Flying to Addis

Our travels from Ithaca to Addis began at 8am (Eastern time) on January 24, and wrapped up at 11pm-ish (+3 GMT) on the 25th. We began in a rental car, driving from Ithaca to the JFK airport. We made it through security and had time for lunch and some quick last minute shopping (Mandy suggested bringing some new toys for Cora as a "surprise" to keep her occupied on the planes) before our flight to Frankfurt departed at 3:45pm.

On both flights, we were incredibly lucky to have our pick of seats, an entire four-seat row to ourselves, and nearly empty planes. Thank you, Lufthansa airlines.

Cora was a traveling champ. On the JFK-Frankfurt flight, she ran around the circle created by our bulkhead row and the lavatory hallway in front for about 4 hours. Finally, after dinner and reading, she eventually consented to fall asleep on my lap while staring vacantly at the "distance to destination" map on our video screen. I tested her in the baby bassinet that fastened to the bulkhead wall in front  of us, but it was so shallow and she is so inclined to abruptly stand up in bed that I couldn't get any sleep myself for worrying. Eventually she did indeed stand up and start crying, and then fell promptly back to sleep on my lap until we landed in Germany.

We had a 4-hour layover in Frankfurt, which we spent playing with some Australian/Canadian kids (who live in Dubai) at an indoor jungle gym, and eating really good bread products. Since I'd only gotten about an hour of sleep on the first flight, Nate took Cora for a long walk and let me stretch out in a reclining chair for an hour, too. What a husband.

By the time we boarded our Frankfurt-Khartoum-Addis flight, Nate and I were pretty exhausted. We decided to try a half tab of children's benadryl on Cora, which she ate up like candy. It started kicking in pretty quickly, but it still took her a couple hours to settle down and fall asleep on the plane (after a horrible 30-minute crying jag that seemed out of control and I blame on the drugs - I don't think we'll use benadryl again unless she is allergic to a bee sting or something). Later in the flight, Cora woke up and ran around the whole nearly empty economy class section with her new friend, Miles, a sixteen month old German/Ethiopian boy. I also broke out her "secret" toy bought in JFK, a monkey with long arms and legs and velcro hands and feet, and an "I Love NY" shirt. An instant hit.

The second flight stopped briefly in Sudan for refueling and disembarking passengers. Here is a view of the Nile river in Khartoum, Sudan: