Thursday, August 3, 2006
AGAIN I SAY, DAYTON OR BUST

Uh, I’m not exactly sure what that _expression means, but if it literally means we get to Dayton or we’re going to bust, it appears we have busted. When John woke up this morning and looked outside at the planes, he said, “Uh oh. This looks bad.” The weather has been so bad in Hong Kong from a nearby typhoon and it has been raining since last night and very windy. We were soon informed that our flight had been delayed a few hours. Of course, we learned this minutes AFTER we checked out of our cushy-comfy airport hotel room. However, we responded, “No problemo!” since Daddy’s awesome business class tickets gave us access to United Airlines Red Carpet Club to hang out in for the wait. We just booked it over there and settled in for the afternoon. Then a few hours later (and many kitkats and brownies later (this Hong Kong Red Carpet Club is the most well-stocked ever! John loves the free self-serve beer on tap and hot food and I love the snack bar! And the endless supply of ice cream…yummmmmmy)), we were informed that the flight had been delayed……until tomorrow afternoon!!!! ACK! So, as I sit, munching some more on the free chow, and Gracie naps in her stroller (she fell asleep on the tile floor…crazy sleeper!), John is trying to find us a hotel room and book us on the new flight home. Looks like the adventure continues! :) The good news is that they just brought out more food to the snack bar and since everyone scrambled out of the Red Carpet Club to go find hotel rooms, I have it all to myself. A big comfy chair, a picture window with a view, internet access and an endless supply of ice cream. I’d say it’s pretty close to perfect.

Addendum: Fast forward a few hours and we are now comfortably settled in the Renaissance Kowloon, where we started out our China journey. It took a few hours and a few phone calls, but we found a room and made our way via train and taxi back over here. Gracie is in a very happy mood and we were excited to find they had given us a gigantic room for some reason. It has a huge living area which she is playing in and is the perfect place to settle in and wait out the typhoon. Apparently this isn’t a particularly scary typhoon. They have signs everywhere that say, “Typhoon Signal No. 3 is hoisted!” Doesn’t that sound ominous! It is hoisted! But Naomi says it is only scary when it gets to 8, so I think we are fine. All the glass doors leading out to the beautiful Avenue of Stars are closed with big rolladens over them, so it looks like we will just stay put for now. How frustrating to be in this beautiful city with little money and trapped indoors!!! