La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
Our family trip in 1975 (Sunday’s post) was The Kid Brother’s first time on a plane. I had the aisle and he had the window. No one between us. He smiled almost the entire trip and had his eyes glued to the view. It was an overnight flight to Amsterdam, where Dale and her family, having just taken the train into the city, met us at the airport. We all went directly to our hotel.
The Kid Brother and I shared a room. Jet lag hit him hard. He was miserable, couldn’t sleep, and complained to me the entire night. Finally, he said, “We shoulda just stayed on the plane!” That would have been his idea of the perfect vacation.
In 1981, a few months after Dale died, I asked my parents to send The Kid Brother up to Boston to visit me. That was his first time to fly alone. We talked in short bursts about Dale’s death, which I think was very helpful for him, and we had a great visit. When he arrived at Logan Airport after his 23-minutes in the air, I began to list out all the things I had planned for the weekend. He threw his hands up in the air and said, “Hold on! Hold on! I got jet lag, ya know!”
Here are some more photos from that trip in 1975. The photo above is from our stop at the park called Madurodam in The Hague. It’s a park filled with miniatures built at a 1:25 scale. We all thought it would be too cute but we all loved every minute of it. There was even a scale model of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. I’ve read it was updated in 2012. You can now even create 3-D selfies in 1:20 scale. You could be your very own action figure!
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Nuestro viaje familiar en 1975 (el blog del domingo) fue la primera vez que The Kid Brother se subió a un avión. Yo tenía el pasillo y él tenía la ventana. Nadie entre nosotros. Sonrió durante casi todo el viaje y tenía los ojos pegados a la vista. Era un vuelo nocturno a Ámsterdam, donde Dale y su familia, que acababan de tomar el tren a la ciudad, nos recibieron en el aeropuerto. Todos fuimos directamente a nuestro hotel.
El Hermanito y yo compartíamos una habitación. El jet lag lo golpeó duro. Se sentía miserable, no podía dormir y se quejó conmigo toda la noche. Finalmente, dijo: “¡Deberíamos habernos quedado en el avión!”. Esa habría sido su idea de las vacaciones perfectas.
En 1981, unos meses después de la muerte de Dale, les pedí a mis padres que enviaran a El Hermanito a Boston para que me visitara. Esa fue la primera vez que voló solo. Hablamos a ratos sobre la muerte de Dale, lo que creo que fue muy útil para él, y tuvimos una gran visita. Cuando llegó al aeropuerto Logan después de sus 23 minutos en el aire, comencé a enumerar todas las cosas que tenía planeadas para el fin de semana. Levantó las manos en el aire y dijo: “¡Espera! ¡Esperar! Tengo jet lag, ¿sabes?
Aquí hay algunas fotos más de ese viaje en 1975. La foto de arriba es de nuestra parada en el parque llamado Madurodam en La Haya. Es un parque lleno de miniaturas construidas a escala 1:25. Todos pensamos que sería demasiado lindo, pero a todos nos encantó cada minuto. Incluso había un modelo a escala del aeropuerto Schiphol de Ámsterdam. Leí que se actualizó en 2012. Ahora incluso puedes crear selfies en 3D en escala 1:20. ¡Podrías ser tu propia figura de acción!
• La primera mañana, con El Hermanito todavía miserable. Cerca de nuestro hotel en P.C. Hooftstraat.
• Plaza Dam. La temperatura superaba los 32˚C / 90˚F. Muy raro en Amsterdam. Me encantaba esa camisa de retazos
• Madurodam, La Haya, 2012 (de Wikipedia).
• Mi regreso a Ámsterdam desde la casa de Dale en Alemania. Subir al tren en las cercanías de Roermond, Países Bajos.
• A 3-D selfie from Madurodam. I need one.
• Un selfie 3D de Madurodam. Necesito uno.
That’s a nice photo of your parents and their two handsome sons!
Debra:
And only nice memories of that trip. Thanks.
I love the Kid Brother’s jet-lag after that short flight!!
When my parents lived in England they went to a similar park with miniatures, though there’s was more of an English village. I still remember those pictures of the tiny town.
Bob:
We all thought Madurodam would be hokie and not our style. We were pleasantly surprised. The highlight of our day. (I didn’t try to explain jet lag.)
