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Departure

And what is this? The Bonney's on a plane? But not all the Bonney's... after taking a three and a half year hiatus, the Sticklers are back, but the two lilttle sticklerites are at Grandma's house, and we have TWO WHOLE WEEKS to ourselves, on this our 5th wedding anniversary, to explore Rome and the Amalfi Coast!

Maybe we should backup... Last time we spoke we were tramping around Bavaria and Prague, but a storm was brewing...inside Lin-Wei's belly. 8.5 months later our first daughter Josie was born. The first few months of newborn hell faded in our memories as our Josie turned 9 months old and we thought, hey, this isn't so bad. Let's double-down. Two kids shouldn be cool, eh? Well, 18 months after Josie was born we welcomed Amelia into our lives... lives that soon became unhinged, what with wrangling two babies, two jobs, and... damn! Two within 18months! What the hell were we thinking?

And we had a dream of going to Italy on our 5-year anniversary, and we weren't jealous at all when Lin-Wei's brother mentioned that he was going there with his wife and another couple right around the time we dreamed of going. But with two young babies, how could we get away for two weeks? It was a month later that my mother called and, remembering our pipe dream mentioned years earlier regarding the long-anticipated exploration of Rome and the Italian coasts, she most generously offered her services to take the girls off our hands so that we could realize our dream of spending our 5-year anniversary in Rome, the eternal city. My sister and her husband were also on board to take the girls for a few days, and my dad even volunteered to watch Josie for a couple of days! Awesome!

And it felt like coming home again... getting flights, buying the guidebooks, getting suggestions from friends, stressing about what hotel to stay at, what sights to see, and how to sneak in some R&R time without Lin-Wei realizing it until it was too late. Yes, the old days are back again!

Cue the most intense packing experience of my life. We had to fit two weeks worth of travel clothes/luggage, two kids, two adults, two sets of kids clothes, two weeks worth of baby food, enough toys to keep a toddler and a baby happy for two weeks, and a double stroller into a Toyota Prius. And heck yeah the trunk even closed! That's engineering for you, friend. Even Zorba the U-Haul Packer would have been impressed!

So the day before our flight we drove up to Green Bay to Grandma's house, arrive late that evening, and disgorged the contents of our Prius into her living room. And went to bed.

The next morning Lin-Wei received a blue snuggie from my mother for her birthday for use on the flight. My father picked us up and took us to Green Bay's Austin Strabel International Airport... and if there were more than 10 people in that airport, it must have been reflections in mirrors. I counted us two, the ticket lady, the waiter in the restaurant (where I had my last cheeseburger for two weeks) and the fry cook while we ate lunch. More people did eventually filter in before our flight, but it was extremely surreal to breeze through check-in and security. Did we almost miss the hustle and bustle of O'Hare? Maybe... maybe...

Our first flight today took us to Detroit, MI. After a four hour layover, our next flight was direct to Rome. Detroit to Rome, you ask? When talking about this trip with friends, that fact was always questioned. But yes, Detroit has quite a large (and nice) airport, offering direct flights to Rome, and even Tokyo!

After some beers and snacks and checking of the email, we boarded our flight to Rome, and settled in for a night of turbulent sleep. We were both happy and sad to see that "The Hangover" was one of the movies playing on the in-flight video system. We hadn't seen it yet, but getting some sleep (in prep of the 3hr drive to Sorrento that was awaiting me once we landed) was more important. It was a bit difficult to fall asleep with the entire plane cackling around us...

To Sorrento!