Our flight to Singapore

I won't type much, because I took a ton of pictures, and they're pretty self explanatory.

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Our flight to Singapore was on a C17, a giant cargo plane, that was headed to Diego Garcia, which is a tiny island in the Indian Ocean, where there's a U.S. military base. The base is just a dinky little outpost, and it's one of the places that's restricted to Active Duty military people only, but the flight there always stops in Sing.

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The plane's mission is to carry whatever supplies are needed in Diego, but it has seats for about 60 people when it's not completely full of cargo. The flight on this day had room for 15 people, so there were only 11 other people besides us on board.

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Passenger comfort is second to cargo placement and safety on these flights, so if you're looking for 1st class service, these flights definitely aren't for you! But, the crew was extremely gracious and did their very best to make sure we were as comfortable as possible.

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We arrived at the airport at 4:15a and waiting anxiously for the roll call at 4:45 to find out whether we'd made the flight. it was gut wrenching, and the only part of this whole experience that I really hated. I was very nervous because there were supposed to be 32 seats available, but there ended up being only 15, but our names were the first called! Woo hoo!

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These are the flights leaving the base. This schedule is updated everyday with the projected flights for the next 48 - 72 hrs. But remember, none of these flights are guaranteed to take off on time, or in some cases, at all.
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We boarded a bus to be ferried out to the plane

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Because these planes are meant for hauling cargo, not people, there's no sound-proofing or insulation on the walls, so it's very loud. We were all given ear plugs to wear during the flight.
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Waiting for take off

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Looking towards the back
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Our plane was named "The Husky Hauler" because it's based out of Alaska

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One teeny, tiny bathroom

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Four guys crashed wherever they could find a spot. There are two on top of the cargo, one over to the left, and one in the bottom of the pic

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Again, because these aren't passenger planes, and because they're owned by the military, there aren't really any rules that apply to passengers. You're encouraged to bring along whatever you need for a comfortable trip, including food and sleeping bags. You're free to spread out wherever you'd like. This was towards the end of the flight during our second round of naps. The first time, Gabi and O were camped out on the floor, while E and I stretched out on the seats. It was actually really nice, the first time I've ever been able to actually sleep on a flight!
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The cockpit crew were all so nice (and soooo young, I swear not one of them was a day over 25!) They told us all about the different buttons and gizmos, explained the basics of flying the plane, let us listen in on radio trasmissions. I don't know who enjoyed it more, me, or the kids! That's our pilot Reid, beside him the co-pilot Trey, and beside Ethan the navigator, Adam.

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It was an awesome flight, the 7 hours went by so quickly! It was a great experience flying in a real, working, military aircraft and I'm so happy we had the opportunity to do it!

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We're home

Made it back safe and sound, and saaaaaadddddd :( I didn't want to leave! Already planning my return trip! I never thought there was any place on earth that I could love as much as I love Japan. I was so, so wrong! SINGAPORE IS INCREDIBLE! Proper post coming soon!

The view from our balcony on Sentosa Island:


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Somewhere over the South China Sea

"Uh, I think we shoulda taken a left at Guangzhuo."

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Space A = Space AWESOME!

The military has an awesome program called Space Available Travel, or "Space A" for short. Check out the link for a full explanation, but basically, military members and their families can fly on military aircraft, for free, if there is "space available" on the plane.
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There are U.S. military bases all over the world. Some are restricted to Active Duty military members only, like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, but lots are open to anyone affliated with the military. Most of the bases are in Europe and Asia. Because of all these bases, there are military aircraft flying all over the world every day.
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There are tons of rules and regulations, lots of paperwork, and the flights are highly unpredictable, but hey, it's free air travel, almost anywhere in the world, as often as you like, and whenever you choose, so trying to "catch a hop" as the military community calls it, is completely worth if you ask me!
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Most bases have flights that mostly fly within a certain region. Here at Yokota, most of our planes fly in the Pacific region: San Francisco, Seattle, Anchorage, Honolulu, Okinawa, Korea and Singapore. We're very lucky that we usually have at least one flight a week to each of these places, although Hawaii flights are a little less frequent. Singapore, on the other hand, has 3 flights a week.
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A flexible schedule it crucial for hopping. There is no guarantee if or when any given flight will take off. There are schedules posted 48 - 72 hrs in advance, but missions can change on an hourly basis, lots of the aircraft are old and frequently down for repairs, so you can never be sure if your plane will depart on time or not. Our schedules aren't very flexible, between Otis crazy work schedule, the girls school and extra curricular stuff and my teaching, it's difficult for us to arrange everything enough to risk trying to hop. In addition, you have to have enough money to cover tickets home in case something happens and you're not able to get on a flight (which happens pretty regularly). If we had $1500+ just laying around for tickets, we'd just fly commercially to begin with, so that's the other big reason we've never tried to hop before.
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But this week, we were able to arrange everyone's schedules to try for a trip to Singapore. The plan was to leave on the Tuesday morning flight, returning on the Friday morning flight. If anything went wrong, we'd buy O a ticket home (only $350) and the kids and I would just wait around in Sing for a few days and try for the next hop. Everything was going well, all the gazillion details were falling perfectly into place (should have known it was too good to be true), we were supposed to be at the air terminal at 5:15a this morning. Because I know that these flights can be unpredictable, rescheduled or even cancelled at the very last minute, I called the terminal at 4:30a, and found out that the flight was rescheduled for Wednesday morning!!!! AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH! I was already loading the luggage, I was dressed, hair and make-up done, completely ready to go. Luckily I wasn't planning to wake anyone else until just a few minutes before we needed to leave, so no one else had to get up so early.
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Even though I know this sort of thing has a very good chance of happening, and I wasn't 100% sure we'd be going, I was still soooooo disappointed!
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I'll be calling the terminal at 10:00p tonight to check on the flight, then again at 4:30a, so keep your fingers crossed that it works out this time!
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Turn that frown upside down!

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The travel gods were not smiling on us today :( The flight was cancelled and rescheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully it'll work out, but we'll only end up with 1.5 days in...................

SINGAPORE!!!!!!! Woo hoo!

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It's a 7 hr flight, Otis is not happy about 14 hrs of travelling for only about 36 hrs of vacay, but come on! How often will we get a free flight to Singapore? I say it's totally worth it!

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Eeeeeeeeeekkkkk!

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If the travel gods are smiling on us (and so far, they are!) I'll be posting from here on Tuesday!!!!
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Funny boy!

Ethan just came down stairs and told me "My belly was growling, and I said 'Barnacles! I'm starving!'" (Barnacles! is SpongeBob's exclamation when he's irritated or disappointed.)
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Yeah. I did it.

Last night, the unbelievable happened. In my kitchen. At my stove.

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I cooked! Soup! From scratch! With VEGETABLES! This may not seem particularly astounding to most of you, but it really is when you consider that 1) I just don't cook. I heat things. Preferably in the microwave, occasionally on the stove or in the oven. 2) I'm not a big soup eater. I'll have a can of chicken noodle a few times a year, but that's it. 3) From scratch? I'm not completely sure what that even means! and 4) I don't eat vegetables. EVER. Not any vegetables, not any time. Sounds unbelievable, I know, but just ask my mother. On very rare occasions I might choke down some corn-on-the-cob, but only if its smothered in butter and salt, that's absolutely it.

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Given all those seemingly insurmountable odds, you might now understand why I'm still amazed that I made........Curry Cauliflower Soup!!!!!! From scratch! I MADE IT! Me! The most inept, unenthusiastic, down right hostile chef to ever be dragged, kicking and screaming, into a kitchen. And it is soooooooo yummy! Also made some buttery, toasty French bread with a little parm, not from scratch, but still yum dipped in my AMAZING soup! Woo hoo! Go me!

