This is a view out the window of the restaurant...on the 45th floor. Katie also needs a completely clear space in front of her when we eat. She grabs at everything.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Our Breakfast views...
This is a view out the window of the restaurant...on the 45th floor. Katie also needs a completely clear space in front of her when we eat. She grabs at everything.
Photos from Medical Exam
The medical exam was just 3 different stations - height weight, ENT (figure out if she can hear), and then medical exam (physical and listening to the heart).
As you can see, Katie was NOT happy about it.
As you can see, Katie was NOT happy about it.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Stone Forest Photos
Yeah yeah, I know. These were taken on Wednesday! Honestly though, Katie was sick Thursday, then Friday we flew to Guangzhou, and it's now Saturday. :)
The Stone Forest is China's 4th best "treasure" and the Great Wall is one of the top 3 (I think #1). It was one of the places I most wanted to visit while in Yunnan, and I am thrilled that we had the chance to go. I wish we had the time to do the other 2 places - Minority Village and some Park (Green Lake park?). Our guide did not want to take us to the Minority Village, and our hotel was not near the Green Lake park. Of course with Katie being sick, it was not easy to do much of anything.
I guess it all means that when we come back at some point, we have more to see!
The Stone Forest is China's 4th best "treasure" and the Great Wall is one of the top 3 (I think #1). It was one of the places I most wanted to visit while in Yunnan, and I am thrilled that we had the chance to go. I wish we had the time to do the other 2 places - Minority Village and some Park (Green Lake park?). Our guide did not want to take us to the Minority Village, and our hotel was not near the Green Lake park. Of course with Katie being sick, it was not easy to do much of anything.
I guess it all means that when we come back at some point, we have more to see!
Medical Exam and Paperwork
That was all we did today...well and go shopping at Carrefour (much like Walmart). It's very interesting how they have their store set up. Instead of being spread out on one level, it's multi-levels with escalator ramps for the carts. You start at street level and go down. Our guide here helped us find a few items we specifically wanted, such as a Children's CD with the song "Little Rabbit" that Katie has been trying to sing. The Nannies at the orphanage told us the name of the song. Katie really seemed to enjoy listening to it.
The Medical Exam went well, it was a little chaotic but I'm told it is normally like that. Katie weighed in at 20.4 pounds there with a 17 inch head circumference. The interesting part was when we were having her physical exam done the doctor was listening to her heart. He asked, "Operation?" and when we said No he went back to listening. Listened hard again, then asked "Operation?" and again we said no. He called another doctor over to listen, and she asked "Operation?" and when we said no, she listened REALLY hard. Something was said, and while we were not able to get it translated it sounded like "maybe little" is what she heard for the heart defect. So, it sounds like her PDA might have closed and they were hearing the valve regurgitation. I'm looking forward to having her evaluated at home by our doctor though.
Since she has had a fever we had to disclose that, and the doctors wanted to know all about her recent illnesses. We also had to show them the medicines the orphanage doctors gave us. Luckily her temp there was normal there.
The nurse we are traveling with suggested that Katie might be allergic to the American formula, and we are beginning to think that may be it. It would produce lots of coughing and lots of mucous which is what we have been seeing lately. Good news is that she has kept down more than she did yesterday! Moving in the right direction, but she still does not feel good at all. I am hoping that she will be up to going shopping with the group tomorrow. Otherwise I guess Dh will spend the morning in the hotel room with her.
Pictures to follow....I'm slow I know. Funny story, when I was loading up the camera bag for our flight to Guangzhou I found our point and shoot camera! LOL Guess we did not lose it after all. See, what happened was, when we boarded the plane for Kunming I had trouble getting the camera bag under the seat, so I took things out of the side pockets (where the point and shoot camera was). I stuck them in my coat pocket, and thought I had zipped the pockets closed. We got to our hotel in Kunming and started filling out paperwork (there is LOTS of paperwork for adoptions), and I asked Dh to take a photo with the point and shoot. He asked where it was, I told him in the camera bag. He looked and did not see it, so he asked where else. I told him "OH my coat pocket." It was not there. I never checked the camera bag again. Oh well. We could have had more photos of Katie as it was easier to tote around (like to restaurants and such). It's all good though. We have it now. :)
The Medical Exam went well, it was a little chaotic but I'm told it is normally like that. Katie weighed in at 20.4 pounds there with a 17 inch head circumference. The interesting part was when we were having her physical exam done the doctor was listening to her heart. He asked, "Operation?" and when we said No he went back to listening. Listened hard again, then asked "Operation?" and again we said no. He called another doctor over to listen, and she asked "Operation?" and when we said no, she listened REALLY hard. Something was said, and while we were not able to get it translated it sounded like "maybe little" is what she heard for the heart defect. So, it sounds like her PDA might have closed and they were hearing the valve regurgitation. I'm looking forward to having her evaluated at home by our doctor though.
Since she has had a fever we had to disclose that, and the doctors wanted to know all about her recent illnesses. We also had to show them the medicines the orphanage doctors gave us. Luckily her temp there was normal there.
The nurse we are traveling with suggested that Katie might be allergic to the American formula, and we are beginning to think that may be it. It would produce lots of coughing and lots of mucous which is what we have been seeing lately. Good news is that she has kept down more than she did yesterday! Moving in the right direction, but she still does not feel good at all. I am hoping that she will be up to going shopping with the group tomorrow. Otherwise I guess Dh will spend the morning in the hotel room with her.
Pictures to follow....I'm slow I know. Funny story, when I was loading up the camera bag for our flight to Guangzhou I found our point and shoot camera! LOL Guess we did not lose it after all. See, what happened was, when we boarded the plane for Kunming I had trouble getting the camera bag under the seat, so I took things out of the side pockets (where the point and shoot camera was). I stuck them in my coat pocket, and thought I had zipped the pockets closed. We got to our hotel in Kunming and started filling out paperwork (there is LOTS of paperwork for adoptions), and I asked Dh to take a photo with the point and shoot. He asked where it was, I told him in the camera bag. He looked and did not see it, so he asked where else. I told him "OH my coat pocket." It was not there. I never checked the camera bag again. Oh well. We could have had more photos of Katie as it was easier to tote around (like to restaurants and such). It's all good though. We have it now. :)
Friday, December 14, 2007
We're in Guangzhou
Finally. We crashed last night, it was a busy day and a little stressful. That first plane ride with a baby is hard, particularly when you are all crammed in together and your baby has been sick and you have NO idea how they will react to flying. Did I mention that there was no leg room? I think with this particular 737 plane they added 2 rows of economy seats. Dh's knees were touching the seat in front of him, Katie was about 3 inches from the back of the seat in front of Dh....and it was sitting up and not laid back.
