Last Day in China and Journey Home

Look at our beautiful babies sleeping peacefully - took this the last night we were in Shanghai. 

Unbelievably our last day in China arrived.   We had our final delicious buffet breakfast and then I scooched David with the kids out of the room so that I could do the final packing.    The only part we would not miss of our trip - the constant packing each time we moved on.   David took the children to a nearby park where they had a wonderful time. 

You can see how much Indigo was trying to help Isaac on the playground equipment - being a very sweet big sister.  It's hard when kids try to help - sometimes, it seems to actually make things more dangerous but you don't want to stifle that desire to help.   They also did a little shopping and Indigo got a fan and Isaac got a train.   They arrived back when I was mostly done and was racing to use up the last of my paid internet time to get the blog caught up.  We met Jimmy in the lobby with all of our luggage.  We made an impressive sight.  We took Grandma to her terminal and had to say farewell - that was tough after a wonderful and special and magical trip together.  We are scheduled to see her again in July for her 80th birthday!   We went to our terminal and had plenty of time - the kiosk for our flight was not even open yet.  Granddad and I chose some books at the bookstore.  We kept counting our cash and seeing how much we had left so that we could use it up.  We got checked in and no problems with any luggage.  We had some lunch and then browsed around the airport gift shops - much more expensive but we made a few last gift purchases and waited for our flight. 

Right before boarding, someone from the airline came up to me and asked if we were our family.  I was thinking "what's the problem".   However, she said that as a family of four she could move us up to a row of five where the fifth seat was not taken - awesome!  We were previously far back in the plane and we were being moved forward.  When we boarded it turns out that we had been put in Economy Plus!  We were so excited.  Those five or seven inches make so much difference.   We told Granddad that he could move forward and sit in the fifth seat with us but as it turns out he found an empty aisle seat one row back from us so that was fantastic too.  The flight from Shanghai left very late - as we waited on the run way we could just see the fog rolling in and it was obviously delaying flights arriving and taking off.  We did finally leave but we were going to land very late in Chicago.  The flight to Chicago was a hundred times better than I expected.   All along I had thought how are we possibly going to manage two toddlers on a flight back from China.  I was dreading it.  The kids were amazing.  They slept most of the time. 

Also, because of the direction, the tail winds take almost two hours off the flight making it closer to 12 hours vs. 14.  The kids were so good.  Indigo chose to sleep on the floor most of the time, probably not highly recommended for sanitary or safety reasons but great for peace and quiet.  Despite the children being great, David and I were not really able to sleep but just not also having to cope with the kids went a long way.   You can see we took a lot of photos of our location as we traveled and crossing the international date line.

   So, we arrived late in Chicago!   We had to go through Immigration and take the additional step of going to the officer with the all important "brown packet envelope" that we had carried all the way from the US consulate in Guangzhou and Isaac became a US Citizen.   We were not sure if we could make our connecting flight but we have it the best shot anybody could.  We had Isaac in the stroller and Indigo standing on the back and we were running.  We had to check our luggage back through after clearing customs and then catch the train to the terminal we needed.  We then had to clear domestic security again.   Thanks to Granddad we were able to get into the express line but were delayed as the security folks ran most of our bags again and made Granddad unpackage a whole bunch of things - things that had cleared security a bunch of times already.   We then ran for our gate, but our flight was not only closed, but had already left.  We later heard it had actually left early.  We then had to get to a United counter to find out about getting on another flight.  There was into the airport closer to our house that we could have made but they told us since we had checked our luggage through (even though there was no way it had made the flight) that we had to go to the same airport where our luggage was going.  The only good news was that they were able to get us on a flight that same night and we did not have to spend the night in the Chicago airport.   Granny had driven up that day with my sister Clare and my niece Sage and had planned to meet our earlier flight.  Our friend Pam was also coming with a second car to fit all of us and our luggage.   We called to say that we could just catch a cab but nobody was having any of that.  You can see that David was exhausted as he lay on waiting chairs with Isaac on top of him.

 Indigo was just full of life.  We got some McDonalds and she was sharing her fries and chatting with some young army recruits who were heading out to bootcamp.   Again, we were lucky with seating and were right behind first class at the front of the plane.   I think our plane landed around midnight - it's all a blur now.   Granddad was ahead of us so that he could start pulling luggage in baggage while we waited for the stroller to come through the gate check.   So, we get the stroller and the four of us go to wait for the train to the baggage terminal, and we wait, and wait and wait.  More and more people arrive, no trains.   Nobody working there is around to find out what is going on.   A train comes but says it's out of service and don't board, but it stops and some people (smarter than those of us who listen to instructions) board the train.   We wait and wait.   When the next train telling us not to board arrives, we board and get to our destination.   The weary but happy travelers arrive and there is Granny, Clare, Sage and our friend Pam, waiting to greet us at about 1 am.   You can see that Sage loves her little panda from Granddad (one of the use up the cash purchases at Shanghai airport, and very well received).   We headed home and waited to see Isaac's reaction to Egan, the dog.   He loved him right away - no fear, petted him.   We were quite pumped to be home at this point so we chatted a while and then Pam left - we did offer to have her stay but she had things needing to be done later that morning (it was at least 2 am by now).   We all got to bed.   Safely home, back to real life, laundry, bills, dishwashing, cooking our own meals, house keeping, working - hey, I wanna go back to China... Here are all the photos from that last day in China and arrival home.  there are two flickr sets.  Some include the actual airport arrival home but I was not able to paste those photos in the blog so you'll have to see them via flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7322989@N05/sets/72157623827740627/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7322989@N05/sets/72157623827855263
Next, we'll move on to crazy life at home.