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Good thing I made a huge batch, because I definitely won't be attempting it again any time soon. I didn't cut or burn myself, like I usually do when I actually try to cook something, but there was plenty of bungling and mistakes and I didn't enjoy it, and I worried the whole time that it wouldn't turn out. But I'm glad I gave it a try, the effort was totally worth it.

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My brave girl

Last night I put Meggie on a plane, off to spend the summer with her dad. She landed safely in L.A. 10 hours later, about 3:30a Japan time, her dad was there to meet her as she came off the plane. From L.A. they continued on to Florida, arriving about 1:00p JT.
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Both girls have been flying by themselves since around the age of 6, but usually just short 3 - 4 hour trips between FL and NC or FL and TX, but this was the first transoceanic, transcontinental solo flight. I was more than a little worried.
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In the U.S., when kids are flying alone, their parent/guardian is allowed to get a special gate pass to escort them through security, all the way to the gate. But in Japan, that's not allowed. The kids are passed off to an airline rep at security. This was a little unnerving for me, because I figured that meant she'd be stuck alone at her gate for upwards of 30 min waiting to board the plane. Turns out my worries were for nothing. All the airline reps, from the ticket counter, to the flight attendants really went above and beyond to make both of us feel comfortable and to ease my worries.
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As we checked in, the ticket agent made a big fuss over Meg, saying how brave she was, etc, etc, even calling over the other two agents so they could all oooh and aahhh over her. The rep that escorted her from security stopped on the other side and bought her a pack of gum and a Coke. As soon as they got to the gate, the flight attendant took Meg straight onto the plane, even though boarding wasn't going to start for another 30 min. I told Meg to call me as soon as she got back to her gate, but she was having trouble with the cell phone, so the flight attendant let her use his phone to call me. I found out later that the ticket agent had blocked the other two seats next to Meg, so that she'd have room to spread out, and not have to worry about sitting next to a stranger!

She'll be flying back at the beginning of August. I don't know what Ethan will do with out his "Bister" all summer! He misses her already!
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Not such a lonely number

I've never met a child so completely content, happy even, with his own company as Ethan is. He's always been this way, preferring his own company to anyone else's.
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When he was a baby, I worried that maybe he was autistic, because he didn't seem to want or need interaction with anyone. He didn't care about being held, or played with, he didn't need to be entertained or pacified in any way. And he was down right irritated by any attention from strangers, refusing to be held, or even talked to by anyone he didn't know (much to the disappointment of his visiting grandmas). If someone outside of the immediate family tried to engage him, he'd pull away and turn his head. He didn't fuss or cry (he never showed much emotion at all), but his body language made it very clear that he was not happy about his space being invaded. He was a very late talker, but after lots of exams, including a hearing test (which he failed because he refused to even acknowledge the doctor administering the test) we determined that he was completely normal, and now we joke that he didn't talk because he just didn't have anything to say!
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Being a very social, talkative, touchy-feely kind of person, I was so sad that my adorable baby boy had absolutely no desire to interact with me, outside of feeding and diapering. Even at only 9 - 10 mths old, he'd play by himself for hours! But now that he's an active 4 year old, I'm beginning to appreciate the fact that he can still go literally hours with no requirements of me at all. He's much more sociable now, he'll yak your ear off about any number of subjects, enjoys playing with his neighborhood friends, loves going to school and even frequently indulges me with cuddles, but on days like today, a long, lazy Sunday, he's just as happy providing his own company and entertainment, leaving me free to surf the net, watch a mushy love story on TV, read a book (anything except housework, LOL).
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Since about 9:00 this morning, he's been playing and romping all over the house and yard, doing his own thing: reading, building with blocks, playing "post office", "restaurant" (where he's the cook, the waiter and the customer) and various games of Transformers, Pokemon and miscellaneous fight/attack games like only a little boy can create. He's colored, played with cars and trains, dug holes, built forts out of sticks and rocks, hunted bugs.
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It's now 7:30p and the sun has set, but after over 10 hours of self-imposed exile, he's outside, happily jumping away on the trampoline, all alone, singing the alphabet at the top of his lungs.
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