Katie is feeling better. The orphanage doctors were pleased with how she was doing, but did not like the cough or runny nose (neither did we). I had decided to start the anti-biotic the ped had given us as soon as we got to Guangzhou (adverse reactions on the plane were not something I wanted to deal with). The orphanage doctors gave us some amoxicillin and a decogestant. We started that instead.
Our hotel is the Asia International Hotel in Guangzhou, and the "breakfast buffet" (which I need to get to as it's 7:45am here) is on the 45th floor. Yes...45th. We are staying on the 33rd, and it's REALLY high up.
We have our medical exam this morning, then we're going shopping for drinks and such (and boy do I need them...about to pay 35RMB for evian water through the hotel bar....that's about $5 for about 20 ounces of water). If I can hold out the water bottles run about 2.60RMB in the grocery store. Okay, I know the .60 liter cokes are 2.60RMB (that's umm....about $0.30 per .60L Coke). That should tell you how desparate I am if I'm willing to pay 35RMB for a 20 ounce bottle of Evian! LOL
When we have our break this afternoon, I will work on photos. :)
Katie is feeling better. The orphanage doctors were pleased with how she was doing, but did not like the cough or runny nose (neither did we). I had decided to start the anti-biotic the ped had given us as soon as we got to Guangzhou (adverse reactions on the plane were not something I wanted to deal with). The orphanage doctors gave us some amoxicillin and a decogestant. We started that instead.
Our hotel is the Asia International Hotel in Guangzhou, and the "breakfast buffet" (which I need to get to as it's 7:45am here) is on the 45th floor. Yes...45th. We are staying on the 33rd, and it's REALLY high up.
We have our medical exam this morning, then we're going shopping for drinks and such (and boy do I need them...about to pay 35RMB for evian water through the hotel bar....that's about $5 for about 20 ounces of water). If I can hold out the water bottles run about 2.60RMB in the grocery store. Okay, I know the .60 liter cokes are 2.60RMB (that's umm....about $0.30 per .60L Coke). That should tell you how desparate I am if I'm willing to pay 35RMB for a 20 ounce bottle of Evian! LOL
When we have our break this afternoon, I will work on photos. :)
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Hotel Bound
Katie has been a little sick, and we chose to stay in the hotel yesterday (no photos all day can you believe it?). We did go to the orphanage yesterday afternoon to visit the doctors there to get her checked out - cough, runny nose, fever, and some vomiting. We were concerned because she rejected us feeding her for almost 2 days, and the nurse traveling with us agreed that she appeared dehydrated.
They gave her a shot, handed us some meds, and gave her a 4 ounce bottle of what she is used to. We got the bottle (she's super picky about things like that), and the guide had the hotel make the "egg milk" like she is used to as well for us. She also ate quite a bit of congee last night as well. She kept 12 ounces down yesterday, fever broke, she smiled and danced for us. Her cough is much better, still there, but better. She slept well last night. The orphanage docs wanted us to bring her back Friday morning for another check since we are flying to Guangzhou tonight.
We were chastised greatly for not enough layers so I am making sure she has plenty today. ;)
I will try to take more photos today, it's been a little hard with how she's feeling and how she is still rejecting me. Although she did prefer me over the orphanage director and doctors. She smiles at the other females in our travel group, and plays with them. Which means that it's not all females she is rejecting, just me. Which means she knows there is something special about me and it is related to her attachment to her foster mom. If Dh is not around, she will accept me and let me care for her. So there is that.
Today is "relax" day according to the guide, so we check out around 3pm, catch our 5:45 PM flight to Guangzhou (about 1.5-2 hour plane ride). Get into Guangzhou hopefully with enough time to get her some food before we fall asleep.
I will try not to forget photos today. I do have a LOT of photos from Wednesday when we visited the Stone Forest. Gorgeous there, and so much to photograph. :)
They gave her a shot, handed us some meds, and gave her a 4 ounce bottle of what she is used to. We got the bottle (she's super picky about things like that), and the guide had the hotel make the "egg milk" like she is used to as well for us. She also ate quite a bit of congee last night as well. She kept 12 ounces down yesterday, fever broke, she smiled and danced for us. Her cough is much better, still there, but better. She slept well last night. The orphanage docs wanted us to bring her back Friday morning for another check since we are flying to Guangzhou tonight.
We were chastised greatly for not enough layers so I am making sure she has plenty today. ;)
I will try to take more photos today, it's been a little hard with how she's feeling and how she is still rejecting me. Although she did prefer me over the orphanage director and doctors. She smiles at the other females in our travel group, and plays with them. Which means that it's not all females she is rejecting, just me. Which means she knows there is something special about me and it is related to her attachment to her foster mom. If Dh is not around, she will accept me and let me care for her. So there is that.
Today is "relax" day according to the guide, so we check out around 3pm, catch our 5:45 PM flight to Guangzhou (about 1.5-2 hour plane ride). Get into Guangzhou hopefully with enough time to get her some food before we fall asleep.
I will try not to forget photos today. I do have a LOT of photos from Wednesday when we visited the Stone Forest. Gorgeous there, and so much to photograph. :)
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Great Wall photos - FINALLY
It's only been a few days since we went to the Great Wall, but I finally had some time to sit and work with them. The Great Wall was just so amazing that I wanted to try and show that in some of the photos. It was also VERY cold, and what better way to show that than by cross processing. :)
Hope you enjoy these.
Normal kind of shots of Great Wall
Better watch that step guys!!
Between the rather steep stairs was some rather steep inclines. Literally you were walking up the hill at a huge angle to the ground. If you saw it from the side it was hilarious, at least to me...or that could very easily have been sleep deprivation mixing with thiner air making me giddy.
The steep stairs (what the guys were standing at the top of). What made these worse is that one step might be 1-2 feet tall, while the next was 6 inches. Hard to find your rhythm climbing those.
We made it to the top like conquering heroes...winded heroes.
This is us with one of the families we traveled to Yunnan with. We're really having a great time with everyone.
Hope you enjoy these.
Normal kind of shots of Great Wall
Better watch that step guys!!
Between the rather steep stairs was some rather steep inclines. Literally you were walking up the hill at a huge angle to the ground. If you saw it from the side it was hilarious, at least to me...or that could very easily have been sleep deprivation mixing with thiner air making me giddy.
The steep stairs (what the guys were standing at the top of). What made these worse is that one step might be 1-2 feet tall, while the next was 6 inches. Hard to find your rhythm climbing those.
We made it to the top like conquering heroes...winded heroes.
This is us with one of the families we traveled to Yunnan with. We're really having a great time with everyone.
