Day 17: Bye Bye USA

The next morning, the husband and I awoke and proceeded to check and double-check our belongings. When we left Singapore, we had 2 big luggages and plenty of hand-carry luggages. When we are leaving USA, we have 4 big luggages and also, plenty of hand-carry luggages.

The husband loaded the load, and I offloaded the kids from him, getting some simple breakfast from the remains of our mobile pantry, plus buying some knick-knacks from the hotel lobby.

Hello little monsters - all dressed to fly home

Loving moments to end the holiday

It took us some steps to get to the airport - all of us. So, the husband dropped us off at the airport along with all the luggages (except for 1 big one that he can handle on his own). That left me and two kids and a ton of luggages to look after - what was 30-45minutes, felt too long when both kids were antsy, somewhat co-operative and an anxious mother who was certain that someone was going to kidnap her children. The airport is, indeed, a very busy place full of people from all over! While this was going on, the husband was driving himself and minimal luggage to return the car, then take a shuttle bus from the rental to the airport terminal.

We had a bite at the food court, and headed to the gates.

Boarding

Last pic for the road!

… or so we thought.

So what happened for the next 2 hours was pretty surreal. The flight was scheduled for 1420. After settling in the plane, and 30minutes after, we had not moved an inch on the tarmac. Announcements were made to alert passengers that there was an engine fault and they were running checks. Another 30 minutes later, still nothing. At the 2-hour mark, they made the announcement that there would be more delays until the problem was sorted because they kept finding a glitch after another. The crew had started to serve drinks, and there were some confusion as we were bounced about being able to get off the plane, or not, and the message was not consistent with what was being announced and what the crew were telling us. It was frustrating and it was truly a pain with two kids who wanted nothing more than "watch tv! I'm hungry! Why are we not flying?" - it was an awful situation to be in. We were literally in between tarmac and confined flight.

After some queries, there was an option of off-loading - what that meant was that we'd be given vouchers to stay another night in an airport hotel and come back again the next day. With two whiney kids in tow, we opted for that.

Getting off again after being cooped up in the plane for 2+ hours

By then, the boy was getting really cranky as he wanted his milk and needed to sleep. After we disembarked the plane, boarded a shuttle bus that drove us to the terminal building. Where we waited, and finally managed to feed him his milk.

Sleepy-milk-monster

Asleep within minutes

The poor boy was so tired, he knocked out within minutes. We waited for the ground staff to collect us and lead us out of the terminal; bringing us to the ticket counter. It felt really surreal, like my whole afternoon was just rewinding itself.

We took a shuttle bus back to the hotel with us and had a pretty below-average dinner. The highlight for the night was that the husband and I opted to go to the hotel lobby for a drink. We left the kids alone to sleep and headed down to unwind.

It was Emmy's night. With odd-tasting beer with yummy chips

That night, it felt strange to sleep yet again on a hotel bed when I was all ready to be on the plane heading home. 

What an odd day.

Read about the previous day here