AdventureDad

What do you get when you combine teething, diarrhea, jet-lag, almost no sleeping, a broken eardrum, two hours at immigration, and a 24 hour trip mostly by plane?  A family vacation with the AdventureDad family…….  We made it safely to Mexico City but the trip was a nightmare not easy.  If you're the kind of person who stopped living as soon as you had kids and have fear in bringing them out of your state, you might not want to continue reading.

A few highlights: 

Flights : Flying to Mexico City can be done in a few different ways with about the same 13 hour flight time.  We chose to stop in NYC for a connecting flight to complete some paperwork for Annika.  Two flights, 9 and 4.5 hours, and hanging out at Newark for a few hours. Those thirteen hours does not include getting to the airport, being there at least two hours early, waiting for connecting flights, or getting from the airport.  The whole trip took 24 hours and it was an exhausted family who finally collapsed into our beds.  If you think a few hours in a car is tough at times, try flying with two small kids.

Immigration : We had a 5 hour layover in NYC which we thought would be plenty long to complete some paperwork and get something decent to eat.  Our flight was 2 hours delayed and the immigration adventure took 2 hours.  We had to run to catch our plane.  Try running with two kids, three carry ons,  a stroller, and items which need to be shown at every security checkpoint.  Laptop, camera gear, baby food, etc..  I don't envy the people who work in immigration.  They see much of the scum which arrive to the U.S under questionable circumstances.

The Swedes have an unfair(?) advantage since people anywhere in the world wave us through and believe exactly what we say as soon as they see our passports.  I think we have a good reputation, being honest and mostly up to  good things work in our advantage.  You don't exactly see the Swedes cuing up at other countries borders…  The immigration officials were awesome as I talked to them with Annika in the baby Bjorn.  Sandra was off with Daniel getting all our bags..  They were laughing  and very accommodating even though we were missing one crucial document.  After a few calls they took care of things.  Our discussion was a nice contrast to the other cases which mostly went something like, "What do you want from me? Fuck You, you tried to pull this shit on us last month and were not falling for it again.  You're going down this time and I don't care what the fuck you say"  And that was the clean version.  Our officials were polite, funny, and professional.  Excellent experience.

Diarrhea : Our kids timed this really well.  They both had diarrhea the whole trip.  We think Daniel was a bit nervous, during the first 9 hours flight he pooped 5 times.  He did really well though and make it in underwear and without accidents the whole way.  Annika also went an incredible 5 times during the first flight.  Do you know how small an aircraft lavatory is?  It was a real adventure to fit my 6"3" frame in there trying to change her on a changing table which was too small for her any way I turned her. Keep in mind I have lots of experience with planes and kids but I still struggled. Three times she had shit all the way up to her shoulder blades and I had to change all clothing.  Adding to that she peed on me and the clothing two of those times.  Just incredible.  I'm sure you know what happens when kids have an upset stomach?  Their asses gets red and hurts like hell.  Poor kids. 

Annika's broken eardrum : During the flight we did notice that there was some dried mucus in Annika's ear.  She has had no problems with ears prior to the trip and we had no indications there was a problem.  It was weird since her ear was not sore and we could touch it without problems.  We're still not sure if all her screaming and nagging had something to do with her ear or was mostly due to lack of sleep and new environments.  The day after our arrival we saw a doctor and he immediately noticed a problem.  The eardrum had not popped but apparently kids can have these kind of problems developing over time.  She had an infection and got antibiotics.  Should be fine and without future problems in a week or so.

My son Daniel : He deserves an honorable mention for being such an unbelievable traveler.  We started flying wih him at three months age with our first trip being 8 hours to NYC.  Before he turned 2 years he had done over 25 flights.  Evey single one without problems except 10 minutes of crying at one point and a small barf on another flight.  He barely slept until the end of our long trip but was happy, helpful, and behaved like a dream.  Without his help we could not have made it. Before we boarded our flight to NYC we got permission to enter  cockpit for a chat with the pilots.  He loves pilots…  He told them point blank that they could fly fast but were not allowed to land because he doesn't' enjoy it.  We laughed our asses of but the pilots didn't really know how to respond to this unusual request.

Luggage : Traveling light with kids is no easy task.  Especially since we're will be gone for 5 weeks.  We don't have much stuff with us but still needed 5 bags, three carry ons, and an umbrella stroller.  In addition to our clothing, which is on the light side, there are also gifts for friends and family over here.  Two of the bags contain car seats for the kids, we bring these on all trips and will not put our kids in a car without them.  Car seats for kids can be rented but you never know what you will get and we refuse to put our kids in a forward facing car seat until they are at leas 4 years old.  It's an incredibly difference in safety to have the kids rear facing.  Laptop and a backpack of Canon EOS camera gear with lenses went in the carry on. That's a bit of a luxury but laptop is a must and the opportunity for incredible pictures in Yucatan is endless and we want to take advantage of that.

This was not a good experience but perhaps we deserve one of these trips every now and then. You know, just so we realize how lucky we've been until now. So far we've done around 35 flights, mostly long ones, with the kids and his is the first bad experience. The rest has been tiring but still very good.  I mean, who can complain about transatlantic dream flights like this one.

I'm posting this while having a few cold chelas at an outside bar with Wifi.  God bless Wifi and my Macbook!  After a few days here in Mexico City we head to Cancun tomorrow.  It's a bit too touristic for us but the beaches are stunning, weather is always nice, it's good for the kids, and we have access to a nice condo.  We're looking forward to a relaxing time with lots of tennis, running, gym, and nice food.  MIL is coming with us and she's incredible with the kids. 

Regards from Mexico, have a nice weekend! 

Categories: Family, Travel
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