Posted Friday, January 18, 10p Guam time
We made it. Mallory was OUTSTANDING on the plane – a few little meltdowns but in general she was great. She even slept the entire second leg of the flight, which was nice, since it was 9p (and 7am Ann Arbor time).
A couple notes about our trip yesterday:
- On the big flight, Mallory had finally fallen asleep. My mom said “good- let her sleep as long as possible…”, but I pointed out that it was really noon where we were going to be spending the week, so maybe she should be awake. She said “NO, worry about today, not tomorrow”. But I told her that on Guam, today is tomorrow. My mom almost wet her pants.
- My dad had the privilege of having his own seat across the aisle from our bank of three seats. So he was never on Mallory duty or had to get up to let her handlers out but got to read, drink, sleep, play on the computer, whatever and whenever he wanted. But at one time on our big flight, I was at the window with Mallory sleeping, my mom was in the middle trying to sleep, and my dad sat on the aisle and as soon as he sat down, he turned on his overhead light. My mom’s eyes flew open and she snapped “TURN OFF THE LIGHT”. She wasn’t laughing then but later, as we were talking about it again during our 4 hour layover in Tokyo, she almost wet her pants again, saying that the light was as bright as the sun.
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I came down with a yucky cold just before our trip and it got worse on our plane rides. My ears have yet to pop and I am all stuffed up still.
Anyway, we arrived at our hotel at around 2a Friday (that’s noon Thursday for those of you reading from home) and then Mallory was up bright and early at 4.41a time. I think we got her back to sleep for a little bit but then we were all up at 6a to start our day.
The hotel has 5 pools – including a little children’s pool, just right for Mallory to play in. They also have a water slide that Rick took Mallory on a few times. After a big application of 50 SPF and playing for a little bit, I decided it was time for the girls to have a nap. So around 10.30a, Mallory & I fell asleep, and we didn’t wake up until my mom called us at 4p!
We have had a few snafus (Lisa, you’d never come back here ever again). The hotel seems to think that a twin flat sheet wrapped around a crib mattress is sufficient, and no one could understand when I tried to explain that it is a suffocation hazard and that I didn’t think Paris Hilton’s grandpa would want to lose all his money because of a tragedy. After about 5 promises from different front desk staff people and housekeepers that a “baby bed” sheet (no one seems to understand the word “crib”) was on it’s way up, they finally realized that there were no crib sheets in the hotel. But when we got back from TGI Friday’s, there was a brand new crib sheet on the crib mattress. Phew. I guess I shouldn’t call and ask them if they washed it in Dreft before Mallory sleeps on it.
A couple of other things have happened, and it seems as though the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. My dad just pointed out that this is the Guamanian way – I guess sort of like the Jamaican “no problem, mon” saying. But sweet jesus, it’s killing me.
We made it to the World’s Largest K-Mart tonight. There were about 6 K-Mart workers standing around talking and I asked them if they had any inflatable rings or water toys (this was as we were standing next to an aisle of sand buckets and beach towels). They said they didn’t have any right now, and to check back in the summertime. Um, first of all – I’m only here for a week. Second of all – your weather is high of 88 and low of 78 every day of the year and you don’t carry water toys year-round?
It is now about 10p, and we are all exhausted. My first impressions of returning to my birthplace are “wow”. I was very emotional as the plane was about to land last night (or was that this morning?) – excited to see this place that I’ve heard so much about and seen so many pictures of from when I was born. My dad gave me a hug and said “thanks”, because he wouldn’t have ever come back without this nudge. Our taxi lady last night said that the road we lived on when I was born still exists – we will take a drive up to Dededo to check it out. Will our old house still be there?
I guess I hadn’t expected there to be so many Asian people everywhere – every sign has English and then also Japanese or Korean or Chinese on it (who knows, it all looks the same to me). My mom & dad say that it is NOTHING like it was when we lived here 36 years ago – back in 1970, there was maybe one hotel; now there is a whole hotel strip, and tons of shopping – very touristy.
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Just a few pictures so far:
McDonalds french fries in the Tokyo airport…
Playing in the pool with dad.