Day 12, 13 & 14 - Adjo, Stockholm!

Our last full day in Stockholm, we wanted to make it all about Ryan. These trips are not often child-focused like they used to be when he was younger. Although we try to find fun things for him to do, most days he's stuck walking around all day looking with a bunch of old farts (when he'd much rather be his cell phone watching YouTube or screaming with friends on Fortnite).

I told Ryan I was calling it his "Three Ss" day- which was focused on riding a scooter, feeding the  seagulls and playing in the snow, as we would return to all three and enjoy a relaxed final day in the beautiful city.

We walked from our apartment down to King's Garden and quickly found a charged scooter there.

In King's Garden again, watching our son scoot 'round and 'round and 'round.

While Ryan scooted, I went on a quick walk around the area and took a bunch of pictures I'd taken on other days, but under dreary gray skies. The skies that day were a brilliant blue.

The theatre

 

The Royal Palace

The backside of Swedish Parliament

 

Once Ry as done, we headed down (short 1-2 minute walk from the gardens) to the waterway and fed the gulls our leftover bread and pancakes. In hindsight, I really hope they're not gluten-intolerant, or more than a few of them had some serious bowel issues that day, thanks to the dumb Hawaiian tourists. Because we went to the 'thick of the action' this time, the birds were even more frenzied and fired up that they were practically dive-bombing our hands to grab the bread from us. This was fun, but also semi-terrifying, because each time they swiftly grabbed the bread with their pointy, little beaks, they also scored a few skin cells from the palms of our hands.

You can view the fun of the birds aggressively dive-bombing us to get bread:

And last but not least, we revisited the not very clean snow. Ryan occupied himself playing carnival games knocking over my water bottle and mini-snowmen.

This was the walk back to our apartment that afternoon:

Once we got back to our apartment, we walked back to the central train station and waited at the bus terminal for our ride back to the international airport.

The bus station...you waited inside, and when your bus pulled up, then you walked through some doors to the platform so you never breathed exhaust or got cold.

Our bus ride was about 35 min. long to Arlanda, the international airport. But our flight was not until the next day. We were there early because...we booked a night at the world's only airplane hotel! We were actually booked to stay at our apartment that night, but I was able to cancel one night of the reservation so we could stay here. Although it was supposed to cost a bit more than our apartment (we paid about $265/night at both apartments), I was lucky to find an anniversary rate that helped reduce it a bit (as it should have been $300 a night)..

This airplane hotel will pop up on a number of searches for 'Unusual hotels' on a search engine, which I've done from time to time...but can't remember finding this gem. But once I did, I was able to pull up dozens of articles and videos dedicated to this hotel. It's quite an interesting story, and moreover, it's quite a well-maintained place. Despite the kitch appeal, the customer service from booking to departure was top notch, and it couldn't have been cleaner, cozier or more conveniently located. Not too mention affordable, if you just need a place to crash near the airport (I don't think I'd book it as a hostel though, too much rolling of the dice when it comes to roommates).

Jumbo Stay!

The rooms on the wings were adorable, but not for claustrophobics... I wouldn't have minded them except you had to go inside the plane anytime you needed to use the restroom.

It was a 'luxury' hostel, for the most part. There were two suites, the Blackbox, and the Cockpit. In hindsight, I should have booked my parents the Cockpit, but the Blackbox looked a lot nicer online.

I could not book the other suite for ourselves, as they had a max occupancy of two per suite. Again, in hindsight, I should have booked it and then paid for a single room and just slept together in the suite, but I wasn't thinking straight.

My parent's suite was all the way in the back of the plane...

Where the magic happens...I might have a younger sibling in 9 months!

They had an adorable fridge filled with complimentary champagne, sparkling water and chocolates. They also had a private bath, which were going to use ourselves (since we always give them the better room)...but the plane was fairly empty, and not a soul used the bathroom near our room. Although we haven't used a communal bathroom in like, 20+ years, it was actually fine. They were clean, cute and again- empty...so that was a bonus.

 

Our triple room was much more basic, but no less kitschy and fun! There was a flat screen tv, solid connectivity on the wifi, charging outlets, luggage storage overhead and curtains for the windows to darken the room.  

Walking on the wing...now used as a picnic area for the bistro cafe in the front of the plane.

 

That's me, in our room!

 

We took Ryan to the Boeing Factory/Museum in Seattle, and once jokingly put him in the luggage compartment, which he wasn't super fond of (see below). He was in much better spirits on this go round about climbing back in!

He's grown a bit since then...

That night at dusk we set off for dinner, as the bistro was closed ('We ran out of food.' No further explanation provided.) Our plane was right near the runway, so you could watch the planes take off from your room. It was so well insulated that I never heard a plane all night. I told Ryan to enjoy laying flat on the airplane, as it was only time his mom and dad could afford for him to have a lay-flat bed on an airplane. ;-) (Not a joke.)

The next day, we had to rise and shine in the three o'clock hour to catch our 4:15am shuttle outside the airplane over to the airport. We had a huge breakfast spread laid out for us at the airplane bistro this time...and then quickly caught the shuttle back to the airport a few minutes away. 

We quickly got through security, only to arrive to our gate and hear the announcement that has become routine for us on our return home, "Flight delay." We found out that due to high winds, all airplanes flying into Amsterdam were a few hours behind schedule...so we missed our connection from Holland back to Seattle by about 1/2 hour. We were directed to the re-booking counters that had no less than a hundred passengers in each line, all with grim expressions on their faces.

Luckily, we found a kiosk that was much faster (we were automatically rebooked and just needed to reprint out our tickets), and quickly learned we would be rerouted through Vancouver, Canada in about 3-4 hours, then to Seattle...six hours late. :-( This wiped out most of the time we'd planned to spend with Joey, unfortunately. 

So we divided and conquered after meeting up at Joey's house- Joey took Ryan and my parent's to IKEA so Ryan could get a shelf that he'd wanted, then they went out to dinner. Rich and I had a rare, (sleep deprived) dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, and then we all met up at the hotel later that night for a good night's sleep before heading back to Hawaii the next afternoon (we made our obligatory trip to JoAnn's Crafts and Trader Joe's first though!). So although it was all condensed and rushed, in the end, we ticked all the boxes and got to do everything we'd set out to do while in WA.

Our next trip is in later July, and I'm in the thick of planning it. It'll just be the three of us, and it'll be very unusual in that A) It'll be in the US (Ryan's request); and B) It'll be the fiery bowels of hell, temperature wise. I usually try to avoid both, but I'm excited for Ryan, as this trip is mostly, all about him. :-)