Lessons Learned

We made it. On a plane to Japan and all the stress of getting ready for this trip are in the past. What a relief, phew! We have never been so happy to get on a plane.  We learned a few lessons and received a few blessings in disguise before our big adventure.

First lesson - never actually put your packing into your luggage the morning of departure. For one, you may miss your flight.  Lucky for us half-hour later we were on another flight and on our way to Phoenix.  What a blessing that was, we realized that our backpacks were way too full and had an opportunity to re-pack and leave stuff behind.  Pack your bags a few days before and walk around to see how 43 pounds really feels.

This didn't look like so much when it was laid out

Lesson two – always check the weather at your final destination.  We had the brilliant idea of wearing our winter clothes on the plane so they won’t take up any space in our packs, but we arrived in Phoenix to a balmy 86 degrees. Blessing was we got really excited about rewinding and starting summer all over again and knowing our hats, shoes, and gloves are packed away for a whole other year.

Lesson three – always have your camera ready to shoot. As we frantically made our way through airport security with less than 2 minutes to make it to our gate, I quickly fell behind Mike running through the terminal because I was laughing so hard watching him try and hold up his pants with one hand (since he had to take off his belt to go through the metal detectors) and with his other hand try to keep the aluminum Sigg bottles from clanking against each other because he had strapped them to the side of his bag. I was literally in tears and that image is forever tattooed in my mind, but I wish I had taken a picture. 

Finally and most importantly make time to see family and friends before a big trip, always a blessing.