The Boys at Home
They went to see a Christmas Parade with their cousins. Uncle S was in the parade, so I'm sure they had a great time. The baby in the photo is about 4 months older than Katie. Samuel and the other young boy are 1 month apart. JM is the oldest. Yes, my Mom has 4 grandsons and 1 granddaughter!
Visiting with Great-Grandma.
Christmas Decorations in Grandma's hometown. ;)
It was a warmer day, so they went to a park to play instead of Chuck E. Cheeses (which I believe is up for Tuesday's adventure...dang this whole 13 hours difference is HARD).
Yes, I know I'm up at a 5:40 AM in China. We spent the evening in the room, and I laid down and fell asleep around 8pm after taking a 2 hour nap this afternoon. Katie has been sleeping MORE than I have. :)
Visiting with Great-Grandma.
Christmas Decorations in Grandma's hometown. ;)
It was a warmer day, so they went to a park to play instead of Chuck E. Cheeses (which I believe is up for Tuesday's adventure...dang this whole 13 hours difference is HARD).
Yes, I know I'm up at a 5:40 AM in China. We spent the evening in the room, and I laid down and fell asleep around 8pm after taking a 2 hour nap this afternoon. Katie has been sleeping MORE than I have. :)
Photos from Tuesday
At the temple the guide bought us each some incense to burn for "Good Fortune" for our family. Dh and I decided to burn it for "Good Fortune" for Katie's birth parents, her foster parents, and for her.
The temple was so pretty and peaceful. Katie loved looking all around and would point to a tree or a turtle and make a baby noise. In the photo of me with Katie, if you look closely (yes I know it's not exposed correctly, and I don't really care to play too much with it right now), Katie is smiling HUGE. Of course she's looking at Daddy, but hey...she's smiling IN my arms. ;)
How she looked at me from Dh's arms most of the day.
She was doing her little mouth pucker, blow air in and out thing, which is something she plays with us. With Dh she gives him a HUGE smile when he does it back, if not a giggle. I might get a little grin. But hey, at least she'll play with me from Dh's arms!
BEAUTIFUL GIRL!!! Daddy's Girl. :) Notice the hair thingie? She didn't bother it at all, all day long!!!!! Thanks Beth G.!!
Her sort of smile for me. Notice she is in front of Dh. ;)
The temple was so pretty and peaceful. Katie loved looking all around and would point to a tree or a turtle and make a baby noise. In the photo of me with Katie, if you look closely (yes I know it's not exposed correctly, and I don't really care to play too much with it right now), Katie is smiling HUGE. Of course she's looking at Daddy, but hey...she's smiling IN my arms. ;)
How she looked at me from Dh's arms most of the day.
She was doing her little mouth pucker, blow air in and out thing, which is something she plays with us. With Dh she gives him a HUGE smile when he does it back, if not a giggle. I might get a little grin. But hey, at least she'll play with me from Dh's arms!
BEAUTIFUL GIRL!!! Daddy's Girl. :) Notice the hair thingie? She didn't bother it at all, all day long!!!!! Thanks Beth G.!!
Her sort of smile for me. Notice she is in front of Dh. ;)
Dh is the man!
No really he is. Katie will have nothing to do with me if given a choice. In fact she turns her head and refuses to look at me now. The first day she liked me, would stare at me, smile at me, etc. Tuesday she cried upon waking up, then attached to Dh. If I held her, she would cry unless I was walking around. I did a lot of walking around yesterday.
By the end of the day she was smiling at me and making faces at me...from Dh's lap. If he brought her close to me, she would cry. If Dh left the room (like to go to the bathroom) she would cry. It's not a true "I'm hurting cry." But more of a whine. Sort of like "I don't like you and I'm going to whine until I get my way." I am forcing her to spend some time in my arms, but I do not expect smiles or looks while she is there.
I know she was very attached to her foster Mom, so this is not surprising to me. Nor am I upset by it. Although the turning her head away from me sometimes hurts. I know she is angry with me because she misses her "Ma-mom" a lot. I'm trying to become her "Ma-mom" and she doesn't want to give me that affection yet. I have no doubt that she will, but for now, she's very angry with me.
She's slept a lot tonight, hopefully that will help her with the adjustments. She's also not drinking much (and yes, we tried a sippy type cup and an open top cup). She drank about 12 ounces total Tuesday, and the day we got her she did not drink anything for us. She's eating great though, so we are giving her as much congee as she will take (it's very liquidy).
Photos and posts will be a little slow as I'm trying to only get on the computer while she is sleeping so that I can be there to interact with her and hopefully make headway into being accepted. I was trying to be the one to do the feedings, but after her not drinking anything for almost 24 hours, we decided if Dh could get her to drink, then by all means he could give her the bottle. She will accept it from him. From me, she bats it away, shakes her head no, cries at me, and then reaches for Dh.
We went to a temple today, and then a tea ceremony. I carried Katie around the temple (she loves to be carried and be outside), and Dh had her in the van and the tea ceremony (we were sitting and she screams in my lap when I sit down). After that it was time for the room. Our guide had to take our adoption certificate back to Civil Affairs as it had a mistake on it (they forgot to put our nationality on it in Chinese...which is why I didn't catch it). Then, after they fixed that, the guide was REALLY studying it and found that they put us down as only having 1 child prior to Katie, so he had to take it back and fix that as well.
Lunch and dinner were on our own, so we decided as a group to eat Pizza Hut. Pizza has never tasted so incredibly good in my life! While we like the food here, after a few days I was craving something more normal to myself. We ate the Western Style buffet Monday night and it still had at least half Chinese dishes. Which was fine, but not quite what we were expecting.
By the end of the day she was smiling at me and making faces at me...from Dh's lap. If he brought her close to me, she would cry. If Dh left the room (like to go to the bathroom) she would cry. It's not a true "I'm hurting cry." But more of a whine. Sort of like "I don't like you and I'm going to whine until I get my way." I am forcing her to spend some time in my arms, but I do not expect smiles or looks while she is there.
I know she was very attached to her foster Mom, so this is not surprising to me. Nor am I upset by it. Although the turning her head away from me sometimes hurts. I know she is angry with me because she misses her "Ma-mom" a lot. I'm trying to become her "Ma-mom" and she doesn't want to give me that affection yet. I have no doubt that she will, but for now, she's very angry with me.
She's slept a lot tonight, hopefully that will help her with the adjustments. She's also not drinking much (and yes, we tried a sippy type cup and an open top cup). She drank about 12 ounces total Tuesday, and the day we got her she did not drink anything for us. She's eating great though, so we are giving her as much congee as she will take (it's very liquidy).
