Holidays fly by just like that!

Yes, just like that! Our year end holidays are coming to an end. We spent a good part of it on holiday in California and we had a blast there!

We flew on EVA air and I must say, Asian airlines are always great! The timing of the flight was good too. We left in the afternoon from Singapore and landed at LAX at about 230pm. After collecting our luggages and picking up the call, we got to Ah Yi's house at about dinner time. That meant that we did not have to struggle to stay awake for a long time. We did some light shopping at a nearby shopping place and then went to bed for the light. This really helped in easing the jetlag.

After resting for a 3 days to get over the jetlag, we made the long drive (7 hours) up to San Francisco to meet up with Wendy and family. It is always fun to go on road trips. It is even more fun as Les had to drive on the left! The boys were good on the drive. We only stopped once for lunch and another time for a toilet break. They entertained themselves by drawing (Kieran), watching movies on the iPad squashed between the front seats or taking naps. People are always amazed that our kids never had problems on long drives, but I guess they are just used to being in the car seats and they never knew they could make a fuss! :P 

We started on theme parks in the 2nd week of our holiday. Our first stop was Universal Studios. We enjoyed the studio tours the most. We saw the new King Kong attraction in the back lots. They rebuilt the studio after the last one was burnt down in a fire back in 2008. This new attraction is now a 3D show where we saw King Kong fight with the V-rex to save our tram. It was a fantastic experience.

We next went Disneyland. We spent 3 days at Disneyland and the boys loved the Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster ride. We went on that ride umpteen times and there was no fast pass on it! At California Adventure Park, we loved Soarin' over California. Kiefer just managed to make the 40" height limit on this ride. We probably went onto the ride 3-4 times at least. During one of the times, the ride broke down and we received a fast pass that was good for any of the rides (except Star tours) in the park. That was great because we used it at Toy Story Midway Mania where the queue was forever at least 45 minutes long. Just because we had the pass, we managed to go on that ride a second time.

We bought the boys some Disney pins from ebay for the boys  to do some trading at Disneyland. They had a lot of fun looking for pins that they like. It was a cheap and fun activity for them at DL, especially for Kiefer, when he had to wait around for his gege and daddy to finish their rides. He'll look for pins that he likes and trade them. We bought the pins at ebay for only about $1 a piece and we managed to trade them for beautiful pins that probably cost $6 - $15 a piece.

We drove down to Vegas and San Diego in the following week.The boys have not been to Vegas before and the last time we both went, it was 5 years ago. It was nice to be back there again. We watched 2 shows there. The Blue Man Group was hilarious. It was a musical/ percussion show that stimulated the senses. We also saw Cirque Du Soleil's Mystere. We watched such a late show that I actually fell asleep during the trapeze segment. The 2 boys loved the show, especially the big baby character that was in the show. 

We originally wanted to drive to the Grand Canyon but decided against making the long drive. We did go to Hoover Dam though. Kieran could recall the exact scene from Superman that was filmed there. It was a nice sight-seeing trip. 

 

 In the final week, we were off to Seaworld, San Diego Zoo and Legoland. The boys were actually really looking forward to Seaworld.  Though they still loved the Shamu show, we thought that Seaworld has lost its charm. Both the Shamu and Dolphin shows were quite bad. There was not much interaction between the animals and their trainers. In the Dolphin show, half the show had board divers jumping off the diving boards and also had a macaw (dancer in costume) flying around. However, Kiefer loved looking at the huge walrus at the Wild Artic exhibit. It was obvious that the walrus was really bored as it swam round and round in the same routine. Kiefer kept running up and down, following the walrus' path from outside the glass.

We haven't been back to San Diego Zoo in a while. We actually quite enjoy riding on the open top tram around the zoo. I think there were improvements made to the zoo because I didn't remember it to be so huge. However, the skyride (cable car) was closed and we missed going up on it. The boys enjoyed looking at the gorilla as there are no gorillas in our Singapore zoo.

