Micah was born a good traveler. Sure, he had his moments of explosion in his car seat as the 11-12 hour bumpy trips to and from Gesas push us all just a bit too far some days. But in general, he seems to thrive in an ever-changing environment and traveling from one world to another is no exception. Our second-born, little Miss Gracey didn't get the same good travelling genes that her brother seems to have hogged, but I think the bar was set pretty high for her. I know a handful of adults who would surely rank below her on good traveler charts. I guess practice makes perfect, as I often tell people, "Micah was born a good traveler, Grace didn't really have the choice not to become one."
Travelling in the truck, harnessed into car seats and sitting too low to see out the windows has got to be frustrating, maybe that is what makes train and airplane travel so much more fun. Micah started counting down the "sleeps" until the plane ride to the States way too early, and of course, Grace had no antibodies against such infectious premature excitement. "Go airplane now? Go gamma, papa house now?" Waiting is tough.
As we had learned from earlier mistakes, taking young kids on flights departing at 2am are best tackled by going to the airport while the kids are still awake and letting them crash in the terminal. So that is what we did. Leaving our house at 6:30pm, Micah and Grace were in great spirits as we waited for the check-in counters to open. Finding the only escalators we've seen in Ethiopia and riding up and down them until a security lady yelled at us was definitely a highlight and killed a good 20-30 minutes! Finally checking in and going through immigration, all except me promptly curled up on the terminal benches. Already, my head was spinning with the post-red-eye feeling, not a good sign before take-off on this 24-hour journey.
Letting the kids sleep until the last possible moment, we hurried through final security and were the last to board the Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul. Both kids quickly fell asleep again and despite my best attempts to join them, my long frame fought unsuccessfully for 7 hours to find a position comfortable enough to relax. My mind clouded by the all-nighter, 7 morning hours in the Istanbul airport felt longer than it did last time we flew this same route. That and the little airport playground we remember Micah playing on two years ago has since been removed and replaced with a mosque. We received meal vouchers, but were limited in using them at a second-rate deli restaurant, right across the food court from savory foods like Burger King and Sbarro pizza. The spinach rolls and plastic pizza didn't come close to hitting the spot. On board the 11-hour flight from Istanbul to Chicago, the kids and Andrea were ready for a nap, and all three of them managed to catch it, Micah and Grace sleeping a good 4-5 hours. I wish I had taken a picture of my very pregnant yet versatile wife, curling up on the floor under hers and Grace's seats for a nice snooze. Learning from her good example, I tried the same, yet even without having to manage a beach ball under my shirt, I couldn't get my stork legs curled up enough to keep my head out of the aisle. Sure I could have slept nicely like that, but fear of becoming a doorstop to a 100-pound drink cart kept my eyes from closing. Head hurting and eyes spinning from exhaustion, I couldn't even watch the movies/shows anymore. I just sat counting the minutes until we could enter our "rest!"
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