Australia 2

The 14-hour flight from San Francisco to Sydney was full, so Astrid had to stay on my lap the whole time. We had last checked a day or two before the flight and there had still been an empty seat next to mine, so I'd had high hopes that we'd have some extra space. No luck. The teenage boy who was seated next to me was not friendly, but he wasn't as unfriendly as he might have been considering the number of times he was kicked as I nursed Astrid. I tried to keep her feet away from him, but it was a long flight and she got her licks in despite my best efforts.

All three kids went to sleep within an hour after we took off. David and I had less luck. I have a hard time sleeping sitting up to start with, and between Astrid sleeping on my lap and the large TV screen just a row in front of me brightly playing an assortment of movies, I struggled to sleep for even short periods. It wasn't too bad, though. I'd gotten a decent night's sleep before leaving and I'm a chronic night owl, so it mostly felt like staying up late - something I'm probably too comfortable with.

None of my babies have been newborns who require being held to sleep (lying next to me on the bed with easy nursing access has been adequate), so my only entire nights of holding a sleeping child have been holding Astrid on this trip and holding Freya (at nearly the same age) on the flight home from France. It's an intensely cozy and intimate experience, being someone's bed.

The second half of the flight the bigs watched movies, ate, colored and took trips to the bathroom. Astrid slept off and on and a couple of times I tucked her into the wrap and walked the aisles with her. All the kids did incredibly well. The movie selections were pretty dismal and I didn't watch any of them. Megamind, the only movie really appropriate for the kids, was shown right in the middle of their sleeping period, so they missed that. Thank goodness for the portable DVD player we brought. We didn't even break out the books on CD, so we'll have those for the driving trips and the flights home.

Oh, on movies, they showed Unstoppable on the flight from Mpls to San Fran. This is a light weight movie with a better-than-average-for-a-B-movie cast (Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson) about a runaway train. Emory was RIVETED.

We arrived in Sydney at about 7am Saturday local time (2pm Friday Mpls time - 23 hours after the start of our trip) and a kind airport employee scooped us up and rushed us through security. We didn't have to do customs until we got to Melbourne for reasons I'm not entirely clear on, but I think having to do with the fact that we didn't change airlines - anyway it was was handy since we didn't have a very long layover.

We gate checked Astrid's carseat and stroller without asking if there was extra space on the plane because I was tired and didn't think of it. The flight ended up being mostly empty. Astrid was exhausted and having the seat would have been very convenient. Next time we'll remember to ask EVERY flight.

We arrived in Melbourne after a quick hot (they were having problems with the AC) flight. We collected our luggage, went through customs (my apples and hard-boiled eggs were confiscated), bought cheap, local cell phones and caught a cab to our flat. We had too much stuff to consider taking the tram (which went from the airport practically to our doorstep), but it would have been nice to manage that, because the cab ride was very expensive (made more so by how generously we tipped, which it turns out isn't appropriate here - better to err on that side than the reverse, though).

I reserved the flat months ago when we realized that staying in a hotel was going to be both inconvenient and ridiculously expensive because of the rules about how many people they'll let you have in one room. Having a kitchen is essential for us because of the diet limitations of most of the family and the general difficulty and expense of eating out for three meals a day with a family of five. We really NEVER do this. Even when we are traveling without access to a refrigerator, I carry fruit and snack food and we only eat out one meal a day. The flat is perfect. It has two bedrooms (the bigs are sharing a double bed and Astrid is sleeping with us in a queen-size), a decently-sized living/dining area and a nice little kitchen (and a bathroom, of course). We are located just blocks from both the hotel where David's conference is happening and from the beach. There are shops and restaurants and even a nice-sized grocery store (carrying lots of gluten free and organic food - we lucked out that the conference hotel is in a sort of chichi-hippy resort area).