Day 1 - April 12

Plane Leg 1 of 4 – United States

Well the adventure has officially begun.    I am currently on my first leg of my four leg flight!  I cannot believe that the day has come!  I started the day with getting to sleep in!  One of my favorite things to do, especially getting a few more moments in bed with my love.  Oh, first off I should mention that at the request of Mr.  A I ditched my wheelie carry-on (he wasn’t a fan although I was sort of obsessed with it)and we made a midnight trip to Walmart to get a new pack.  It’s pretty sweet and yellow!  Hard to beat.  I think this will be a much better option and on top of that it helps with the legitimacy of my “adventure” to Nepal.  I will fit in with the backpackers/trekkers!  Also my whole outfit vide is very hippy today, so I told Mr. A that it was the missing piece.  The pack is great since I have two changes of clothes since this journey will take a total of three days!  P.S.  There may or may not have been a midnight trip to McDonalds for my sodium intake and soon to be lack of hamburgers…really it was enjoyed.

Anyways, back to the earlier today. We left a bit early and picked up lunch at one of my favorite gyro places and then drove off to the airport.  It was just starting to rain when I left and hopefully the rain doesn’t last too long.  Once we arrived at the airport, I went over to the wrong airline (think I am frazzled?) and didn’t understand why the kiosk was malfunctioning…obviously an operator error!  Anyways, I quickly sorted in out and we began our journey to the right check-in desk.  All went smooth and after a very long goodbye to my love I was waiting for take-off.

 

I am so excited and feel so lucky for this fantastic opportunity.  I wonder the immediate changes that will occur within me and those that will take years to manifest.  I am itching to know about this fascinating culture and meet the lovely people along the way.   This will be my first time ever in a third world country and I surely have my worries and stresses on how I will react.  I think my heart will ache to see not only the adults suffering, but also the children.  The chaste system in very prevalent in Nepal and something that I have limited knowledge of, so hopefully I can learn more and educate myself on what is surely a very unjust concept.  I am so delighted I have this opportunity. 

The view from the plane is beautiful and at 38,000 ft above sea level, I am officially at a higher altitude than my little sister!  She just reached Everest Base Camp and at the moment is starting her trek down the mountain.  A super exciting feat and one that I will be excited to hear about!  It is perfect sunny day above the lovely fluffy clouds – my older sister’s favorite!  It truly is amazing that I will be literally around the world by tomorrow evening.  Life and technology is remarkable.  I imagine travelers who sailed remarked the same thing ‘my can you believe you can reach India in over 3 months…remarkable times’ so perhaps I date myself, but I am impressed none-the-less.  Thank goodness the Wright brothers came along!  I guess I am rambling a bit, but I suppose I will write a lot here, so bear with me!  You will get to know me in a completely different way! 

Well we have been in the air for about an hour and have about two more to go.  I have brought a large selection of reading material, journals and my handy little mini ipod.   Other than that I am going to observe and soak it in.   Well that is all for this leg.  I will write again on Leg 2 of 4.

Update: We are just crossing the Rocky Mountain range, pretty bumpy, but amazing to think about the range of mountains that I will see along the way.

It was amazing to see all the advertising that airlines now do during flight.  I guess I was surprised that they also were obsessed with selling their credit card.  I guess it's the only way they can make extra money, and perhaps it keeps the prices down for the rest of us, but I was surprised even with the advertisement on the tray table.

We made it to land!  Horray!  One leg down, three to go!  I am feeling great and even though it was a fairly long flight, nothing can prepare me for the 14 hour flight coming up.  Oh my!  Well I am off to go get some food and find my gate.  Mmm the Philly Ham sandwich was wonderful.

Plane Leg 2 of 4 – United States

Waiting a short amount of time at the airport ready to start leg 2 of 4!  

Up, up and away!  We are on our way once again and the view is beautiful again.  The flight was pretty uneventful and I was enveloped in my book.  Getting more and more excited as I near Nepal ever minute.

The view flying in to the Bay was just beautiful.  We saw some very lovely bridges and even though the weather was a bit dreary, it was a lovely site to see.  Now that I have made it to the coast, the big haul is coming up!

Landed once again!  I have officially arrived and have made it past luggage pick-up as well as finding the international departure terminal.  After picking up my checked bag from the baggage claim, I wandered over to the International terminal.  The walk to the international terminal seemed like a mile hike, but who knows perhaps I took the wrong turn somewhere.  Yet, with a little luck I found the correct path, only to find the whole check in terminal empty.  Just me and my luggage!

After realizing that the ticket counter wouldn't open for another three hours I decided it would be a good time to snag some dinner.  It was a wonderful dinner and I sat in the corner eating and reading.  Although my first choice would be having dinner with Mr. A, this was a wonderful and relaxing dinner.

While waiting for my ticket counter to open, I just happened upon a vintage motorcycle exhibit.  My husband is a huge fan of vintage and rare motorcycles. So enjoy Mr. A!

I made it past security with absolutely no line!  What a great time to book your flight.  I was really hoping to find an ice cream shop or any restaurant with ice cream or soft serve, but to no avail.  Thus I had a few moments to skype with Mr.A, which I still find amazing.  After charging my gadgets and saying goodnight I wandered the fairly small international wing and people watched.  Some flight to Vietnam was delayed because of the weather here.  As a result of the delay they had given food vouchers, so the line to this little shop probably had over 200 people in line.  


Anyways - I will be here until tomorrow waiting for my flight in just a hours.  Hope you are all having a wonderful day where-ever you may be!


Thank you to everyone for the well wishes and love sent my way over the last few days.  Much love to you all and I will write again soon.  Also thank you for taking the time to read this (I know it is rather long) and please feel free to comment below , email me or facebook me, I’d  love to hear from you.  Next post will be from Hong Kong!  Love you guys!

Xoxo,

Sarah

*Disclaimer:  For our safety, I will be adding more detailed flight information and hotels once we move on to the next location.  Thanks for understanding!