What a Long Trip It's Been

After a 54 hour sojourn from Karaganda, Kazakhstan to Sacramento, California, Spencer and I made it home at exactly 12 AM on Tuesday, June 20, 2006. For such a long journey, the trip went really well.

You’ve seen the pictures of Spencer and I loading up in the car on Sunday morning in Karaganda. Spencer didn’t catch on to the fact that we were leaving Mommy and Hayden behind. He thought we were going on an adventure….Not until we arrived in Almaty did he start asking, “Is mommy Sleeping?” or, “When will we see Mommy?”. I think he finally understood in Almaty the fact that Mommy was/is staying with Hayden in Karaganda at the apartment.

We actually had a nice day in Almaty waiting for our flight to Amsterdam. After checking into the wonderful (not!) Hotel Kazakhstan, we headed to the Gondola to the top of a foothill overlooking Almaty. This was the most picturesque area I have seen on my two trips to Kaz. The view of the city was gorgeous, the landscaping looked great, plus they had a great play area for Spencer to run around on. It was a perfect spot to burn a couple hours.

After the park, we went back to our posh surroundings at the Kazakhstan Hotel. This was possibly the worst hotel room I’ve ever stayed in. It came fully equipped with the neon sign blinking outside our window all night, but no black out curtains. This on top of the permanent rust stain on the tub…not brown stains…I mean rust stains on the tub. At least there weren’t bugs.

Our wake up call was at 3:30 am. Spencer was up and ready to go, we were on the road by 4:00 to the airport. We paid for our seats, and then waited in a huge line to get our passports checked by the Kaz police as we left. At the front of the line, some Kaz Ladies took pity on me and made the people in front of me get out of the way because Spencer was getting fussy in the stroller. Once we finally made it on board the plane, Spencer crashed most of the flight. When he was awake we played w/play dough, and made miniature dolls of the family; Hayden, Spencer, Mommy, and Daddy. It was really cute.

Our seven hour flight, from Almaty to Amsterdam, landed right on time. We walked directly from our landing gate to the departure gate, and literally walked on our next plan. We didn’t even have a chance for a bathroom break. The 8 hour flight to Detroit was pretty miserable, but at least they had on demand movies. Spencer managed to watch Nemo, Lion King, and a Bugs life….The biggest problem was we had a 40 minute delay because a passenger got sick. You know you’re in trouble when the PA announcer asks, “is there a doctor on board? If so, can you please report to seat 43 D” Then 20 minutes later the same lady asks over the PA, “Is there any one who speaks Armenian and English?:” Because of the delay, we missed our connection to SFO.

We made it through customs with our 6 bottles of Vodka in tact. Spencer started screaming in the middle of a huge line waiting for the passport check…this worked like a charm and we got to go to the front of the line. Guess I’ll have to pinch his butt more often in crowded situations! Our flight to SFO was delayed 2 hours due to weather…so we ended up getting in to SFO around 9:00, and didn’t make it home until 12:00.

Spencer was a real trooper. When we got home he started asking for Hayden and Mommy…I explained they were back in Karaganda at the apartment, but….He knows something is missing, but…hasn’t figured out why.

Bob

On the other side of the World: Hayden and I got a chance to meet up with Lena’s friends, Kelly and Missy from Indianapolis. Had dinner with them at the Assortie. Pic attached.