Tuesday: Space-A Adventure to Iwakuni

The kids wanted to go back to visit Iwakuni.  We had one week between school getting out and Josh's summer job starting.  So we made a plan.  A plan that didn't go quite like we hoped.  But it went!

We had called and Futenma said they had a flight out at 1pm on Tuesday.  That was perfect.  I got Josh to his 7:30am orthodontist appointment and was on my way home when my friend texted to say she couldn't host us in Iwakuni, she had a family emergency and was going to be flying home to the US as soon as possible (her dad was in the hospital with heart issues, and she needed to be there with him). So our lodging and transportation were no more.

Dan was able to scramble and call the TLF and rental car place in Iwakuni and got us a room and a van!  So the trip was still on!  We made it to the Futenma Terminal in plenty of time, got checked in, they said yes they would take us, and all was moving along nicely.

We got to fly on the little-little plane.  Only 6 seats in the back- three rows with one seat on each side.... plus the pilot and co pilot.  It was pouring rain, so the first 20 minutes were a little hair-raising, but we made it out of the ugly weather, and on to Iwakuni.

The girls are so excited that this is happening! That's our plane behind them.

So cute and small.  But fast! It got us there is 90 minutes.  The other small plane (that seats 12) has propellors and takes 2 1/2 hours and is a lot noisier.  So this was a fun plane to go on!

 You can see our pilot there in the front!  And you can see how small the plane is.

Me and Delaney.

Josh and his lovely friend Morgan.  Yep, we did a trip with Josh's girlfriend.  It went fine.

Delaney wanted a picture of the flight.  Being above the clouds was pretty cool! 

 I'm not sure this was an intentional picture.  But this was the hotel room at the TLF.  It was awkward to squeeze 6 people in a room meant for 5.  And it was tricky to decide who could share a bed, when the inflatable mattress we brought was a toddler size (so Delaney or Rylee were the only ones small enough to sleep on it).  There was a rollaway bed as well.  But that still left 2 queen beds.  And no one wanted to sleep with Josh, and no one was comfortable sleeping with Morgan, and the two of them were not permitted to sleep together!  We ended up with Josh on the rollaway, me and Callie sharing the queen bed in the bedroom.  Delaney put the blow up mattress in the kitchen area, Rylee put the two chairs together, and Morgan got the pull out couch to herself. It went shockingly well!