Flight and Hotel...

We're here in Fairborn, OH where we are staying at  the Homewood Suites!! Tomorrow we get to meet Sobe!!

We left at 4:45 a.m. (Portland,OR time) yesterday morning to catch a 6:45 a.m. flight. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep just from all the excitement and anxiety of "did I pack everything"? (so far I only forgot my bathing suit and Benjamin's toothbrush... I'll take it!)

Travel day was definitely rough! A nine hour trip! (2 1/2 hour layover in between) Here we are on the plane (it was dark inside):

Take off was fun both times! Benjamin is in love with Disney's cartoon "Little Einsteins" and so we just counted down from 10 and yelled blast-off and Benjamin loved it! He wanted to look out the window and put the window shade up and down, up and down... that's a first interest for us so that was fun!

Continuing on, I'm going to be sharing a bunch of info on flights and our hotel (pics too). It might be too detailed for some of you just following. There's several families right behind us on the service dog adventure and I'm going to be "journaling" everything so that they can prepare for their trip!

We booked our flights back in February. I wanted to make sure to get the best deal possible and the exact flights we wanted. For three tickets from Oregon to Cincinnati airport it was $1740.00 (We were actually extremely blessed to have a family pay for our tickets-hallelujah!) There are three different airports you can fly into. Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati (which is technically in Kentucky). Dayton is the closest (20 minutes from 4 Paws). We chose Cincinnati (an hour drive from 4 paws) cause it was the best price for the best trip we could get. (least amount of layovers, hours between flights etc.). Originally, we were taking a flight from Portland to Seattle, and then Seattle straight to Cincinnati. Notice I said "originally"!!! They changed our flights 4 times between February and September!! Three of them were minor changes and doable...and the big one... they completely eliminated our flight and instead of flying in Sunday as we originally were going to, they had us arriving Monday!! HELLO!! Our training starts on Monday! The only option was to fly out Saturday morning instead and add on an additional day of everything... hotel room, car rental... food... kind of a bummer when you're trying to do it as cheaply as possible. But now, I wouldn't change a thing! In fact, I would highly recommend getting in a day earlier and having a down day. We were so exhausted yesterday and it was literally a 12 hour day of go, go, go by the time we were done. So yes, the airlines can change your flights anytime they want to!!

Once we we finally arrived in Cincinnati, we claimed our baggage and headed to the car rental area. I had called on our lay-over to get the exact directions of the car rental area and how and what we were suppose to do. I'm so glad I did... A little extra work makes things go much smoother! We rented a Smart Cart for all our bags ($4 bucks but I would've paid $10!) and lugged it all the way to the other end where we waited for a transit bus to pick us up. They shuttled us to the rental car place where we picked up our rental. (don't forget some tip money... the guy insisted and hauled all our luggage on the bus and off and we let him... we were beyond exhausted, plus we were wearing our Duck clothes for game day... and we wanted everyone to know that Oregonians have class!;)  

Now, you don't have to get a rental van...you can just get a car, it's definitely a lot cheaper. 4 Paws lets you borrow a dog crate while you're here and somebody can always help you get the crate to your hotel and back at the end of the two weeks... but I can't imagine not having a van. We just have too much stuff with Benjamin's stroller, walker and everything else, plus, my parents are flying back for the last week, so we rented a minivan. I called and looked into a bunch of different ways to get the van cheaper... finally a friend told me about this guy who looks for you and gets you the best deal. You pay him $25.00 through paypal and he sends you your confirmation. Worked lovely. www.kingofcarrentals.com  and you get a discount if somebody referred you and yes you can put me down!! :) Our van for two weeks: 13th - 27th was $632.07. Some people have told me they got theirs for way cheaper, but I called and looked and looked and called and Bob at car king definitely go me the best deal I could find online or anywhere. One thing I'm totally worried about... dog hair on the black interior rental van... I think w'ere going to put a blanket down... I'll keep you posted about this!!

Hotel:

You can stay anywhere within 15 miles of 4 Paws. But they recommend two places that they have a great relationship with. We chose Homewood Suites. ********BTW, book early!!!! You can always change your days up a little bit... but there's a big air force base right here and they are always booked up!! And by early, I mean 6 months or more! Do not wait or they will be full! Homewood gives 4Paws customers a special rate. Usually it's $129.00 a night and they give you the rate of $119.00. It took me a little work to get this originally but it worked out fine! So for a 14 night stay, we are paying: $1878.42 (don't forget there's taxes on everything)! I absolutely love it here and am so happy we'll be spending the next two weeks here. The only thing I would say so far, is that the rooms are small... there is not a lot of space for hanging out. We are in a one room King suite and we have a little living area which is also the kitchen. Now the kitchen is the killer part. It has a good size fridge, two stove burners and big dishwasher.

We'll be able to make most of our meals here and save a bunch of money instead of eating out. (and if you do want to go out... there are restaurants everywhere!! We are going to try out the Texas Roadhouse tonight!) (Like how I just talked about saving money and we're eating out right away!! :) 

What I also love about this place is that they provide a buffet style breakfast every morning... Ben and I were both skeptical about "hotel breakfasts" but they did not disappoint!! They have a waffle station (yes, with whip cream and chocolate syrup to put on top!)

and they had oatmeal with all the condiments, eggs with all the condiments, sausage, and awesome hash browns! They had yogurts to go and bananas and apples and cereal, bagels, donuts. It was awesome!! They also serve a dinner Mon - thurs nights! We're skeptical again, but if it's anything like the breakfast it will be great!! So remember that when you're considering the $119 a night... Most days you don't have to pay for two meals!
Here's the buffet area:

Here's the 24 hour coffee bar for very tired parents!:

They have a small fitness room (nothing outrageous but good enough) and they do have a pool and basketball court. The pool is only open after Memorial Day and closes on Labor Day so no pool for us but it's too cold to swim really... maybe low 70's:

They have two washers and two dryers. They cost $1.00 each. We've already done two loads of laundry and we just got here last night! hahahaha 

Here's the view when you first walk into our room:

There is one bedroom with a King bed and then a roll out couch in the living room. I was really worried about where Benjamin would sleep because he rolls off everything! We were able to take the mattress from the roll out couch and just put it on the floor. It's not super comfy, but it's perfect for him. And you're literally looking at the living space. To the right is the "kitchen" pictured above and you can see our room from there. Very tiny but perfect for us. 

Here's the bathroom that you enter through the bedroom:

Lots of storage for clothes and things... We completely emptied our suitcases since we'll be here awhile... help things not feel so cluttered. Not too much dry storage room for food in the kitchen. If you're driving and not flying, I would definitely throw in Ziploc bags and paper plates/cups/napkins so you don't have to buy everything here. They do have some dishes but very limited. 

Well, that's all I've got for today! We took huge naps on our down day, stocked up on some things from walmart, did laundry, watched football and had dinner at Texas roadhouse. My steak salad was awesome! Ben's prime rib... not so much. But he's super picky too... he can cook a steak better then most restaurants any day!! 

I promise not all my blogs will be this long and have more pics of Benjamin and Sobe!!! Tomorrow will be a big day!! 

**** Also, I want to be sure to note that don't take my word or anybody else's word on anything having to do with 4 Paws or the dogs! Double check everything through 4Paws and Karen to be sure you are getting accurate information. I'm going to try and be as accurate as possible, but I'm sure there is a thing or two I might be misunderstanding or not have completely correct!!