US Trip 2019 - Day 1

Late last year, we decided to book a trip to the United States to visit family.  We chose February half term break (when the kids have a week off school).  I was quite nervous about making the trip, mainly because of the effect of the time difference on the kids. Nevertheless, we booked travel and a rental car, and started the countdown.

The kids were really excited to visit the US, especially to see their cousin James. On the day we left, we had to wake up super early to get a taxi to an airport a couple of hours away (these flights were the best for us, logistically). It was a long ride, but everyone behaved themselves very nicely.

Watching the sun rise

We arrived at the airport, and made our way through security fairly easily.

Everyone was hungry by this time, so we grabbed some bland food and a coffee.

I don't remember a very long wait before boarding the plane, but the full day of travel could be clouding my memory. I settled in with the girls, and Matt sat next to Miles. The kids were so excited about the screens in the seats in front of them, plus their tablets. We had also bought entertainment packs from Keep Em Quiet, and planned to bring out one thing at a time as they became restless.

Here are my (uncompensated) thoughts on the entertainment packs we bought. On the website, you can choose bags for short, medium, or long trips; then you enter the age and gender of the child (there's also unisex). They send a variety of activities/toys, as well as a few healthy snacks.

Because of the screens on the long flight, my kids didn't go through everything in their bags. They did like the things they used (although the horse toys in Clara's bag were very cheaply made, and are already falling apart). Mine also didn't eat their snacks, but we always pack lots of treats for the flight. Overall I was pleased with the bags, and would definitely recommend if there was no in flight entertainment.

Okay, back to the long flight. It was pretty uneventful. Clara's screen stopped working after she watched one movie, but she was happy enough with her tablet not to complain.  I watched a couple of movies and some television between assisting the girls with things, and it was a nice distraction.

Bohemian Rhapsody

We also had a decent meal. I chose cheesy pasta, which came with salad, crackers with cheese, pretzel roll and butter, water, and a dessert.

That's wine in my cup. Gotta love free drinks on international flights.

We arrived in Philadelphia for a 3 hour layover, and we were starting to get pretty tired. We got through immigration and found the correct terminal for the next flight.

Then we fed the kids and sat in the food court for the rest of the time.

Airport Smashburger is not that great

One big thing Matt and I forgot to do before leaving the UK was to buy a data package for the US. So we had no service without WiFi. We both kept checking our phones before remembering, and it made for a very long layover. Also we couldn't contact our families to let them know how travel was going. (Of course, on the way back we discovered that the airport has free WiFi.)

The flight from Philadelphia to St Louis was only about 2 hours. The kids were tired, both physically and tired of traveling, but they all behaved beautifully. There was a bit of a wait at the rental car place, and Miles fell into a heavy sleep in a chair. We practically had to drag him to the minivan once it was ready. We thought everyone would fall straight to sleep when we arrived at my parents' house (HA!).

Reading to little sister

I was somewhat anxious about our ability to drive on the righthand side of the road again. It wasn't as bad as I'd expected, I think because the roads and everything are so different in each country. We made it to Meemaw and Da's house in good time, and Matt's parents were also there waiting to see their grandkids. Everyone suddenly caught a second wind, and we stayed up until about 10:30 (so 4:30am UK time). Our 24 hour day was over, now how long would it take our bodies to adjust?