Erich's first plane ride

This fall, the Ng family is doing quite a bit of traveling, and of those most will be by airplanes. We have been busy preparing for these trips. One of the things we needed to do was to prepare Erich (and us!) psychologically for the plane ride. For weeks, we have been telling Erich that we are going to be on an airplane. He had previously seen airplanes in the sky and was excited to be on going on one. Then we told him that on that airplane, he would have to be a really good boy.

"Do you know what that means Erich? It means you have to be...?", we would ask periodically.

"Qriwet", he would answer in his talkative voice.

"That's right Erich, you have to be quiet. Can you run around on the airplane?"

"No!" quips Erich as he confidently smiles because he knows the answer to my question.

(Little did he know he was going to be couped up in a confined space for 3 hours. Umm - just wait till the Germany trip Erich! You ain't seen nothin' yet!)

Well, the time had come to put the theory into practice. First up was Renee Cheng (Karen's cousin) and David Yang's wedding in Los Angeles. More on the actual wedding in our next post.

We arrived at the airport early, and attempted to check in. It had been a while since we had flown on any US destined flights, so it took a bit of reminding to remember that you actually cross over into U.S. Territory at the Vancouver airport. Keeping Erich calm throughout the entire customs, immigration and airport security process turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. I now have much more sympathy for parents traveling with small children.

Once we were on the plane though, Erich was excited. He couldn't believe he was on a real airplane. As he gazed out the tiny window and saw other airplanes, he kept saying, "Airplane! Airplane!".

All in all, the experience was positive. We learned a lot from this short flight to LA - much of which should hopefully benefit us when we are on a plane next. (Next week!).