Photos and posts will be a little slow as I'm trying to only get on the computer while she is sleeping so that I can be there to interact with her and hopefully make headway into being accepted. I was trying to be the one to do the feedings, but after her not drinking anything for almost 24 hours, we decided if Dh could get her to drink, then by all means he could give her the bottle. She will accept it from him. From me, she bats it away, shakes her head no, cries at me, and then reaches for Dh.
We went to a temple today, and then a tea ceremony. I carried Katie around the temple (she loves to be carried and be outside), and Dh had her in the van and the tea ceremony (we were sitting and she screams in my lap when I sit down). After that it was time for the room. Our guide had to take our adoption certificate back to Civil Affairs as it had a mistake on it (they forgot to put our nationality on it in Chinese...which is why I didn't catch it). Then, after they fixed that, the guide was REALLY studying it and found that they put us down as only having 1 child prior to Katie, so he had to take it back and fix that as well.
Lunch and dinner were on our own, so we decided as a group to eat Pizza Hut. Pizza has never tasted so incredibly good in my life! While we like the food here, after a few days I was craving something more normal to myself. We ate the Western Style buffet Monday night and it still had at least half Chinese dishes. Which was fine, but not quite what we were expecting.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Our Sleeping Beauty
We don't really have any photos from the time we got her until we put her to bed. We spent too much time just soaking in the glory that is Katie. Okay, honestly, she ran us ragged! Our travel companions were laughing at dinner because we had half the table cleared off in front of us. She's quick, loves to grab things she is not supposed to have, and then grunt when displeased we took it away. She loves to shake her head no at me, especially when I put a bottle in front of her. The wrong kind of bottle mind you. We've tried 3 with 4 different kinds of nipples.
Okay...photos
Pretty self explanatory I hope. Katie was not happy when handed to me, but she calmed down fairly quickly (about 10 minutes?). Then I opened up some Cheerios, and she showed her "Princess Royalty" side and demanded more and more.
The lady in the first photo was the one who showed me that she could dance, walk, make faces, and such. Katie makes AWESOME eye contact. For example, when crying this evening because I was holding her and not Dh, she would look up at me with her sad eyes and stare at me. Then, her eyes would drift shut, and she'd open them and look at me...and THEN look away.
It's Katie Day!!!!
Okay, actually, for us it has already passed. We have her and are so very in love. She doesn't look much different from the last set of photos we have of her, and she is tiny. I was expecting quite a bit larger (like almost to 18 month clothes). The 9 month onesies still fit her, but are a little snug.
She dances, sings, imitates people, makes all sorts of sounds and faces, and walks. She has smiled for us, and giggles at having her head upside down. She loved the bumps in the road. She prefers Dh over me. Greatly prefers him, but she will go to me.
Now, for the GREAT news. It wouldn't be our adoption trip with out some sort of snafu involving an airplane...right? I dropped my point and shoot camera on the plane. It has been lost. Now, I have my other cameras, but since I shoot in RAW format, I have to get them to jpeg format. Which means that I opened Photoshop, realized I did not have the raw support files for the camera installed on the laptop, and had to go hunt down that file.
Bad news...it is going to be a little bit before I can get the photos on here. Especially with little miss ACTIVE around. LOL
She dances, sings, imitates people, makes all sorts of sounds and faces, and walks. She has smiled for us, and giggles at having her head upside down. She loved the bumps in the road. She prefers Dh over me. Greatly prefers him, but she will go to me.
Now, for the GREAT news. It wouldn't be our adoption trip with out some sort of snafu involving an airplane...right? I dropped my point and shoot camera on the plane. It has been lost. Now, I have my other cameras, but since I shoot in RAW format, I have to get them to jpeg format. Which means that I opened Photoshop, realized I did not have the raw support files for the camera installed on the laptop, and had to go hunt down that file.
Bad news...it is going to be a little bit before I can get the photos on here. Especially with little miss ACTIVE around. LOL
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Our Beijing Whirlwind tour
After waking up at 3:30am and after chatting with kids on IM, we headed out with our guide Rosa to see Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden City. We had an interesting taxi drive. Rosa and Dh were calm, but I was not sure we'd survive there a few times. I have learned just to close my eyes and miraculously we seem to avoid all collisions.
The square is HUUUUUGE and the architecture around it was breathtaking. I loved the statues and monuments (yes I have photos). I smiled at the countdown clock for the Olympics (got our photo made with it). Then we went on to The Forbidden City. We could literally have spent hours there, so interesting. Dh and I especially like historical places, and Dh is one of the plaque readers at all museums anyway, so he was enthralled. Our guides was great and explained everything she could of what we were seeing. Where the emporers lived, where their wives lived, and just imagining daily life in there was fascinating. Yes I have lots of photos. Just need to find time to get them downloaded.
It was very cold though, and the smog in Beijing was especially bad to me this day. As the climate is cold and dry I'm drying out. It reminds me a lot of Tucson's aridness. I think I'm having a bit of allergic reactions to the pollutants in the air as well (not sure which), but I start to cough and then feel like I'm choking so I start to gag...it's not a pretty site. I'm learning to carry something to drink with me at all times, have Halls drops to suck on, and walk as quickly as I can inside the building or to the bus.
Okay, after finishing our touring, we met up with the group at the church service and I had my first experience with squatty potties...I survived and I did not get my close wet at all. Major accomplishment right?
After we were all on the bus together we proceeded to the Jade factory and saw the most amazing jade carvings. We also spend a lot of money there, and the prices were not great but the jade jewelry was beautiful. We bought a bracelet for me to wear and then to pass on to Katie later. They are meant to be snug going on, and they measured the size of bracelet I needed according to my wrist. My hand is larger, and two bracelets they put on were a little small and I ended up with bruises from trying to get them off. They finally listened and got me a bigger one. I still can not get it off because the hand hurts too much. Oh well, it's gorgeous.
From the Jade factory we headed to lunch, which was also at the Cloisonnes Factory. Simply amazing to see how that is done. Lunch was great...shopping was fun (only got some beautiful silk fabric for someone back home and for myself). Lunch was really really great. Yummy.
Finally, on to the Great Wall. We were told "easy side or difficult side" and being the insane people we are...we did the difficult side with Lia's parents (see blog list to the right). We made it to the the big station at the top (but not the VERY top), so we are only "little heroes" at this point. I have many photos, and I hope they turn out as breathtaking as what we saw. I also have photos showing the sheer DROP off down the steps. I think the steps were more like a ladder and the steep inclines. Glad I am somewhat active normally so we could do it...even if I wanted to stop part way up. LOL
After the Great Wall, it was time for our Peking Duck Dinner. I was not hungry yet, but Dh said it was all yummy again.
Back to the hotel, up at 4am, catching the bus to the airport at 5:30, and I think our flight leaves around 7:30 to fly to Kunming and today we get Katie.
