The long way home

Buh, buh, buh baby and the jets...

Cousins!

Such a lucky little girl :)

We took a trip to the States. Then we came home. This is that story.

Believe it or not, we brought the Bean back to the States for a visit only a little over a month after getting back to Misawa from the States (yes, our heads are still spinning). Your math is correct! Bean has crossed the Pacific Ocean three times in just four months! She has been to (but not in) both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (isn't it all one ocean anyway?). We went back to America for the annual Hergenroeder beach vacation in Ocean City and also spent a week with my parents. Our time at home was priceless (and very, very brief) and we will cherish the memories forever, but the craziest part of this trip was its ending.

Bean getting friendly with a flight attendant. 

We left Maryland on the morning of Father's Day Sunday. After driving to Reagan National Airport, we took a short flight to Detroit. There, we boarded our flight to Tokyo. We had great seats on the plane and felt really positive when we took off. The flight went exceptionally well. Bean mostly slept and was pleasant when awake; cooing at the flight attendants and squawking at fellow passengers. It was incredible! The flight was a little over 13 hours long. Somewhere around  hour 11, I began to get a terrible headache. Upon landing, I had to run (with the "barf bag" as I've always called it) to the airplane bathroom to well...barf. I had hoped it was an isolated incident, but unfortunately it marked the start of a 24 hour bug...or food poisoning...or something. 24 hours of yuck.

Somehow we managed to get off the plane, clear customs, retrieve our bags, and take an hour-long bus ride to the other airport in Tokyo. We waited in a parking lot at that airport for a shuttle to take us to our hotel for the night. (When flying home to Misawa, you have to stay overnight in a hotel and catch a flight out in the morning). Never have I ever been so happy to see a bed in my life.

At about 6:50 the next morning, Eric said to me, "Ninoosh, we have to leave in 10 minutes or we are going to miss our flight." I stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom and...I was still sick. I heard Eric say from the bedroom, "let me make some calls." Fortunately the airline and Eric's boss were cool about our need to change our travel plans and we were able to stay another night in our room. We all pretty much slept the entire time and luckily, neither Eric nor the Bean caught the yuck.

At 7:00 the next morning, I was feeling like a new person and we were back on the hotel shuttle headed toward the airport. As we stood in the check-in line, we saw our flight status change from "on time" to "cancelled due to fog."

Joy.

We were informed that our best option was to take a flight to the city of Aomori and return to Misawa by train. The flight was about an hour long. Bean saved her only public meltdown for this leg of the trip. During the safety spiel and taxi down the runway, she screamed bloody murder...in front of a very sympathetic crowd...of Japanese businessmen.

After she fell asleep, the rest of the flight was gravy. We landed at the airport in Aomori and boarded a bus to take us to the Aomori train station. 35 minute bus ride? No problem! When we arrived at the train station, we realized that we did not have enough Yen to purchase tickets and they did not accept credit cards. Eric GPSed the closest Post Office and went out in search of Yen while I stood with our tons of luggage and bounced a tired babe. I was surprised I didn't look pathetic enough for people to start throwing money at me.

Eric finally returned with Yen, we bought the tickets, and waited an hour and half for our train. Then we took an hour and half train ride from Aomori to Misawa. On that train ride, we learned that Eric's colleagues had to attend a formal event and would not be able to retrieve us with our car from the train station (as planned). When we got to the train station, we couldn't take any of the cabs waiting outside because only one cab company has base access. Eric called and we waited for one to arrive. We got in and Bean cried and cried and cried. The driver took us back to the parking lot of Eric's office where we got in our car and drove the final, excruciating 10 minutes to our house.

Still chipper on the train from Aomori to Misawa. 

HOLY MOLY WHAT A TRIP! 

Three airplanes, two busses, one train, one taxi, and two nights in a Tokyo hotel later, Eric showered and returned to work to prepare for court the next day while I bathed a screaming Bean and laid her in her crib where she proceeded to sleep for a zillion hours. Poor baby. 

Our bird has definitely earned her wings.