The night before our flight out of San Francisco, Luke threw up. It sent me into a tailspin- was it the massive candy purchase I had encouraged that afternoon? The excitement of a cousin sleepover and our impending flight? The rapid screen motion of National Treasure 2? Was he going to be carsick on every cab or bus ride like he was in London? Fortunately (?), it turned out to be the stomach flu. This was proved by several other toss ups on the ride to the airport. Luke then passed the baton to Ty, who began vomiting just after take off – and then throughout the 14 hour flight.
While a transpacific flight with two stomach sick kids sounds like a nightmare, it really wasn’t that bad. Luke entered a meditative state watching subtitled movies, and Ty calmly vomited into a series of ziploc bags that we had the foresight to buy on the way to the airport. The bright side of the stomach flu? Neither kid noticed that we forgot to request in-flight kids meals 24 hours in advance, which meant there was no food the kids considered edible. Jed may have noticed, but was content to spend 13 hours plowing through a bag of candy from the Sugar Shack and mastering some sort of tank/submarine game. When we deplaned, Jed was able to help with his brothers’ bags, which meant we could move through immigration and customs with relative speed.
Thankfully, everyone feels better now. Our temporary apartment sits atop a mall, so we have access to whatever we need as long as we are willing to pay skyhigh prices (painful, but I chalk it up to the cost of moving). We have Jif, Cornflakes and bagels. I have begun my hate hate relationship with the all-in-one washer-dryer, and we have a playdate set up for this afternoon. We have a view of the harbor. I wouldn’t say we are settled yet, but we’re getting there.