It's FINALLY Katie Day!!!
The square is HUUUUUGE and the architecture around it was breathtaking. I loved the statues and monuments (yes I have photos). I smiled at the countdown clock for the Olympics (got our photo made with it). Then we went on to The Forbidden City. We could literally have spent hours there, so interesting. Dh and I especially like historical places, and Dh is one of the plaque readers at all museums anyway, so he was enthralled. Our guides was great and explained everything she could of what we were seeing. Where the emporers lived, where their wives lived, and just imagining daily life in there was fascinating. Yes I have lots of photos. Just need to find time to get them downloaded.
It was very cold though, and the smog in Beijing was especially bad to me this day. As the climate is cold and dry I'm drying out. It reminds me a lot of Tucson's aridness. I think I'm having a bit of allergic reactions to the pollutants in the air as well (not sure which), but I start to cough and then feel like I'm choking so I start to gag...it's not a pretty site. I'm learning to carry something to drink with me at all times, have Halls drops to suck on, and walk as quickly as I can inside the building or to the bus.
Okay, after finishing our touring, we met up with the group at the church service and I had my first experience with squatty potties...I survived and I did not get my close wet at all. Major accomplishment right?
After we were all on the bus together we proceeded to the Jade factory and saw the most amazing jade carvings. We also spend a lot of money there, and the prices were not great but the jade jewelry was beautiful. We bought a bracelet for me to wear and then to pass on to Katie later. They are meant to be snug going on, and they measured the size of bracelet I needed according to my wrist. My hand is larger, and two bracelets they put on were a little small and I ended up with bruises from trying to get them off. They finally listened and got me a bigger one. I still can not get it off because the hand hurts too much. Oh well, it's gorgeous.
From the Jade factory we headed to lunch, which was also at the Cloisonnes Factory. Simply amazing to see how that is done. Lunch was great...shopping was fun (only got some beautiful silk fabric for someone back home and for myself). Lunch was really really great. Yummy.
Finally, on to the Great Wall. We were told "easy side or difficult side" and being the insane people we are...we did the difficult side with Lia's parents (see blog list to the right). We made it to the the big station at the top (but not the VERY top), so we are only "little heroes" at this point. I have many photos, and I hope they turn out as breathtaking as what we saw. I also have photos showing the sheer DROP off down the steps. I think the steps were more like a ladder and the steep inclines. Glad I am somewhat active normally so we could do it...even if I wanted to stop part way up. LOL
After the Great Wall, it was time for our Peking Duck Dinner. I was not hungry yet, but Dh said it was all yummy again.
Back to the hotel, up at 4am, catching the bus to the airport at 5:30, and I think our flight leaves around 7:30 to fly to Kunming and today we get Katie.
It's FINALLY Katie Day!!!
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Pictures from the journey
The last family photo without Katie:
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our luggage at LAX ticketing, right by the open doors and street...not super safe, so no sleeping:
Our plane...Finally our 747 plane to Beijing!
The Journey, in Carla's words
*Do you have a better title for this post? Add it to your comments!*
Where to start? I guess from the VERY beginning of Thursday December 6th, 2007. The day that will forever be etched into my mind as the longest day of my life!
We had trouble sleeping and kept getting up as things we meant to do popped into our head. I believe it was around 1:30 AM when Samuel, who was sleeping with us, started giggling during his sleep. It was so cute and precious. Luckily, it helped us relax and we both fell asleep around 2AM. The alarm went off at 5AM. 3 hours of sleep, but knowing the long flight ahead of us (14 hours to Beijing from Washington D.C.), we were not concerned. We get to the airport at 6, the board is showing the flight is on time. 6:30, the ticketing agent arrives and tells us the flight has been cancelled. She works her magic, tells us that we've been re-booked for the same flights just leaving Friday December 7th, arriving 3:30PM in Beijing on Saturday December 8th. NO! We'd miss the touring, isn't there other flights we can get on?
They look, supervisor gets involved, and we are re-booked on a flight path that goes through Denver to LA to China with an airline change to China Air in LA for a "red-eye" flight to Beijing. We'd get into Beijing at 5:20AM, in enough time to join the group for touring.
We go home with the kids (and my Mom) after eating breakfast out, and we clean. We prepare again for "leaving" and head out at 12:30PM for the airport. We have no problems getting on our flight to Denver. We thought that the cancelled flight was our "snafu" for this portion of the Adoption journey. We were excited to be on our way, finally.
We get to Denver, and find our gate. Denver's Airport I must say is quite nice. We had a scheduled lay-over of roughly 3 hours, so we had plenty of time to explore and eat. We even showed the Customer Service people for United our boarding pass for China Air and asked about possible upgrades to the assignments. They were not able to do anything (duh!). We were sitting there, waiting to board our flight.
Our scheduled 7:40PM departure slipped to 7:56 then to 8:10 then to
8:26 then to 8:49 and then a few minutes later to 8:56...because LA was adjusting their air traffic flow due to high winds. Our almost 3 hour layover in LAX was slipping away. It was now 7:20ish and there was an announcement made.
"If you are connecting internationally in LAX your ticket has been re-booked and your bags are going to be on that flight. Go to gate 42, check in, and get your new boarding pass."
Okay, snafu #2? That flight was scheduled to leave at 8:05PM, and as we approached 8:05, it totally changed to St. Louis! ACK. We were reassured that we would be boarding soon and bound for LAX. Great.
We boarded at 8:15, scheduled new take off was 8:30. Got on the plane, backed up from the gate and had to sit. LA had moved us back again...15 minutes. FINALLY left at 8:45. The plane was a 737-300 and there were maybe 24 people on board. The plane had been delayed out of Des Moisne I believe, due to something, and it was 5 hours late. Most of those passengers had found other flights.
We get to LAX at 10 something PM, our flight is leaving at 12:40 AM, and when we ask how to get to that flight we learn that we have to leave the United terminal (#7) and go to the street and catch the "A" bus and get off at Terminal #2 and then go to the gate. We had to leave the secured area to do this. As it was nearing midnight, and a Thursday night, I figured it would not be a huge problem. Found out that Thursday night around midnight is one of the most popular international flying days. I guess so as it took us around 30-45 minutes to get through security. We walk into the terminal, and it's packed. There were a minimum of 4 747 flights taking off from this terminal. The terminal is on the small side, one bathroom with 10 stalls. When there were close to 600-800 people there. Stinky, and dirty, and oh so warm due to the amount of people there. Kids were crying (tired). Moms weere cranky (tired, hot, and whining kids). We walk up to the gate, hand them the boarding pass we had gotten from United and said that we were told to check in with the gate and this number on the ticket is the e-ticket number and for them to look it up.
