Fresh Faced and Naive.

This picture was taken on the eve of our journey to Vancouver Canada - Mothers Day 2005. We were in a park across from our hotel in North Adelaide.
For those who do not already know. Our flight to Canada was a bit of a nightmare. We woke the kids at 3:30am, cranky and bleary eyed (kids too). The past week had been crazy - selling the house and car, getting our stuff in a pile, and packing our whole life into a sea container and waving it goodbye.
We arrived at the airport with our million bags at 5:30 am, just us and the crickets! Who else would be crazy enough to turn up at that hour? Only the best mates out, that's who (thanks guys, you know who you are)!
First stop, Adelaide to Sydney, flying good old Qantas - no sweat, piece of cake. We had a one hour stop in Sydney, which was just enough time to check-in before boarding our Air Canada flight to Honoloulou - or was it..... No, it bloody wasn't. Air Canada had gone and over-booked the flight and there was a band of us that were "not happy Jan". We were rescheduled on an United Airlines flight to San Fransisco, but that was not leaving for another 4 hours.
On the flight itself, there was no scheduled food for the kids, because United Airlines needed 72 hours notice to serve kids meals, (Air Canada had assured us it was "all taken care of"), and so Alex and Olivia snacked on whatever was in our carry on bag (very nutritious); shared our one hors de'ouvre sized "meal"; and were provided with a mini bag of Smith's potato chips that business class had reluctantly donated to the cause. But wait, there were more joys to come.
10 hours into the 12 hour flight, Alex began vomitting, and for the queasy among us, I will not go into any further detail, other than to say there was heaps of it spread far and wide, and it went on for 5 hours!The positive to come out of that experience was our apparent whizz through American Customs. For some reason no one appeared willing to accept vomitt on their strip of carpet or shoes, and so we were moved through the process fairly swiftly.
The 5 hour wait in San Fransisco was monotonous and tiring, and when we were finally able to board, Alex was just starting to recover. None-the-less, he was very resistant to the idea of boarding the next flight, and ultimately he was dragged onto the United Airlines flight to Vancouver, literally kicking and screaming.
Finally, eight hours after our intended time of arrival into Vancouver airport, were finally able to step into the welcome brisk Canadian air for the first time - shattered, but thankful the journey was behind us. Mental note to self - Air Canada flights are cheap for a reason!