Wednesday, November
8, 2006
It feels so good to be home! November 8th was a very long
day.
We were up until 1am packing for the trip and trying to get our
little helper to sleep. We got up at 5am to shower and get
ready. We had one last breakfast at the White Swan and then it
was time to put our bags out to be picked up and head for the
airport. Since we were the only ones leaving at that time we had
a van to ourselves for the ride to the airport. We were nervous
to head off without Cindy but again she had taken care of
everything. Another Great Wall guide, Michael, was at the
airport to take another group and he would be waiting for us to
help us check-in, etc. It went off without a hitch and we didn't
have to pay any excess baggage fees.
We arrived in Beijing and made our way through getting our bags,
customs, re-checking our bags and waiting for our flight to
Newark. The flight was long...it seemed longer coming back. We
had quite a bit of turbulence on the flight but we managed to
make it safely to Newark. Gracie was great, she slept most of
the way. We went through Immigration where Gracie became a US
Citizen, collected our bags, went through customs...which seemed
to be nothing...and headed for our gate. We were hurrying so we
wouldn't be late.
When we made it to the gate we found out our flight was
delayed...almost 3 hours! This meant we wouldn't get home until
after 1am. Ugh! Can you say not happy?!? There were no other
flights to be had so we went to Mc Donald's. After that, we went
back to the gate to wait...and wait! We finally boarded the
flight and were on our way. We made it home after 1am and our
family was waiting as well as our friends the Bellingers, the
Wiltsies and the Ostrows. Unfortunately since our flight was so
late our other friends couldn't make it. It was a nice
homecoming.
Gracie did not sleep at all that night so I went ahead and
unpacked the suitcases, etc. I had to keep moving or I'd
collapse.
It really is great to be home but I do miss China. It was an
amazing journey. |
Our arrival
Meeting her brothers
Still meeting brothers |
