Today our African adventure began. I'm excited and full of anticipation of what the next 3 weeks will entail. I know what is scheduled to occur, but at the same time I know that I have no way of even beginning to comprehend what I'm about to experience. Regardless, this trip will be full of memories I will cherish for the rest of my life.
The first leg of our trip (LA to D.C.) we flew in style...my mom had cashed in all her frequent flyer miles so we could fly first class. I could get used to flying in first class. We had a completely separate check-in area and line, and they put priority stickers on our bags so they'll get loaded on/off the plane first. We even had a separate TSA check-in area. As we boarded the plane we were greeted with mimosas. (Yes, even my mom had one!) And we had an entire menu of food waiting for us, including Ben & Jerry's ice cream and fresh-baked cookies. Yum! The flight went by very quickly because they just keep feeding us!
We spent the night at our family friends' (Tom & Ilene) house in Bethesda, MD. It was crazy how we traveled through D.C. and Virginia before getting to their house. And it was so green and I couldn't believe how many trees there were. All you can see are trees! It was great catching up with the Jones family, but before we knew it, it was time to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to catch our never-ending flight to South Africa.
Day 2: Sunday, August 8th
Time to fly again! First we caught a little dinky plane from D.C. to JFK. I just about lost it on this plane...too small and too many quick, sharp, tilting turns. Thank goodness it was only 50 minutes! Then there was just enough time to stretch out our legs at JFK before the looong flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. Just how long of a flight is it? Well, 14 hours and 50 minutes to be exact. Lots of time to watch movies and TV, and attempt to sleep. I'm pretty sure that I slept about a total of 4 hours, but that may be generous. There were a couple noisy babies (the mom may have been louder), and a large group of college-aged Jewish students (who were louder than the babies). I thought the flight was literally never going to end. And my butt has never been so sore!
Day 3: Monday, August 9th
We finally landed in Johannesberg (or Joberg) at around 8:45 in the morning. This airport is a little funky...there aren't any gates unless you are in the double-decker planes, so you get picked up by a bus in the middle of the tarmac and then get shipped over to the buildings. There are still signs of world cup fever everywhere, including stores inside the airport and a world cup passport stamp. (We didn't actually get the stamp but we heard people talking about it. When we asked for it on the return trip, they didn't have them anymore. Bummer.)
In sad news, when we went to pick up our bags to go through customs, we discovered that my parents' bags didn't make it. And they have no record of them. Great. So after entering all our information in the baggage claims computer, we will hopefully be reunited with their bags by Wednesday. There were issues b/c our flight from Joberg to Kasane, Botswana was booked separately so they didn't want to fly them up there to us. We weren't leaving until they agreed.
With our numb butts we still had 1 more flight to go - another small flight to Kasane, Botswana...what's another hour and 40 minutes?! I was so tired that I slept through the entire flight. And I was so happy to get off our last plane. Tori met us at the tiny airport and we checked into the Waterlily Lodge.
Our first objective was to buy my parents some clothes. We went to a China shop (a little shop with random things - clothes, electronics, furniture...all from China), and got some great deals. Nothing like a tank top for $1! We also got some groceries for us to eat at Tori's house. Some of their brand names are pretty funny...
After resting up a little, we walked down to the Chobe Marina Lodge to watch the sunset and have a drink at the bar. There were some traditional dancers who put on a performance at the lodge.
After the sun went down (and the bugs came out), we walked back to Waterlily and had some pizza for dinner. Then it was off to bed...and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow!
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