Travel Diary 4 - Always full of surprises

The latest adventure has been the trip from Portland to Japan a few days ago.

Initially scheduled to fly out on June 23rd, we arrived at Portland International Airport with 3 check-in suitcases and three bags of carry-ons. Fortunately, since we have been flying a lot for the last two years, we are silver and gold members with the airline and we get to line up at the priority section!!

Soon we find out that out flight was delayed for 3 hours. Grandma who gave us a ride to the airport had to leave right away for work, so three of us killed the 2 hours + 3 hours (delayed) at the airport. It is not a good thing to spend so much time at the airport with two little bored kids. We ended up buying ridiculous toys that we would normally purchase. Good for airport economy and bad for my wallet. Still they created a couple of happy kids.

At near 5 pm when we were scheduled to finally fly out, we boarded the plane and waited and waited. Finally announcement came explaining that the delay was caused by a mechanical problem and them trying to fix it. She kept on explaining that they thought they fix that with a new part, but the part turned out to be faulty; thus, the flight was canceled and no one was flying out today.

We deplaned, went to check-in counter to rebook. They created another flight to carry all of the passengers to Tokyo the following morning, since there was no way they could rebook all the full flight passengers to an existing flight. We were told to come back no later than 7 am next day with the original boarding passes. Those who don't have places to stay got hotels overnight.

We went home for another night. Slept and got up early to make it to the airport by 7 am. Thanks to grandma who gave us a ride to the airport again, we made it in time to only find out that the new flight was delayed again to 10:30 am...

We killed more time at the airport, this time mostly at the play structure. I was not about to spend more money on ridiculous toys at concourse. We boarded the plane and finally around 11:10 am we took off to Narita!

We, some of the passengers, got to know each other well since we saw each other two days straight. When we landed at Narita, cheering and clapping could be heard. We were happy to be finally arriving in Tokyo.

Then another road bump for me; 7 hour layover at Narita. We normally have 2 hour layover which is perfect with bathroom visit with two kids and getting to the next gate. Since our new flight from Portland arrived way too early and only flight to my home town is in the evening, we had to spend so much time at Narita.

We were in good spirits, checking out stores in the concourse, eating at Japanese McDonald, and play at the kids' area.
My oldest befriended with young couple who thought she was cute. When they walked away saying bye to her to catch their flight, she told me, "mommy, I think they are boyfriend and girlfriend..." So, I asked her, "Do you want to go on a trip with M (her favorite boy from her class) when you are older?" She answered, "Yes."

But, they only had so much energy to last. When we had only minutes to wait there, they fell asleep on the chairs.
Well, I want to give them A+ for being such good travelers.

So, about 24 hours later than originally planned, we made it to my parents' house. Totally exhausted, but the kids were happy to see grandpa and grandma.