Our flights back to Porto were a success and we arrived on time to sunny skies for a brief period. Annabelle did a wonderful job, yet again, being lugged through airports for 24 hours straight, and managed to keep herself under control with only about 3 hours of sleep total!! Thank goodness she loves airplanes!
Our flight out of KC was delayed an hour due to inclement weather and our layover in Dulles was only an hour and 20 minutes, so we were nervous about making our flight and our luggage getting through to Porto. The moment we landed in Dulles we took off sprinting through the airport, story of my life, Andy with all the carry on luggage and me with purse and AB. I swear my back is going to be out at 35. We thought Annabelle would sleep for half of the 7+ hour flight to Frankfurt, but decided to stay awake until 2 hours left in the flight and was awaken with 45 minutes left, as they turned on all the lights and started to prepare the cabin. We had a 2 hour layover in Frankfurt where we got to grub at the United Club, thanks Andy, walk around like zombies and catch our final flight into Porto. Annabelle was wide awake at the start of this flight as Andy and I were taking turns head nodding trying to do anything to stay awake to keep her entertained. She finally crashed...on the floor and slept for an hour!
A few things we've learned having done this a time or two now:
- We are always running through airports to catch our flights so wearing anything but running shoes and workout gear is not wise.
- When traveling with AB, we will no longer take the United path that puts us routing through Frankfurt, only the direct from Newark to Porto. Navigating through an additional airport and getting on a third airplane is too much with a 2 year old.
- There are some weird people in this world...and avoiding germs and sickness is not an option as you sit on the planes that are filled with people blowing their nose and hacking up their lungs.
- Night Terrors - We experienced night terrors on our long flight back...not from us but the older gentleman sitting in the row next to me, who proceeded to snore SO loud the first 45 minutes of the flight and then later was having horrific night terrors, shouting and moving all over the place that the guy in front of me had to wake him up as it was getting uncomfortable and scary for the others around.
- Night Terrors - We experienced night terrors on our long flight back...not from us but the older gentleman sitting in the row next to me, who proceeded to snore SO loud the first 45 minutes of the flight and then later was having horrific night terrors, shouting and moving all over the place that the guy in front of me had to wake him up as it was getting uncomfortable and scary for the others around.
- Patience is a Virtue - let's be honest when traveling internationally you run into people from ALL over the world whose cultures are NOT as frantic as the American way, so when you have 20 people on the moving walk-ways that just stand and block you from getting by...well get used to it.
- While it's awesome that they offer free movies on the flight, flying with child leaves NO time to watch a movie, pull out a book or even rest your mind for a second. You are ON...the entire time. Phew.
- Trains to Planes to Buses to Walking out on the tarmac - there is a lot of getting on buses to take you out to the runways to then board the planes, so we need to consider the weather and not be standing in the bitter cold with only a cotton long sleeve shirt as we wait to board.
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