It’s 2017, baby two is on the way, baby one is firmly in the “no” & “mine” phase and we’re back out globe trotting. As the time for this trip drew closer many people had the same question, “are you bringing you’re little one?” “yes…” I replied mimicking the nervous collar tug and making a cartoonish gulp. “You’re brave.” They’d say.
There’s a fine line between bravery and idiocy. – Bryce (2017)
I’m just going to begin with a word to myself. Bryce, you’re wife is the best and this trip wouldn’t happen without her so treat her right! We left on Tuesday and here’s the extent of what I knew. Our flight left at 6:00 p.m. from Oakland and landed at some point in London, England. The end. Bethany knew the rest. What we didn’t know was how Adah would deal with flight. The upside was her bed time is 7:30 p.m. and we’d firmly be in the air at that point with all the cushy blankets, cushions, activities and pacifiers we needed to give her a crib away from home.
She’ll be asleep before you know it! – No One (Ever)
We met a nice single mom traveling with her little one as well as some other young parents with a 19 month year old daughter named Ava, just perfect. Parents traveling need to stick together, I decided just now. The plane was nice enough, USB Charging, Screens in each chair and a friendly guy named Ally in the row behind us who works for a fitness app (Gixo *mental note to check that out later). The couple in front of us were older and a little more frustrated by our daughter poking and kicking their seat while watching the aforementioned screens that prevented her from sleeping or playing with our prepared activities.
Generally my mode of operation (Modus operendi) is Stay awake until night time of the day we arrive. I call it my plan so I’m not utterly depressed when I can’t sleep and I want to give up mid flight.
This turned out just like I planned it. – Delusional Me (Often)
Our sleep broke down like this: Adah, drug induced 3 hours. Bryce, uncomfortable 2 hours. Bethany none.
We arrived at Gatwick airport around 12:15, carrying all six of our bags and a delirious child when we approached the wall of people in the customs line. Adah wasn’t having it so I walked around with her while Bethany waited and pushed our bags around on the floor through the line. We’ve all been there… We then grabbed a local SIM card, picked up our three checked bags and proceeded to Tetris as much as we could on our poor Cicco stroller before finding our way to the train into London. On the train we met another mom and her son on the way to an appointment which gave Adah a cute boy to fixate upon and stave off her exhaustion a little longer.
You’re not dating until you’re married. – All Dads (Every Day)
At St. Pancras Station, we realized we went to far so we pulled Adah out of the stroller, put more stuff on it and walked to Euston (Houston) Station to go to our final destination, Kensal Green. Wearied, exhausted and frustrated that our SIM card wasn’t giving us data to contact our AirBNB host or get Google maps directions we pulled into Kensal Green Station. As we arrived an older gentleman looked at me with a smirk and said “You got a baby under all that?” pointing to my stroller full of bags and “necessities.” … “Yeah, we’re keeping her warm.” I replied and had a much needed laugh and we stepped off not sure how to get where we were going.
As we exited the tube I said the address outloud to Bethany and a lovely woman next to us asked if we needed help with directions. You go out, make a right, left on this road, over the bridge, past the Island and it’s your next left. It all sounded like gibberish at the time but made sense the further we walked. Half way down our final half mile (.8km) the same woman pulled up and offered to give Bethany and Adah a ride to our destination, again I say, she was a lovely woman! We declined with sincere thanks and walked to our AirBNB. Our host was not there, as we were two hours late so I went to the coffee shop down the street to get wifi and my phone working and reach out to our host.
He will be there at 5:30 to let you in. – Our Host (Our low point)
This was unwelcome news, it was 4:15, we were cold and exhausted. Not a slight on the host, we were late, but man what a bummer. I grabbed some coffee for Bethany and went to Tesco Express a little over a mile (1.6km) away to get milk and some essentials for the night. I got back at 5:27 to the message
Sorry, it won’t be until 6:20 – Our House (Our Lower point)
We made the most of it and went to a local pub, The Island. This could be the exhaustion talking but it was so welcoming and warm we couldn’t have made a better choice. The server Tudor was so kind and went above and beyond for us and our little girl, we will go there several times over the rest of this week. I got the buttermilk chicken sandwich with bacon and Bethany got the fish and chips. Tudor if you never read this, thank you.
We got back to our place, finally got inside, got the overall lay of the land from our host and went to bed. The silver lining is my “plan” worked It was a somewhat rough night sleep with Adah waking up for about two hours in the middle of the night but after that we woke up around 11 and were feeling pretty good. Let’s see how today goes.
Fingers Crossed…