Legoland was definitely their favourite park in San Diego. We adults love it too. The rides are just so fun. This is the first time Kiefer could drive in the Volvo driving school and he did so well in there. He finally earned his "driver's licence"! :P

After San Diego, we spent another 2 nights in LA and it was back to Singapore. It will be awhile before we can embark on such a long holiday again!

A little adventure

This is a long-overdue post that was sitting in my Drafts.

Been wanting to blog about this since we came back almost 4 weeks ago (gosh... where did time go?). The boys and I had a little adventure as we flew back from the USA all by ourselves. Their daddy had to return 3 days earlier, leaving just the 3 of us coming back on our own!

The adventure started almost immediately when the daddy went onto the plane. I was shopping at Costco when I suddenly recalled that I didn't keep Kiefer's paper ticket when I separated our passports (we all had electronic tickets while Kiefer, being an "infant-in-lap" held a paper ticket). The daddy had already boarded the plane and there was no way to contact him. That started an entire evening of calling NWA to replace that ticket. After talking to them for a long time, they said that we just had to go to the airport earlier to get the ticket reprinted but at USD100 (cos it was taken that it was a lost ticket charge)!! Well, anyway, fast forward to the part after I got hold of the Daddy. He too called NWA in Singapore and they said that there was nothing they could do to waive the USD100 even though we told them that we had the ticket, it was just not with me!! In order to expedite the process for me at LAX, Kiefer's ticket number was left on the system so that the check-in counter personnel could quickly retrieve it and replace the ticket for me.

Well, LAX is one airport that I wouldn't like to fly in or out from if I can help it. Their systems are old and messy and the staff aren't really helpful (and that's not just judging from this recent experience). Well, this lady at the NWA counter, she was simply annoyed that she had to replace the air ticket for me. She didn't know what to do, she wasn't polite and she took a darn long time getting such a simple thing done. I didn't think she was nice at all, cos while serving me, she was darn rude to other passengers and her lines weren't even funny!! Another passenger simple asked her where her colleague (who served them half-way and disappeared, while holding on to their passports) and she simply brushed them off by saying "out for lunch!" It was 830am in the morning. :( She was clearly distressed that I had many pieces of luggage for check in and also the huge chore of reprinting the ticket to do. Clearly not very efficient. I asked her to put in a request for me to have assistance at Changi Airport, she told me a long story of how NWA cannot give assistance for single passengers with children, all they can give is a wheelchair etc. I told her that Changi airport staff will do so and insisted that she do it. In the end, she pretended to write something down on paper and said that she would do it later. At that point I knew that she wasn't going to do anything already! In fact, I thought she probably saboed me cos I had some special meal on the flight, which I didn't request for and I suspect it was probably a diabetic meal or something. :( I also requested for assistance at Narita airport long ago (once we booked), no help whatsoever was offered to me on flight or at the airports. Come on! How can this be service? I was a single lady, travelling with 2 young children!!!!!!

Enough griping about NWA. Well, back the adventure. I had 2 big worries before I flew with the boys. 1) They need to go toilet at inappropriate times. 2) Kieran would be sleeping during disembarkation and I wouldn't be able to get both him and fer off the plane and make the 1h 20min transit time at Narita.

for #1, well, that happened. I was really early at LAX and I kept asking Kieran if he needed to go toilet. He kept saying no until about 10min before boarding, he said," Mummy, I need to poo poo!" :P Gosh, the toilets weren't at the boarding gates. We had to walk a couple of minutes to the toilet, with bag pack and a toddler in tow to get him to poop!! :P :P

for #2, I read off NWA.com that I could bring an umbrella stroller onto the plane and stow in in the overhead cabins. As usual, NWA didn't come through. I had to check my tiny umbrella stroller at the gate cos they said I couldn't bring it up. The fortunate thing was that they actually brought it to the gate really quickly when we got to Narita (note: they took so long to bring the strollers up at Narita on our SIN-Narita flight that even though we were disembarked the plane really quickly, by the time we got our strollers we were at the end of the line for the security checks. By the time we reached our transit gate, we were only 20min to boarding!!) Thankfully, Kieran actually woke up during landing and he could walk off the plane. :)

