Space A travel!

Quick back story...Breanna had been trying to convince me to fly home with her in November for a couple of months. About a month before, I decided it would be fun and hopefully worth the craziness of flying Space Available. I had a little bit of experience flying standby with buddy passes (thanks Bryce and Cec) and although the cost was appealing, each time I did it, I said I wouldn't do it again. So...military space A is even more unpredictable and this time I would be flying with a 5 month old, what was I thinking?! But, I really wanted a chance to see our families with Rowan at this fun age and a trip home before the holidays sounded like fun...so, I agreed to embark on the adventure with her :) 

We started watching flights the last week of October, hoping to leave that Tuesday, but the flights kept getting cancelled or pushed back. So, on Saturday we knew the Patriot Express would be leaving (a commercial jet the military contracts to help with people moving, etc). We showed up with all of our stuff at 5am and waited for our names to be called. And we got on! I was so excited (mostly because my sisters were flying home for the weekend and if I didn't get on that flight I wasn't going to get to see them). A few hours later we got on the plane and started our travels home. The plane went from Okinawa, had 2 stops on mainland Japan, and then ended in Seattle. I then had to buy a flight home from there to Sacramento. It was a long day to say the least, but we survived and I was so excited to be home in Davis!

 Pooped about halfway through the flight...wish this had happened for more of the flight :)
 Rowan prefers to look extremely uncomfortable when he sleeps. It was nice to have the Ergo though because I could sleep without worrying about dropping him, etc.

Outfit change! Of course he would poop on his clothes during the flight :) He weirdly loved the changing tables in the tiny airplane bathrooms though. I would lay him down to change him and he was instantly happy and wanting to play and roll around (which there is obviously not much room to do!)

I really can't complain about Rowan's behavior on the plane, he did really well for how long the trip was. There were definitely some less than fun moments though and the flight attendants were not the nicest, but when I arrived in Seattle and headed to the Southwest counter I was greeted by such kind and helpful people. It was exactly what I needed at the end of that crazy long trip (especially since the last leg of it was on my own without Brea and Dominik). 

All in all, it was the perfect flight to get home, we only had short (no overnight) layovers and made it home in good time. I have realized that one of my least favorite parts of living over here though is definitely how long it takes to get home :( 

While that flight was perfect for our trip there, we were hoping for the real Space A travel experience on the way home (not the crazy getting stranded for days part, but the fun military plane part).  Three weeks after arriving in California, we looked for flights to head back to Okinawa. I happen to live about 30 minutes from Travis Air Force base, which is the huge west coast hub for flights going out. There aren't direct flights to Oki, but there are several to Hawaii and from there, there are many to Japan. So, we set out to get on a flight to Hawaii. There were 3 flights going out on Friday, so we arrived at the airport with all of our luggage and checked in, hoping to get on a flight. Unfortunately, there were several people hoping to head to Hawaii for Thanksgiving, and many of them higher priority to travel then us, so we went home that night with hopes of getting on another flight on Saturday. Saturday morning we showed up and there were 2 planes with over 60 seats each so we knew we had a good chance. We were delighted to find out that we got on a flight going out that morning! It was a C5, which are often cancelled or delayed, so I was still cautiously optimistic, but everything looked great for us to make it to Hawaii. We bussed out to the plane and were in awe of the size of the aircraft. It is HUGE! (You'll have to google it...but pictures don't really do a good job showing just how giant they are).

 We were warned that these planes are often cold and loud, so Rowan was ready with his hat and ear protection :) Pretty dang cute!

The seats on the plane were similar to traditional airline seats, but with more leg room :) It was a pretty old plane, but I loved the fact that we had our own row, could walk around and I put some plastic down on the floor at our feet so Rowan could crawl around for a bit. It was about a 5.5 hour flight and Rowan did great! The plane was loud enough that even if he cried, no one could really hear it, but he really hardly made a peep the entire flight. We left a few hours later than we were supposed to which was a little disappointing because it meant we didn't have time to drive around and have fun in Hawaii before trying to get on a flight home the next morning, but we were just grateful to be that much closer to home. We slept in the family room at the terminal and when I walked outside the next morning, I seriously could have told you we were in Hawaii just by the smell. It was awesome.

 There were 2 flights heading to Okinawa on Saturday, one was a direct flight (which we REALLY wanted to get on), while the other stopped in mainland Japan, then South Korea, and THEN Okinawa (so we really weren't excited about the idea of that, especially since each stop is usually about 24 hours). So, we put our name on the list for the direct flight and at 9:40am there was a roll call and we got on! We were SO excited to know that our next stop would be home! We were also excited that we were going to be on a new plane that we hadn't experienced before...a KC135. It is a refueling jet that they use for random other missions, this one was coming home after taking a NICU baby from Japan to the states. The seats were along the side and were not very comfortable...but still pretty fun :)

One of the crew members asked if we wanted to see the refueling boon...we got to go to the back of the plane, lay down and look out the window in the bottom of the plane. All the controls for the boon were down there and the view was incredible.

Our AWESOME travel buddies, Brea and Dominik!

This plane was fun because we could walk around as much as we wanted. It wasn't a big plane, but there was a pretty good area to walk around.

 The other cool part of this plane was that there was an entire isle that wasn't being used so we whipped out the pool floaty that we had bought and flew it up and made a little bed that we switched off lying down and napping on! Don't mind the fact that I look completely drunk (and this was the second picture taken because I looked too drunk in the first one she took :) Rowan got a good little nap :)

And it was a really fun place to crawl around when he wasn't tired!

 After 10.5 hours, we finally landed in Okinawa, and I was beyond excited to finally be home.
Grant picked us up at the terminal and it was SO good to see him. I was worried that Rowan wouldn't remember him, but it was instantly clear that he recognized him and couldn't stop smiling at him while we waited for our luggage. It was a perfect vacation, but it's always good to be home (especially when we had been away from Grant for too long!) It really was a perfect Space A experience. The stress of it was a little intense, but in the end we were really blessed with getting there and home so quickly! It turned out well enough that I might even try it again...maybe :)