Where Did Halloween Go?

So…the Lothrops are off to India for 5 months!  Specifically Hyderabad, which is now in the state of Telangana (the capital, in fact!).  When we were there in 2010 the state was Andhra Pradesh.  With the split, as of June 2, 2014, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh now go back to states with more historical significance. 

Now that I’ve lost the casual reader with that boring stuff, I’ll try to lose the rest of you.

We started our trip on October 30, 2014 by catching an Uber in Chicago to O’Hare.  Believe it or not…our Uber driver was originally from Hyderabad, and still has a lot of family there.  Crazy.  Our flight out of Chicago was at around 10:00 PM, so we decided to torture ourselves and everyone else by making Annabelle (our three year-old…henceforth referred to as “AB”) stay awake as long as possible.

Mission accomplished (not in the George W. Bush sense).  We boarded the plan and AB was out cold within 10 minutes.  A champagne toast between Amanda and me was in order.  We slept for a lot of the trip, along with our small comatose companion, but with about 30 minutes to go on the flight AB woke up.  Luckily she downed some yogurt for breakfast and we landed at London Heathrow without a hitch.

It’s about noon on Halloween…  There were a lot of people dressed up like Dick Van Dyke’s character in Mary Poppins or with really gross looking fake teeth.  Weird.  First leg down.  One more to go…with a fully rested “threenager” on the prowl.

The flight from London to Hyderabad started with an upgrade to First Class!  Bad news is that those seats are designed to be VERY independent and face in different directions even in the same row.  Ideal for most travelers, but not when we needed to entertain AB for over 8 hours.  The flight attendants were great, and so was the movie selection.  Aside from using Amanda as a human pillow for a few hours, Annabelle was able to stay entertained fairly independently and was actually pretty darn pleasant considering the circumstances.  Must be the result of good parenting.  Or bribing with mints and chocolate.  Yeah…mostly the latter.

Well, we’re now in India!  We completely missed Halloween…but have now fear, we packed two of AB’s princess outfits to break out in case of an emergency Halloween celebration.

Luckily Amanda and I did all of this 4 years ago, so we sort of know what’s going on at the airport.  We have our Customs form filled out perfectly and we’re ready to answer any ques……..  Oh.  We just walk through Customs without anyone checking anything?  Cool.  Great start. 

It’s 5:00 AM and we’re now on our way to the hotel.  The Westin has picked us up, we have loaded in AB’s carseat, and we’re off!  And we’re wide-awake.  And singing at the top of our lungs in the car.  Hope you’re ready for Annabelle Lothrop, Hyderabad!