The plane departed LAX 1hour behind scheduled departure. I was thoroughly stressed out, cos if you remember, I only had a 1hr20min transit time at Narita. The FA said that flight time is reduced by 1hr so I'll still be on time, but being NWA, what happened was that by the time the plane landed, taxiied and doors opened, it was already 5pm!! My next plane leaves at 550pm. The whole time while waiting for the planes to open, I kept telling Kieran, "Kieran you have to run ok.. cos we are very late. " And he was so good. He carried his own pack and walked so quickly with me. Once I got our stroller, he sat in there without fussing and we quickly made our way to the security. I literally half-walked/ran with Kiefer in the sling and pushing Kieran in the stroller. I must say that I've met some really helpful passengers. There was this nice Filipino guy who, at the security told me to just take care of the boys and he will help push my stroller across. :). We made it to the gates and found that the next flight was also delayed for another hour. So much for the mad rush! By the time we boarded, it was past midnight LA time. And once we got on that plane, the boys slept almost throughout the 7hour flight. :)

How was it travelling alone with 2 young kids?
I would do it again. Preferably on an asian airline though. The boys were great on the entire flight. they played, slept, ate, played slept. They didn't ask to walk around or anything. Any walk we took was simply to go to the bathroom. We kinda had fun.

Things I would recommend to bring on board for the kids:

1. snacks for the kids and yourself (i.e. cookies, cheerios)
2. sippy cup for juice/water to prevent spills
3. colouring materials
   
4. playdoh (this occupied them for quite a while, almost 1hr!!)
5. ome video devices (i had the psp and the iphone with me, but i didn't need to use them much. they watched like maybe 20min of video on the entire 2 leg on the flight)
6. handheld games (Kieran had his new leapster, which also occupied him for about 20min only)

We are back home!

2.5 weeks of holiday just flew by like that. Overall, it was a really good experience going on holiday with a 6 month old baby. Kieran was a very good flier. Better than myself I must say. I always get the bad earaches during descend but Kieran was so good that he didn't cry, whine and didn't even needed his pacifier. He was one happy baby. It was a little tiring for us as Kieran took a little longer to adjust to the changing time zones but he did it without excessive fuss.

I like the idea that we will always bring our children with us when we go on holiday. Afterall, they will only be willing to follow us around for maybe the 1st 12? years of their lives and then they will want to be on their own. Many parents are unwilling to bring their young children abroad as they worry that their kids may fuss etc. I think as long as we remember that everything has to go a little slower, you'll have more things to bring along, everything will be fine. I must say that this trip with Kieran was really fun!

Anyway, coming back to Singapore made me feel that sometimes our service industry is really quite lousy. Service people do not bother to go a little further with your enquiries, they even make it your fault that things do not go THEIR way! I was at Suntec's foodcourt just yesterday with Hubb and PP. We had to park the stroller by the walking aisle (next to the stalls) as that was the only place we could put it. There was still ample walking space after the stroller was placed there. However, the clearing attendant came by, casted a dirty look at us and started shaking his head at us, indicating that we blocked the entire passage way!!! It was only him who could not get across. Btw, there was still space if he was willing to go round the other end. In the US, people will go out of the way to make things easier for parents with strollers. It is not our fault that there was no provisions for strollers. Likewise, in Singapore, we often have to carry the strollers up and down steps as there is just no ramps to push the strollers on.

We like going to California all the time because of the fantastic shopping that we get there. We can get very nice (even brandful) clothes for Kieran for only USD1-3!!! For this price, we'll only get crappy clothes here!! I also like the way sales are really sales in there. Shops are willing to really slash prices during one-day sale (i.e. Black Friday). Also, when they have promotions for bulk purchases, you can save up to a few dollars on the items, unlike when our supermarkets do this, it's like "buy 1 @ $x, buy 3 and you'll save $0.10"!!! Very often you'll see the buy 10 items to save ads in US and you do not even have to buy 10 items and you'll get the item at the reduced price!

That's why we've been going back there for the last 3 years.. haha.. to do our annual shopping spree!!! :)