Ok, so how come when I told you that I was thinking of flying to Hong Kong with my kids, you didn’t smack me upside the head and remind me how awful the flight is???

Friday morning started really early.  Really early.  Like it was still dark outside early.  Poor Craig had been asked to drive us to the airport and instead of running in the opposite direction, he offered!  Both kids were excited and tired.  I’m never sure whether it’s better to let them stay up the night before, in hopes they sleep on the plane (and are tired and ratty as hell at the airport and the first part of the flight), or put them to bed at their usual time and have them less cranky but unlikely to sleep at all during the flight.  Ok, so the staying up didn’t really pan out.

We got to the airport in plenty of time (thanks Craig!) and got through security SLOWLY but uneventfully.  Sidebar—how is it that there can be no lineup at all but it still takes 30 freaking minutes to get through?? Sidebar done, I digress.

We went to the Air Canada lounge, one of the few nice parts of an Air Canada flight these days.  The girls enjoy the kids play room in the lounge and it’s usually empty (can’t imagine why adult business travelers would stay away from a room full of kids with the TV permanently on Treehouse eh?).  They both ate tons of buttered toast, and had some juice, while I had coffee and toast.  We had a leisurely breakfast and then headed down to the gate area.  This time around, when they called boarding, it wasn’t as chaotic as last time.  We had bulkhead seats, too, so plenty of room.

The girls did remarkably well for 15 hours of flight.  I had bought iPads before, and some of you thought I was crazy, but the kids used them A LOT during the flight.  The movies Air Canada offered for kids (all TWO of them for 15 hours??) were older and the kids had already seen them.

The food was the usual in-flight specialties that Air Canada is famous for—rice and pork, or chicken and some kind of sauce, then hours later it was instant cup noodles and a sandwich, then finally either congee or eggs.  Believe it or not, with that many hours to kill, you actually find yourself looking forward to meals.

The service was brusque as usual, but at least the kids behaved.  Emily slept, late in the flight, for a little over two hours.  Stephanie never really slept.  Really.  She was exhausted, naughty and ratty, but did not sleep.  Little brat eh?

When we finally arrived in Hong Kong it was HOT and HUMID.  Surprised?  No, neither was I, and yet I was.  It was really HOT and HUMID.  I’d arranged a van and driver to be waiting for us on arrival and he was there and ready.  We got to our hotel and they (as usual) told us the rooms weren’t ready yet (ARE THEY EVER??).  Just 20 short minutes later we finally got checked in.  This time around I booked two rooms—a tiny suite for me and the girls, and a small single room for Danny.  We get more beds and two full bathrooms and two fridges this way.  Wait a minute, Danny also gets his own room while I have both kids.  What the hell was I thinking?  Seriously? 

Danny did a grocery store run and got bottled water, coffee, cereal and hotdog buns.  You know, all the basic hotel room necessities.

Believe it or not, in this country of beautiful, exotic Chinese foods, my children demanded PIZZA.  Yeah, I know, pizza in Hong Kong.  Instead of giving in to their demands for delivery, I wanted out of the room already, so we walked down the escalator into the Soho area and went to Pizza Express.  We’d no sooner sat down than Stephanie climbed on my lap and fell asleep.  Sound asleep, before she’d eaten even a bite of dinner.  Emily did better, eating her pizza before declaring herself exhausted.  Forget about the dessert and hot chocolate that was to come with her dinner, she just wanted bed.  So we packed up Stephanie’s pizza, the remainder of mine, and walked back up to the hotel.  As soon as we got here, Emily said she wanted a little “iPad time” then bed.