Seattle to San Francisco and back again, flying standby with three little kids!

*I promise to update with better photos*

In March 2015, the kids and I still planned to head to the Philippines for 10 months.  We hoped for the kids to experience daily life, school, family and language immersion in Bacoor, Cavite.  Ray, the kids dad, also happens to be Canadian – Filipino – American.  Yup, he is a citizen in all three countries!  Thankful, the kids can be too!  I'm so jealous of them. :)

Considering a 10 month trip to the Philippines, getting them recognized as citizens of the Philippines was a priority and we needed Ray recognized as a citizen again (that’s a post on its own!).  That said, the Philippine consulate closest to our family is in San Francisco, California and they do not answer the phone or return calls.  How the heck to get through to them?  Seriously.  I don't have an answer.

Philippine consulate in San Francisco (Union Square).

We decided, we better show up at their door step for answers.  Great, what? wait! but that’s expensive for a family of five!  We used hotel points and flew standby to afford this.  So, in the attempt to get the kids and their dad (Tatay) recognized as Philippine citizens, I flew standby (on my own) with an 8, 5 and 2 year old.  Ray would fly standby later on.

 



Kids at SEATAC airport in Seattle, hoping to get on the next flight!



 

 For those who may not know, flying standby is where you fly withOUT confirmed seats!  I think it sounds totally fabulous in theory and I am so grateful for it; however, in practice with little kids, it can be a stressful!  If the flight is not full by the time the gate closes and seats are open (in our case four seats) then, on we all go last minute.  If the flight does not have seats, you wait for the next flight.  Fortunately, for us on our way to San Francisco we were able to get on the first flight we waited for and all of our seats we in the same isle (bonus!) SO THANKFUL!!!  (More on flying with kids, when their seats are NOT near you on your flight.)



Noodles at the SFO airport! So YUMMY!

 

After arriving into the San Francisco airport (SFO) the kids and I ate Japanese style noodle dishes and then headed out on the BART toward downtown San Francisco!  The BART is a reliable public transportation option in the bay area that runs directly from the airport.  Again, sounds easy but wow so hard with small kids and luggage! 

The boys (2 and 5) were exhausted and both fell asleep on the BART and Maya was fading too, so asking her to help beyond her backpack was just cruel.  I thought, this is okay and I had planned for this situation.  No panic, no problem, right?  So, on the 2 year old goes into the carrier / sling and the 5 year old goes into the stroller.  Mom has backpack #2 and small roll around – not easy but not impossible!  I’m feeling good.

  

Who's ready to take on BART.  Oliver (age 2) after a short flight from Seattle!



We arrive at our station and on the map we are only 0.2 miles from our hotel.  To the BART elevator we go to get from the BART station to street level, ONLY TO FIND THE ELEVATOR IS BROKEN… WHAT?!  After asking around we are told no elevators are in service.  Seriously?  Okay, so no problem, up two flights of stairs with (backpack, luggage, child in stroller and toddler in carrier) we finally arrive at the street level and 0.2 miles from our hotel.  I'm so tired at this point but feeling accomplished. 

At the hotel, I feel an immediate sharp pain in my neck from taking the stroller going up the stairs and am sick.  I stayed in that state from a pinched nerve until the next day.  So extremely glad Ray made it in that night.  It was the sharp kick in the pants (neck) I needed to take care of an old injury (more on getting strong to care for kids).

The next day, I am feeling much better (yes!) and off we all go to the Philippine Consulate.  The trip was not as fruitful as we hoped but we knew leaving with citizenship for all was pretty darn low!  Still, we had two days to enjoy San Francisco and we definitely did.  We stayed at the Marriott Marquis and the kids enjoyed the pool and Yerba Buena Garden, which we could see from the hotel window.  It’s across the street from the hotel, big and felt safe.  We were blessed with really good weather and the kids played at the park a fair amount. 

Trader Joe’s is nearby Yerba Buena Garden, as well as take-out restaurants, a large food court that looks over the garden, a variety of shopping and even a Target.   We choose eating at the park often as it was a much less stressful event than going to eat at restaurant.  Our kids are very active ADHD, SPD kids. Our youngest is often suddenly overwhelmed and noise, smells and waiting can make any toddler upset. 