Okay, remember I had given it to the Customer Service person? They didn't question it. They didn't notice it. There were 2 words written on the boarding pass "Paper Required." We've never encountered this before, and the supervisor at our original airport had assured us that it was all we needed, and that number written on it could be looked up for something...the paper? It was now around 12:10am and people were crowding the podium trying to get their tickets and checked in. The gate agents took care of them, ignored us somewhat, but would work on our situation between other people.
Around 12:15 we were told "here are your options. You pay for a brand new ticket and try to get refunded on this one booked through United, or you can go back to the ticketing counter for United at Terminal 7 and get a paper ticket to back this up." The flight was leaving at 12:40. It was 12:15. We had 25 minutes to leave the terminal, catch the bus, get to terminal 7, get to ticketing, explain our situation, print the ticket, then catch the bus again to Terminal 2, go through security, and get back to the gate. It was NOT an option. They would not budge. Everyone started boarding around 12:30. I started crying.
A supervisor called United, asked them to give them something (paper ticket promise...I was crying and not paying too close of attention).
At 12:35 we were told if we could get United to give us an e-ticket we could board. We had confirmed seats on the FULL flight, they showed us as passengers booked on the flight...we just did not have the paper ticket that was required. It is this paper ticket that China Air sends in for payment from United. United would not give us the e-ticket. China Air would not let us board. They closed the plane, and pushed off from the gate. I cried some more.
Dh called United back to work on alternate arrangements. China Air got our luggage to their ticketing area for us to pick up. China Air reps who felt sorry for me because I was sobbing worked on finding us reservations for the next fastest flight to Beijing. It was United to San Francisco and then San Francisco to Beijing. Dh got it confirmed.
It was scheduled to arrive at 3:32PM December 8th.
Yes. The same time as the flight we had originally be re-booked for flying through Dulles. We could have done the waiting at home. So, it was now roughly 1:30am. We get to China Air ticketing and pick up our baggage. We walk outside, catch the bus to go to Terminal 7. It took about 15 minutes by the way. We walk in and United counters are closed. We see one United person on her way out, she recognizes that we look like crap and lost, and asks if she can help us. We tell her our story, I tear up again (evidently crying is not over yet). She turns around, walks us to the ticket counter and verifies our reservations, gets us on Economy Plus for the flight to San Francisco, prints up boarding passes for us (the actual ticket looking ones). Gives us meal vouchers, and offers a hotel room as the security is closed, we can not check luggage, AND the terminal is closed. We were stuck in the ticketing area. As it was now 2AM, our flight left at 6:50 AM to San Francisco, we really did not have enough time to get to hotel, sleep, and get back. I was terrified we'd not wake up in time.
Thus, we sat. In the ticketing area. From 2AM until they re-opened at 4AM to check luggage. Security opened at 4:30AM. These are Pacific Times, and not our original time zone. At this point we'd been awake for 25.5 hours. Straight. "In transit" from the first attempted flight for 24 hours, and "in transit" from our 2:30 departure for 18 hours. We still were not even to the airport from which to leave for Beijing!
We finally get to our gate for the San Francisco flight. I'm staggering around. I swear I felt the building wobble, but Dh assured me it was not. I could not really walk straight. I could not think straight. At 5am, I called my friend to post our update, and Dh talked to the Customer Service agents to see about upgrading our flight to Beijing seats to Economy Plus. We were willing to pay the extra $109 a person for them. But after hearing what we had gone through (add 30 minutes to all above times), she did it for free.
Back at the San Francisco flight gate, we bought neck pillows and Cinnabon. I was too tired to eat. I forced myself to stay awake as I knew I would not be waking up quickly once I did sleep. I made it to my seat. I faintly remember bumps as we taxied to the runway, and I sort of vaguely remember the seat tilting backwards as we took off. I woke up when the fasten seat belts light came on for our descent. A little over 1 hour nap. Refreshed me enough to make it through the
2.5 hour layover in San Francisco, and onto the Beijing Flight.
After our experience with China Air, I asked the gate agent to VERIFY that the ticket would work as soon as I saw her. Which was LONG before the hour prior to departure. I still not take an easy breath, or believe it was going to happen until I saw the machine accept our boarding pass. I was never so happy to see a plane seat in my life!
Ended up that the flight was not full, and Dh and I had 3 of the Economy Plus seats to ourselves. Delightful. The crew was wonderful, the pilots were great. Just a super smooth...LONG...flight. Alaska looked very different than I had pictured, less white snow/ice areas. Russia was beautiful with its snow and mountains and then the plains. Finally, we were flying over China. BEAUTIFUL. Of that 12 hour flight, I think we slept 8-9 hours. We finally arrived around 3:45PM. Checked in, saw some of the beautiful city with crazy drivers (which I've been told are better than in the province), and met up with the group for dinner. It was wonderful to see them, to finally meet them. 2 of our group are still not here, but should be in tomorrow evening.
Our guides are super sweet and are taking us to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City while the rest of the group is at the church service.
We'll meet back up with them for lunch, go to the Great Wall and the Jade Factory. We missed the Pearl Factory (so everyone is going to have to make do with pearls from Guangzhou instead...Cheri has agreed to help me pick out good ones).
Total travel time, from when we got up to when we landed in Beijing.
3:45PM is 1:45am Saturday to us, so, 48 hours minus 3 hours 15 minutes. Or roughly 45 hours. On roughly 9-10 hours of sleep.
From first attempted flight - 43.5 hours.
From 2nd attempt that actually left - 37.5 hours
It took us - 3 booked flights to Beijing to actually get here. We visited 5 airports. We had a total of 8 flight reservations made for this trip, only 4 of which we actually went on. We spent so many hours WAITING in the airports that I lost count.
I have a new respect for people on The Amazing Race. I am not a good candidate for that show. When I have not slept, my coherency is shot.
I will do a "what we learned on this trip" post soon. #1 - if it says "paper required" make sure you have that paper!! A close 2nd is when you drink lots of water, expect multiple trips to the bathroom during each flight...even the 2 hour ones. 3rd, Ear planes DO work. 4,
that neck pillow is a must have. Period.
Goodnight all...my hard bed is calling my name. This room is starting to move like LAX was moving that early morning...was it only yesterday? I have photos, but I'll add them later. I think. I do not look too..umm...pretty in them. ;)
Where to start? I guess from the VERY beginning of Thursday December 6th, 2007. The day that will forever be etched into my mind as the longest day of my life!