Your brother cracks me up!
Jim:
Me too.
I had the exact same reaction on my first flight (which, sadly, was only a few years ago.) I was mesmerized by the view and couldn’t believe I had waited so long to fly (out of financial inability, not fear.) I have only been on a total of 4 round trip flights in my life. I hope some day to fly again.
Sassybear:
When I started flying, it was a lot more fun. No airport security. Much more relaxed. It’s a lot of work now, but I still love being in the air. If The Kid Brother hadn’t been staring out the window, I would have. I still do.
A mini Me! I still hate the overnight flights. I have developed coping skills, like the day I land, doing nothing, resting,
David:
We never make big plans for the first day. The first night, we usually sleep. The second night is often terrible. When I was young, I liked the overnight flights. I drank. I slept curled up in a knot. Usually, I had three seats to stretch across. Now, if I sleep an hour total, that’s a lot.
Another great KB story. Good thing Chuck enjoyed the plane – can you imagine how miserable he (and everyone else) would have been on the return flight if he was dreading it?
Wilma:
Oh, that would have been a nightmare. He still loves being on planes.
Love KB’s association with a plane ride equaling jet lag, regardless of distance, is priceless.
Though I made countless overseas trips, jet lag is just something I’ve tried overcome. When going over the Atlantic I try to stay awake and outside as much as possible when I arrive and not allow myself to sleep until 9 or 10pm. Isn’t easy. The weirdest jet lag I ever had was from taking a series of flights by myself: started on a Sunday midday from Okinawa, Japan to Haneda Airport, crossed Tokyo on airport bus and left Narita airport on Sunday night. Arrived in Guam in wee hours of Monday morning and then caught a plane to Hawaii that left around 8 am. The kicker is that you cross the International Date Line, so that after a seven and a half hour flight from Guam, when I arrived in Honolulu it was Sunday night (again!). Was lucky one of my sons lived there so he could pick me up. Would not have wanted to drive myself anywhere in that state of exhaustion. Hung around with him for a week before heading back to the east coast. Broke up that 13 hour time zone difference from home; still, brutal on a body.
Mary:
I’ve never found anything that’s guaranteed to help me avoid or recover from jet lag quickly. I just do what my body tells me. I can’t imagine that marathon you did!
Love the old photos! And I laughed at “jet lag” after a 23-minute flight. (Although to be fair, any experience involving an airport is fatiguing.)
Those 3-D selfies freak me out a little.
Steve:
In those days, airports were fun and relatively stress-free. No security lines. Less rules. Now, getting to a 23-minute flight is just as awful as a 4-hour one.
I can see the wicked smile on your face as you headed back to the fleshpots of Amsterdam, dear!
These are lovely reminisces – especially KB and his “jet-lag”! Does he still say that when he flies anywhere these days? Jx
Jon:
Sadly, I didn’t come out until 6 years later (to myself or anyone else), so I missed a lot of opportunities. But maybe that’s for the best. After the trip to Boston, KB’s trips all did include jet lag, so there was no confusion. He used to fly to California to visit us every year. He hasn’t been on a plane since we left the States.
Been a while since I’ve been on a plane. It wasn’t so much the jet lag but my damn ears popping every time the contraption goes went one altitude to another that I found annoying.
Kirk:
Oh, I hate the ears popping. On our trip to Oslo in August, my right ear was so painful I thought my eardrum was going to burst.
That miniature town is cool, and so was your patchwork shirt. It’s nice that Chuck was a happy flier, although not so happy afterwards. When I was 5 or 6 years old we made a short visit to Denver to visit my dad’s cousin and her family and went to a thing with miniatures, but they were these ugly little things with hillbillies that were spread out on tables. Even at that age I thought they were tacky. I have no idea why we went to such a thing. We normally didn’t go to any tourist attractions.
Love,
Janie
Janiejunebug:
I seriously loved that shirt. I recommend a trip to The Hague — just for Madurodam. And I think you need an action figure of yourself for your mantle.
There’s a miniature park near us that features the castles of the Loire Valley. I’ve never been; perhaps I should go. It’s a short drive, maybe half an hour, from here. Is there such a thing as car lag?
Walt the Fourth:
If you tell KB there’s such a thing as car lag, he will believe you forever. Yes, go to that miniature park and share pictures!