Adventures of the Waylands: The Great Pilgrimage Back to the States

I call it a Pilgrimage because that is what it seems like! 4 days, 4 planes, 2 rental cars and NO HOTELS!
The plan was to get home for as cheap as possible. DONE. $500 including food, car rentals and the one flight we had to pay for! The down side was the extremely long trek of getting home.

First stop Osan Airbase, where we had to compete to get onto a flight. I tried on Sunday the 5th of Jan, and didn't have the proper paperwork. Needed a paper signed stating that I could fly without my sponsor. I had also requested another piece of paper that would allow me to fly a category above what I did fly, but Clint's commander, isn't a nice guy to be EXTREMELY nice about it! He told Clint hat a Captain should be able to pay to send his family home. 1. How we spend our money is none of his buisness, and 2 if we weren't having to foot the bill for Clint's conference then we could afford to send me and Clark home!
I did get on a flight to Kadena Airbase (Okinawa, Japan) on Monday evening.

Second stop: Kadena Airbase, Japan. We arrived around 10pm and thankfully we have awesome friends Kathy and Brian that picked us up at the terminal, and let us crash at their house. I looked at the flights out of Kadena and there were several to CA, so I decided to get to Japan and compete for a flight the rest of the way. Thankfully I got on the flight to Travis Air force Base!

Killing time waiting for our next flight!

As I was sitting there taking pictures I was trying to figure out what was so amazing about Okinawa. Yes it was pretty but there was something more. Then I realized it was the air quality! I felt like I could actually breathe and it smelled good too!

Clark being an airplane.

Third stop: Hickam Air Force Base, Honolulu, Hawaii

Of the 9 hours from Japan to Hawaii, I only managed to sleep 2 of the hours. So at this point in our journey I had only gotten 7 hours of sleep in 3 days! I normally require at least 8 a night! One of the airmen was extremely loud while handing out "dinners" and woke me up. I couldn't fall asleep after that. Thankfully Clark slept the whole flight!

We landed in Honolulu at 5:30 am and our next flight didn't leave until 3:30 am the next day. YES I was awake the ENTIRE TIME!

I rented a mini-van (because that was what our luggage would fit in and was worth the price) and explored Waikiki. After lunch we went across the street to check out the beach and see if there were bathrooms to change into. On the way to the beach I ran across this store. I didn't realize how much glare the window had when I took the picture and I kind of wish I had gone in and bought something. One of my favorite shirts is the top right that has a picture of Jesus and it says, "Oh my dad" on it.

Clark was ready to change his clothes and go swimming. Note the sun in this picture!

There was actually sun in this picture too, but it took a while to get out. So most of you know I HATE sand. Therefore I am not much of a beach person. Sand gets EVERYWHERE! So for me to go to the beach, was a big deal, but I also figured Clint would divorce me if I went to Hawaii and spend all day there but didn't see the beach. Clark and I got our swim gear and walked back to the beach where they had bathrooms. The sun was shinning and it was kind hot when I went into change. When I came out it was pouring rain! And it was cold rain! So we hid under a shade structure until is stopped raining so much, and went "swimming" in the rain. I asked a uniformed person what the water temp was and she said 72 degrees. Sounded fabulous. Not when you first got in!

But Clark couldn't have been happier!

And he wanted to dig in the sand! And get COVERED in sand! And make me clean him off!

My favorite picture of the trip. It was worth dealing with the sand and rain to get this picture!

He learned that if he stayed in the water it was warmer then being outside of it!

My view from my towel!

Fourth stop: Travis Air force Base, California!

Clark really wanted "Mimi Sticks" (Twizzlers) but was too tired to eat them. We slept the entire 5 hour flight from Hawaii to CA but he was so jet lagged and exhausted! So was I. At this point I had had 12 hours of sleep in 4 day! He did take two 30 minute naps while I drove around Hawaii, but I didn't get that luxury!

I don't know how I managed, but Clint had rented me a car to drive to San Francisco, which was an hour away to catch our last flight. Clark slept the entire way and we made our flight. There were some mechanical problems with the first plane of of San Francisco so they had us change gates but I was happy they didn't cancel the flight!

Little boy heaven! Mimi and Papi's back yard! He has finally gotten old enough that he can be outside with out me having to worry too much about him or keep watch of him every second. It's awesome!

We had so much fun playing!

And doing bubbles with Papi!

Me and Kirby!

Clark and Merrik at the park by my parents' house.

Merrik let Clark borrow his old bike while we are here. Clark is in heaven. Maybe we can get him to ride with out training wheels! Project for Clint once he gets here!