We had trouble sleeping and kept getting up as things we meant to do popped into our head. I believe it was around 1:30 AM when Samuel, who was sleeping with us, started giggling during his sleep. It was so cute and precious. Luckily, it helped us relax and we both fell asleep around 2AM. The alarm went off at 5AM. 3 hours of sleep, but knowing the long flight ahead of us (14 hours to Beijing from Washington D.C.), we were not concerned. We get to the airport at 6, the board is showing the flight is on time. 6:30, the ticketing agent arrives and tells us the flight has been cancelled. She works her magic, tells us that we've been re-booked for the same flights just leaving Friday December 7th, arriving 3:30PM in Beijing on Saturday December 8th. NO! We'd miss the touring, isn't there other flights we can get on?
They look, supervisor gets involved, and we are re-booked on a flight path that goes through Denver to LA to China with an airline change to China Air in LA for a "red-eye" flight to Beijing. We'd get into Beijing at 5:20AM, in enough time to join the group for touring.
We go home with the kids (and my Mom) after eating breakfast out, and we clean. We prepare again for "leaving" and head out at 12:30PM for the airport. We have no problems getting on our flight to Denver. We thought that the cancelled flight was our "snafu" for this portion of the Adoption journey. We were excited to be on our way, finally.
We get to Denver, and find our gate. Denver's Airport I must say is quite nice. We had a scheduled lay-over of roughly 3 hours, so we had plenty of time to explore and eat. We even showed the Customer Service people for United our boarding pass for China Air and asked about possible upgrades to the assignments. They were not able to do anything (duh!). We were sitting there, waiting to board our flight.
Our scheduled 7:40PM departure slipped to 7:56 then to 8:10 then to
8:26 then to 8:49 and then a few minutes later to 8:56...because LA was adjusting their air traffic flow due to high winds. Our almost 3 hour layover in LAX was slipping away. It was now 7:20ish and there was an announcement made.
"If you are connecting internationally in LAX your ticket has been re-booked and your bags are going to be on that flight. Go to gate 42, check in, and get your new boarding pass."
Okay, snafu #2? That flight was scheduled to leave at 8:05PM, and as we approached 8:05, it totally changed to St. Louis! ACK. We were reassured that we would be boarding soon and bound for LAX. Great.
We boarded at 8:15, scheduled new take off was 8:30. Got on the plane, backed up from the gate and had to sit. LA had moved us back again...15 minutes. FINALLY left at 8:45. The plane was a 737-300 and there were maybe 24 people on board. The plane had been delayed out of Des Moisne I believe, due to something, and it was 5 hours late. Most of those passengers had found other flights.
We get to LAX at 10 something PM, our flight is leaving at 12:40 AM, and when we ask how to get to that flight we learn that we have to leave the United terminal (#7) and go to the street and catch the "A" bus and get off at Terminal #2 and then go to the gate. We had to leave the secured area to do this. As it was nearing midnight, and a Thursday night, I figured it would not be a huge problem. Found out that Thursday night around midnight is one of the most popular international flying days. I guess so as it took us around 30-45 minutes to get through security. We walk into the terminal, and it's packed. There were a minimum of 4 747 flights taking off from this terminal. The terminal is on the small side, one bathroom with 10 stalls. When there were close to 600-800 people there. Stinky, and dirty, and oh so warm due to the amount of people there. Kids were crying (tired). Moms weere cranky (tired, hot, and whining kids). We walk up to the gate, hand them the boarding pass we had gotten from United and said that we were told to check in with the gate and this number on the ticket is the e-ticket number and for them to look it up.
Okay, remember I had given it to the Customer Service person? They didn't question it. They didn't notice it. There were 2 words written on the boarding pass "Paper Required." We've never encountered this before, and the supervisor at our original airport had assured us that it was all we needed, and that number written on it could be looked up for something...the paper? It was now around 12:10am and people were crowding the podium trying to get their tickets and checked in. The gate agents took care of them, ignored us somewhat, but would work on our situation between other people.
Around 12:15 we were told "here are your options. You pay for a brand new ticket and try to get refunded on this one booked through United, or you can go back to the ticketing counter for United at Terminal 7 and get a paper ticket to back this up." The flight was leaving at 12:40. It was 12:15. We had 25 minutes to leave the terminal, catch the bus, get to terminal 7, get to ticketing, explain our situation, print the ticket, then catch the bus again to Terminal 2, go through security, and get back to the gate. It was NOT an option. They would not budge. Everyone started boarding around 12:30. I started crying.
A supervisor called United, asked them to give them something (paper ticket promise...I was crying and not paying too close of attention).
At 12:35 we were told if we could get United to give us an e-ticket we could board. We had confirmed seats on the FULL flight, they showed us as passengers booked on the flight...we just did not have the paper ticket that was required. It is this paper ticket that China Air sends in for payment from United. United would not give us the e-ticket. China Air would not let us board. They closed the plane, and pushed off from the gate. I cried some more.
Dh called United back to work on alternate arrangements. China Air got our luggage to their ticketing area for us to pick up. China Air reps who felt sorry for me because I was sobbing worked on finding us reservations for the next fastest flight to Beijing. It was United to San Francisco and then San Francisco to Beijing. Dh got it confirmed.
It was scheduled to arrive at 3:32PM December 8th.
Yes. The same time as the flight we had originally be re-booked for flying through Dulles. We could have done the waiting at home. So, it was now roughly 1:30am. We get to China Air ticketing and pick up our baggage. We walk outside, catch the bus to go to Terminal 7. It took about 15 minutes by the way. We walk in and United counters are closed. We see one United person on her way out, she recognizes that we look like crap and lost, and asks if she can help us. We tell her our story, I tear up again (evidently crying is not over yet). She turns around, walks us to the ticket counter and verifies our reservations, gets us on Economy Plus for the flight to San Francisco, prints up boarding passes for us (the actual ticket looking ones). Gives us meal vouchers, and offers a hotel room as the security is closed, we can not check luggage, AND the terminal is closed. We were stuck in the ticketing area. As it was now 2AM, our flight left at 6:50 AM to San Francisco, we really did not have enough time to get to hotel, sleep, and get back. I was terrified we'd not wake up in time.
Thus, we sat. In the ticketing area. From 2AM until they re-opened at 4AM to check luggage. Security opened at 4:30AM. These are Pacific Times, and not our original time zone. At this point we'd been awake for 25.5 hours. Straight. "In transit" from the first attempted flight for 24 hours, and "in transit" from our 2:30 departure for 18 hours. We still were not even to the airport from which to leave for Beijing!
We finally get to our gate for the San Francisco flight. I'm staggering around. I swear I felt the building wobble, but Dh assured me it was not. I could not really walk straight. I could not think straight. At 5am, I called my friend to post our update, and Dh talked to the Customer Service agents to see about upgrading our flight to Beijing seats to Economy Plus. We were willing to pay the extra $109 a person for them. But after hearing what we had gone through (add 30 minutes to all above times), she did it for free.
