San Francisco and was faced with yet another LONG wait at the immigration queue, about an hour or more…I lost track, sorry.  After that, we had to get our checked-in luggage and rechecked it in for our domestic flights.  Then we proceeded to follow-up on our request for our seating arrangements on the American Airlines flights.

By the time we were done, we only had a very short time for a quick lunch and went straight to our boarding terminal for our next flight from San Francisco to Chicago.  Thankfully we were able to get 3 seats together and one seat a little further up, so naturally both the kids sat with me.  Hannah wanted the window seat to watch the plane take off, but even before that happened, she fell fast asleep…and slept right through the entire 5-hour flight to Chicago!  Ethan too, slept for the major part of the flight, and only woke up for a drink of water towards the end.

Upon arrival at Chicago, I had to carry Hannah in my arms as we stepped off the plane.  We were all hungry then, and as soon as we managed to confirm our seats for our next and final flight to Boston (we managed to get two + two seats together for this flight), we decided to grab a quick bite at the nearby McDonald’s to-go station.

Ethan was none the happier as he munched on his Happy Meal, which came with apple slices and chocolate milk too.  Very healthy!  Hannah woke up just in time to join us for our quick dinner as well.

The kids were now wide awake for our final flight from Chicago to Boston, and were waiting excitedly for the plane to land.

So we finally touched down in Boston at about 1:00a.m. in the morning on Sunday Nov 18th, and we then made our way to the car rental to get our car.  Oh yeah, we still had to drive about an hour to our hotel.

We finally checked in, showered and plonked right into bed.  Don’t think the kids slept till a little later though, but we did manage to get some shuteye. 🙂

We’re just glad and relieved that we’ve arrived, and although the weather does get quite cold some days (I know it will get colder soon), we’re just blessed to have each other… 🙂

I took the kids for a walk on the hotel grounds yesterday (it was our 2nd time out for a walk actually)…and Superboy Ethan insisted he wanted to go out in his shorts!

…and here they are, posing with the Thanksgiving set in the hotel reception area.  Hannah keeps saying, “It’s so pretty, Mommy!”