Nearby, the Marriott Marquis / Yerba Buena Garden are other options for families that we didn’t see but would have if weather was poor.  The Children’s Creativity Museum would have been our top choice with our age group.  We saw many galleries our oldest would have enjoyed and the Contemporary Jewish Museum.  You can also never go wrong with a pool in a hotel.  Our crew has traveled extensively since the birth of our daughter and a hotel pool  has helped us with jet lag, feeling sick, needing to burn energy, relax, and a safe place to meet new kids and adults.  We always hope to find a place with a pool!

Our high energy, spirited little folk wanted to see China Town and the waterfront during our time!  Having kids with high energy is great, as they walk and run all over the city.  However, they do crash so we always kept the sling or little stroller and sling with us to provide a break for them or a place to nap.  We also always keep easy to grab, healthy foods for them to avoid blood sugar crash!  Apples, nuts, oranges, brown rice, seaweed, avocado and more.  Healthy snacks help the adults too!



San Francisco China Town!
Oliver (2 years) guarding the sidewalk with his new bamboo sword.  Months later this is still a favorite!

We spent one day walking from our hotel to Union Square before heading to the Consulate near Union Square.  Union Square was under construction and not really a great option for small, adventure seeking kids.  From here we walked to the China Town area and found all sorts of shops that were a total hit with the kids and affordable compared to the rest of the city.  We found food and grocery items for much lower cost in China Town compared to near our hotel.

 

The next day we wanted to see the waterfront and collect bamboo swords for the kids.  We walked again from the hotel to China Town before continuing on to the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.  The kids enjoyed Washington Square Park in North Beach as they had a playground and lots of kids.  I found this to be a very family friendly area with diverse ethnic backgrounds and multiple languages spoken.  I see online the park has a poor review for bathrooms but the day we were here they were preparing to open a brand new bathroom facility the very next day.  Fear not families, you'll find it friendly here!



Maya (age 8) attempting to capture bubbles near pier 41.  Free fun!  We'll take it!

From Washington Square Park, we walked to the waterfront area of Fishermans Wharf (pier 41 area).  There are many options for play here.  Sculptures, a toy store (which had a large mechanical bubble making machine), and the sea lions were a huge hit too!  The bathrooms near pier 41 are super nasty and no place to change a baby!  Walk north a couple piers to find places to change baby. 

By 3:30 pm our kids were wiped out and we took the bus back to the hotel.  We brought a foldable stroller and put our youngest in a carrier.  IT WAS PACKED ON THE BUS!  We walked away from the direction the bus was running, to get on the bus sooner and get a seat.  This might seem counter-intuitive but by getting on the bus sooner, we got to the last couple seats.  The five of us were squashed into 2 seats and the boys passed out (again!) and our oldest loved seeing all the people and sights.

Sculpture on the waterfront.  More free fun!

On the standby flight the following day, we could not get on the first couple flights.  Eventually, all five of our family get on the same flight.  YES.  We arrive into Seattle later than we expected and we have 5 exhausted family members.  Happy to be home but very tired.

A few hours later, our daughter has her 2^nd clonic – tonic seizure.

Our lives are not the same.  One seizure is not good but doesn’t mean you’ll be epileptic.  One seizure and an irregular EEG, for her meant Rolandic and 90% chance of growing out of this.  Two seizures and an irregular EEG, now we learn to face to epilepsy as a family and make permanent changes.

We had been staying on the modified Adkin’s diet for our kids to support our child that had been diagnosed with Rolandic epilepsy.  With all the traveling, yummy noodles, fried food and easy access to non-Adkins foods, we left the diet one meal a day for this trip.  It had been 2 months since our child’s first seizure and we believed she would be in the major and not have further issues.  That is not her story and we hope your family can gain from ours as we learn too. 

I'll be doing this trip again later this month.  If anyone has questions or items to research, let me know!

What our family learned from this trip, that I hope others can benefit from:

 -  The stroller / sling carrier was effective in carrying around all those kids and luggage!  Yes!

 

 -  China Town, the waterfront piers and parks provided great space for our high energy, seeking kids and at NO cost!

 - Roll around luggage was a huge benefit!  Our 5 year old was pushing it around until he fell asleep. (Darn, cozy BART)!

- If you have a nagging injury, it will present itself at the most undesirable time.  Take care of yourself! 

 - Regular sleep and good food is a important for epilepsy.   We went off the modified Atkin’s diet for this trip.  We know we could not prevent the path our child went down but for our own self-care we wish we had keep with it on our trip.