Back at the San Francisco flight gate, we bought neck pillows and Cinnabon. I was too tired to eat. I forced myself to stay awake as I knew I would not be waking up quickly once I did sleep. I made it to my seat. I faintly remember bumps as we taxied to the runway, and I sort of vaguely remember the seat tilting backwards as we took off. I woke up when the fasten seat belts light came on for our descent. A little over 1 hour nap. Refreshed me enough to make it through the
2.5 hour layover in San Francisco, and onto the Beijing Flight.
After our experience with China Air, I asked the gate agent to VERIFY that the ticket would work as soon as I saw her. Which was LONG before the hour prior to departure. I still not take an easy breath, or believe it was going to happen until I saw the machine accept our boarding pass. I was never so happy to see a plane seat in my life!
Ended up that the flight was not full, and Dh and I had 3 of the Economy Plus seats to ourselves. Delightful. The crew was wonderful, the pilots were great. Just a super smooth...LONG...flight. Alaska looked very different than I had pictured, less white snow/ice areas. Russia was beautiful with its snow and mountains and then the plains. Finally, we were flying over China. BEAUTIFUL. Of that 12 hour flight, I think we slept 8-9 hours. We finally arrived around 3:45PM. Checked in, saw some of the beautiful city with crazy drivers (which I've been told are better than in the province), and met up with the group for dinner. It was wonderful to see them, to finally meet them. 2 of our group are still not here, but should be in tomorrow evening.
Our guides are super sweet and are taking us to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City while the rest of the group is at the church service.
We'll meet back up with them for lunch, go to the Great Wall and the Jade Factory. We missed the Pearl Factory (so everyone is going to have to make do with pearls from Guangzhou instead...Cheri has agreed to help me pick out good ones).
Total travel time, from when we got up to when we landed in Beijing.
3:45PM is 1:45am Saturday to us, so, 48 hours minus 3 hours 15 minutes. Or roughly 45 hours. On roughly 9-10 hours of sleep.
From first attempted flight - 43.5 hours.
From 2nd attempt that actually left - 37.5 hours
It took us - 3 booked flights to Beijing to actually get here. We visited 5 airports. We had a total of 8 flight reservations made for this trip, only 4 of which we actually went on. We spent so many hours WAITING in the airports that I lost count.
I have a new respect for people on The Amazing Race. I am not a good candidate for that show. When I have not slept, my coherency is shot.
I will do a "what we learned on this trip" post soon. #1 - if it says "paper required" make sure you have that paper!! A close 2nd is when you drink lots of water, expect multiple trips to the bathroom during each flight...even the 2 hour ones. 3rd, Ear planes DO work. 4,
that neck pillow is a must have. Period.
Goodnight all...my hard bed is calling my name. This room is starting to move like LAX was moving that early morning...was it only yesterday? I have photos, but I'll add them later. I think. I do not look too..umm...pretty in them. ;)
From Beijing!
Carla can't access Blogger from Beijing (yet) but they're in China and SAFE! From Carla:
We made it here around 3:45pm Beijing time, which made for roughly 45 hours of travel time. We won. We have the longest "to China" flight than anyone else. Working on the blog post, but talk about obstacles. You would NOT have been wanting to travel with us yesterday. Or Thursday...or whenever the heck it was.
We did get upgraded, we were going to pay the $109 each, but when she heard our story, she did it for free. There were PLENTY of seats available on that Beijing flight, hoping for the same on the way home so we can upgrade to Economy Plus again.We managed to sleep some, in fact, on the LAX to San Fran flight we were both asleep before we left the gate. First sleep in 28 hours at that point. The $17 neck pillows were worth it. More than worth it.
Slept quite a bit on the Beijing flight, arrived quite alert and caught up with the group for dinner. We're skipping the church service in the morning and one of the guides is taking us to Tienanmen Square and Forbidden City. Then we'll catch up with the group at lunch, and then go to the Great Wall.
THANKS for the good thoughts everyone!!!! We're HERE, it's beautiful and HUGE and one big game of chicken on the roads. Glad I'm not driving.
We made it here around 3:45pm Beijing time, which made for roughly 45 hours of travel time. We won. We have the longest "to China" flight than anyone else. Working on the blog post, but talk about obstacles. You would NOT have been wanting to travel with us yesterday. Or Thursday...or whenever the heck it was.
We did get upgraded, we were going to pay the $109 each, but when she heard our story, she did it for free. There were PLENTY of seats available on that Beijing flight, hoping for the same on the way home so we can upgrade to Economy Plus again.We managed to sleep some, in fact, on the LAX to San Fran flight we were both asleep before we left the gate. First sleep in 28 hours at that point. The $17 neck pillows were worth it. More than worth it.
Slept quite a bit on the Beijing flight, arrived quite alert and caught up with the group for dinner. We're skipping the church service in the morning and one of the guides is taking us to Tienanmen Square and Forbidden City. Then we'll catch up with the group at lunch, and then go to the Great Wall.
THANKS for the good thoughts everyone!!!! We're HERE, it's beautiful and HUGE and one big game of chicken on the roads. Glad I'm not driving.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Update from Carla
I just spoke with Carla. They're at LAX and weren't allowed to board the China Air flight because United forgot to print out paper tickets. They were confirmed on the China Air flight but without the paper tickets, China Air wouldn't allow them to board.
Since they had their luggage and couldn't enter the gate area, they were stuck in the seats outside ticketing all night. The airline offered to put them up in a hotel but they would've only had a couple of hours and were afraid they wouldn't wake up in time.
They're now scheduled on flight UA 889 LAX to San Francisco and San Francisco to Beijing, arriving in Beijing at 3:35pm on the 8th. Per the United site, the flight number from LAX to SFO is UA 1152 which then connects to the UA 889 flight to Beijing.
As we were saying goodbye, the United Customer Service people were arriving and Carla was off to beg for an upgrade so they could get some sleep on the flight.
I'll keep you posted!
Since they had their luggage and couldn't enter the gate area, they were stuck in the seats outside ticketing all night. The airline offered to put them up in a hotel but they would've only had a couple of hours and were afraid they wouldn't wake up in time.
They're now scheduled on flight UA 889 LAX to San Francisco and San Francisco to Beijing, arriving in Beijing at 3:35pm on the 8th. Per the United site, the flight number from LAX to SFO is UA 1152 which then connects to the UA 889 flight to Beijing.
As we were saying goodbye, the United Customer Service people were arriving and Carla was off to beg for an upgrade so they could get some sleep on the flight.
I'll keep you posted!
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