We made it to California in surprisingly good time, the second time I have gone Space-A with few troubles. From start to finish it took us 31 hours to go from Singapore to the Bay Area with about 18 hours in the air.
In Singapore the flight left early, leaving little time for Citrus and her new friend to practice their kung fu moves in the passenger lounge. Our plane was a C-17 Globemaster with some cargo and about twenty passengers.
Citrus and her friend spent the seven hour flight bouncing around the plane and I think they were fueled mainly by boredom and cola gummy worms. His family, including a baby sister, were returning from a four-day trip to Singapore and were headed home to Japan. This was their final family vacation before the father deploys to Iraq for six months. Almost everyone else on the flight was a retiree. There was an O-6 who told us that he was from the People’s Republic of Berkeley. As am I.
Our daughter (bottom right) and other passengers taking a nap on the C-17
Flying on a transport plane is very noisy and earplugs are a must. It is hard to have a conversation, which makes it hard to stop your daughter from running around and nearly falling on a sleeping airman. Most of the passengers slept with blankets on the metal floor.
With only two or three windows there is not much to do other than stick your little horsie or action figure into the cargo tie-down rings on the floor.
In Japan we lucked out and caught a connection on the Patriot Express to Seattle with a refueling stop in Anchorage. As the plane touched down in the continental United States, our daughter asked “What language do they speak in Seattle?”
Since our last trip in June to the United States she has visited six countries in Southeast Asia. For her first three meals in America she wanted noodles. Elysia had a craving for clam chowder in Seattle and I promptly had a burrito in the Bay Area.
We have now been here 24 hours and are still adjusting. Elysia was concerned that there was no water in the hotel room other than the costly spring water, until I reminded her that the water here is safe. Still recovering from 16-hour jet lag, we went to a 9:45 p.m. movie tonight. Citrus declared that she liked the cold air outside because it does not make her sweat. It is 40 degrees cooler in Oakland than in Singapore.
Other than a short commercial flight from Seattle, we spent only $87 to travel from Asia to North America. There is no way we could have afforded the $3,600 commercial fare it would have cost the three of us to get to my mom’s for Thanksgiving. Hopefully the flight back will be just as easy.
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Since I grew up near the Canadian border, my family always took a lot of trips there. Then when I was in 4th grade, we went to New Jersey and I kept asking my parents “when are we going to exchange our money?”
Glad you made it over safely and have a Happy Thanksgiving!