Day 1 and 2: Travel to Beijing

~sent Thursday 9-10 8:00 pm China time / 7:00 am CST

We left at 4 AM for the airport after a very long night of packing. We managed one hour of sleep before the alarm went off at 3. The Chief said, "Hey, it's just like Lion King--Eet is time!" HA. Special thanks to my pal Rebekah who got out of bed long before the chickens to take us to the airport. We flew from home to Newark to catch our flight to Beijing. The little plane ride was uneventful and we landed in time to talk to Wild Man before he went to school. He wanted to know if we were in China yet. HA--we WISH it only took 2 hours! We didn't find enough miles to purchase our tickets but we scored enough to upgrade to BusinessFirst on the way over. We boarded the plane in Newark early at 11:25. You know when you are waiting for a flight and they call all "Elite Members" to board first. Then you sit there rolling your eyes while they board first. Well, that was US today! HA! Flat Wild Man and Flat Little Miss loved their new seats at the front of the bird--so did Mommy and the Chief! WOWSERS!

The plane was having some computer issues which is what caused our delay in departure. UGH! The ugly cry was about to show up. Several thoughts of I WANT TO GO HOME passed through my mind. A few thoughts of popping out my bottle of happy pills but I held off thinking I was going to REALLY REALLY need them later (like when we were actually IN the air). And how was the Chief in all of this? Calm as usual reminding me that "It's OK. He's got this." Then I remembered that sweet little face that needs her Mommy to come pick her up. OK. I'll wait. After they shut down the plane a few times they finally fixed the software issue. Just an extra 2 hours in BusinessFirst. What better way to enjoy the luxury than while we are ON THE GROUND--my favorite place to be on an airplane.

If one must fly 14 hours one way in a big bird in the sky THAT is the way to go. The food was fabulous. The entertainment system rocked. The flight attendants were very kind and professional. Too bad that will probably be the one and only time anyone ever lets us pass the elusive curtain. We slept about an hour and a half total. We watched movies. The Chief watched back to back episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond. LOL! That's a little inside joke with the Chief's family. Hi Uncle A! :-)

It was about 7 hours into the flight when the "are we there YETs" started rolling through my head. Nope. We're over the coldest most remote area of the planet. Hmmm...let's not get off here. We did travel the polar route but we flew to the left up over Canada, the North Pole, across Russia into Beijing.

We landed about an hour later than our original arrival time so we made up about an hour along the way. The screen said at one point we were flying 597 mph but I pretended that I didn't read that. About an hour before we landed we had to fill out the Quarantine Bureau sheets verifying we have not been in contact with anyone with H1N1, our whereabouts in China and how to reach us. I sure hope the guys around us that slept nearly the entire flight were just catching up on some zzzzz's. That would be a real bummer. This is a picture of us with about 1 hour left. Don't we look gorgeous? hahaha...

We landed about 2:45 pm China time and made it through the quarantine checks, immigration, customs and baggage claim without issue. Both of our suitcases made it! Our guide, Angela from Ladybugs N Love, was waiting for us outside baggage claim. We all packed into an elevator to the parking garage. Apparently there is no such thing as personal space here. I have never been that close to complete strangers in my entire life. Seriously. There were people squished up against both of us and no one thought anything of it.

Our driver...how cool is that--OUR DRIVER...was waiting for us. I kept making small talk with him and then reminding myself--Oh yeah--he doesn't speak English. :-) He just smiled at me and shook his head. After a hair-raising, death defying car ride from the airport to the hotel, we unpacked and showered to go out for dinner. We knew we had to get out of the hotel room or we would be asleep at 5 pm. Angela took us to a very nice restaurant. The food was AMAZING!!! We had beef and mushrooms, fried rice, Kung Pao chicken (not the Americanized version), dumplings and some other things I can't remember the name. There was a TON of food for the three of us. The Chinese eat family style so we just took what we wanted and put if on our plate. It was our lucky day too--they have Sprite in China! Now if I can only find Dr. Pepper I am good to go. While we were at dinner, we called the children before they went to school this morning. It was so great to hear their voices and hear they are having fun.

We ran in the grocery store for a few supplies and came back to the hotel to crash. We were exhausted! We are going to bed now hoping to get some great sleep before our big day of touring tomorrow. Love to all at home. Give our babies at home hugs from Mommy and Daddy. Thank you so much for your comments and emails. No time to reply now but we are reading the comment emails. Your words mean so much to us. Three days until MeiMei day!

Love,
Mommy and the Chief