Day 19 - Boston

We are currently at the airport trying to kill 4.5 hours. We got booted out of the apartment at 11:40am and decided to just come to the airport. It is a warm day here and Steve wasn't keen on lugging the bags up and down stairs again. Julian obviously hasn't had a sleep and is starting to struggle. Hopefully we can get some food into him to allow him to sleep later. Fingers crossed. At this stage the flight is still on time...

Additional:
Julian woke up at 1:30am again but thankfully he was back asleep after an hour(!!).  He then woke up at 7am, which wasn't too bad.

 As promised here is a photo of the very high King size bed.  Look at that pile of pillows (AJ - more than you use!)

 This is the skylight that Steve blocked off with a lounger cushion (which we forgot to photograph).  Julians bed was approximately where he is standing.

 This shows the other skylight at the top of the open staircase from the bedroom to the roof deck.  We couldn't do anything about the light from this one.

After we had packed up, we had to go to Starbucks, again, because yesterday in the rush to get the stroller into the taxi, Julians straw cup was cracked.  It was only a short walk around the corner but it gave Julian a chance to stretch his legs and say Hi to all the little puppy dogs that everyone seems to have.  Near Starbucks was a cool little toy store and they had little metal cars and planes in the window.  I had to have a plane, so we bought one for Julian :)  It replaced the yellow taxi that has been glued to his hand since New York.  He flies it around and makes brrr noises (he is flying it in the shot above).

We had hoped to feed Julian up before we left the apartment but he had other ideas and refused most of his lunch.  When the cleaners arrived at 11:40am we decided to get a taxi to the airport and hang around there.  We did have the option of storing the bags at the other B&B but Steve wasn't keen on lugging the bags up and down stairs again. 

I hailed a taxi on the main st near our apartment, Charles st, and directed the driver across a couple of lanes of traffic to where Steve was waiting with our bags.  We had managed to condense everything into 3 suitcases and a stroller bag with a tote and backpack as carry-on. 

Julian loved the taxi ride to the airport, as usual, pointing out the sights as we drive along.  The approach into Boston airport is really cool as you get a really good view of the planes on the ramp in.  A nice guy helped Steve with the bags but they walked too quickly for Julian and he got confused and wanted to go the otherway.  He had his little puppy backpack on, but he pulled so hard that the stitching broke and the straps pulled out throwing Julian onto the ground.  He was not happy :(

Once we were inside, we checked in and not surprisingly, we used nearly every kilo of the baggage allowance!  The check-in lady said that we couldn't get boarding passes all the way through and that it could only be done in LA. (In LA we found that this was a load of bollocks).  The flight was full, so there was no spare seat for Julian.

We went to the American Airlines Admiral Lounge (using Steve's Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer) and found that nearly everything had to be paid for (not like Qantas).  So we had McDonalds yet again as everything else was much more expensive and didn't look very nice anyway-  Julian has now eaten approximately 6 chicken McNuggets in his life.  Definitely not a proud-parenting moment!

The lounge did have a nice small room for the little ones (much better than Qantas which just has it in a corner and means the kiddies can easily escape) so we were in there for a while before moving to next to the windows so Julian could watch the planes which he LOVED.

The Boston - LA flight was 5 hours and Julian managed to sleep for approx 45mins of that.  By that time he had been up for 13hours without a nap and he was getting pretty excited.  Thankfully no screaming this time.  We used the iPad A LOT this flight!

When we arrived at LA we found out that EVERYONE else waiting for the Qantas transfer bus (from the Domestic to International terminals) had boarding passes.  Thankfully they held the bus for us whilst we got ours - Steve was less than impressed. 

We had a 3.5hour wait at LA so we went to the Qantas club again and this time it was packed.  We asked a guy if we could sit with him.  He turned out to be a professor in Engineering (http://www.epp.cmu.edu/people/bios/hills.html) and was heading to Lima, Peru to check up on some of his students there.  Turns out that he had also done work at University of Canterbury - so small world!

Before we knew it we were back on the plane again and this time Julian was asleep before the plane had finished boarding.  He slept for 7 hours in a row without assistance, waking every 45mins having a quick look around before closing his eyes and back to sleep.  These little wake ups gave me a chance to wiggle otherwise I think my bum would have gone numb!  Steve and I managed to sleep at the same time as Julian. After his sleep he was surprisingly calm and easy to manage -complete reversal of the trip over - and he even surprised us with another hour nap before we landed.

Customs in Melbourne was a breeze and we were one of the first through.  Unfortunately our bags were nearly the last off and our stroller bag was wrapped up in Qantas security tape as they have broken the zip!  I think we get baggage damage every time we fly.  Then our bags got sniffed by the dog and he came back to us 3 times - he liked apples as much as Julian does.  So it took just over an hour and we were finally out to meet up with Frank/Grandad.  Anne had given him a banana for Julian and Julian ate the whole thing!  Julian was happy to be home and when he saw my car he smiled.  He was still smiling when I put him in the childseat.