**Note this was written yesterday (Thurs) evening at 5:58 pm and scheduled to post for this morning**
We made it! After 19 hours of traveling and typing this with no sleep in over 25 hours be prepared for some editing errors, LOL!
Our flight from Tokyo to San Francisco was 7 hours and 40 mins which to our surprise was 1 hour and 15 mins faster than expected! The kids did great and they even slept for about 2 hours of the flight. We were served dinner and breakfast.
We were also pleasantly surprised to find that all 5 of our tickets had been upgraded to Economy Plus on United…what is that you ask? It’s 5 more inches of leg room, which was super. Even better is that it’s normally $109 per ticket and somehow we got it for FREE! It helped with preventing the uncomfortably cramped legs that come with those long flights.
When we arrive to San Fransisco early we decided to try to get an earlier flight into Idaho. We got through customs and immigrations and made good time then re-checked our baggage for our flow-on flight. We then walked down to the United counters (which is a good ways away) to find out that we couldn’t get an earlier flight since our baggage had already been checked in for the later flight, and due to security risks you have to be on the flight with your luggage.
Disappointed and with 5 hours to kill we head back to Terminal 1 to find the USO. Mr. B decides to stop by where we check the luggage and ask for it back and try to get on the earlier flight and it worked! We got put on Standby for the earlier flight and had an hour to make it through security and down to the gate. Thankfully I had talked to the kids about running to the next gate and everyone was ready to go, we even had time to get snacks while waiting. I also called my sis and told her we’d be in earlier since she and my mom were planning on meeting us.
Even better was that my dad got to come along as well, we didn’t plan on seeing him until tomorrow morning as he works nights, but since we got in early we got to spend 3 hours with him before he left for work…which is great since we only have 7 days here.
Another great surprise was that the coupon I found for a free upgrade for the rental car (military coupon that could be used with the military discount rate) got us a Jeep Cherokee for a week with unlimited miles for $216 with tax!
Our prayers were answered today and went even beyond what we desired. Praise God for all the great experiences we had today and arriving to Idaho safely!
Sorry no pictures for today…my eyes are struggling to stay open as it is…it would be 9:oo am in Japan right now (Friday morning) and we’ve been up since 6:30 AM so we’ve been up for 27 1/2 hours! I got a 20 minute cat nap and that’s it due to turbulence on the flight and I was unable to sleep through it. I’m off to go sleep like a newborn baby 😉
Oh yeah, Damon is feeling better, he only had 1 incident with his ear during the landing of our 8 hour flight!
Anonymous says
We miss y’all terribly! It’s so weird with it being completely empty next door!
Christy
Hazel Capalad says
Our block is like a ghost town without you guys. Caitlyn asked me if she can play with Aubrie the other day and I told her you guys left for the states. It finally sunk in that you guys are not coming back. We miss you all