The Adventure Begins

Our adventure began when we woke up at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday for our flight to Hong Kong via San Francisco.  We arrived in Hong Kong just after 6:00 p.m. China time on Sunday, which was 3 am back home.  As we came off of the airplane, Pete's phone alarm from the previous day went off and we realized we had been up for 24 hours!  We only had about 3 hours of sleep the night before we left.  So even though we are getting ready to go to bed now as everyone at home is getting up to Sunday morning, I think we will sleep fine tonight!  Our first adventures was checking in at the airport. I had been confused about the international baggage rules.  We knew we would be overweight within China and would have to pay per pound over but thought we were under for the International flight.  We had a big surprise at the airport.  Did you know that on international flights you are allowed one bag of 50 pounds?  If you are over by even one pound, it is $125.  All three of our bags were overweight.  As a side note, a second suitcase on an international flight is $250.  We ended up going to the gift store and buying a carryon bag for 39.99 to off load extra weight. The 14 hour flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong was LONG.  However, I just kept thinking of mothers that had to take care of their children on wooden ships sailing across the ocean and it helped keep things in perspective! Goodness, we felt squished and crowded, but could watch a movie, had blankets and pillows and 15 flight attendance working on our plane to help keep us comfortable.  About 3 hours into the flight, they announced that they had decided to serve our second meal earlier than scheduled and wanted us to plan our sleep accordingly.  They had originally planned to serve the meal 1 1/2 hour before landing, but because we had a typhoon in our path, they wanted everyone, flight attendants included, buckled in for the last 1 1/2 hours of the flight.  That was a fun thing to look forward to!  Thankfully, it ended up being a non-event.  We were in a 747 and they are like flying in a stadium or something - so huge!  They can fly high and fast and our four pilots managed to dodge most of the turbulent air.  We are so excited to be here - even if we feel like we can't see straight!  We had to fill out a health form and got lots of info about swine flu, but didn't get thermoscanned or delayed. Tomorrow morning, Cindy, the sweet exchange student that was with our friends the Bennetts this past year, is meeting us for breakfast in our hotel.  How fun to get here and have a friend. Our flight leaves here around noon tomorrow for the flight to Beijing.  Still another week until we meet our son -- seems like a long time -- and 18 days seems like so long to be away from our other kids...only 17 more to go! We'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.  I have a great picture of Mark falling asleep at dinner tonight -- or was that breakfast???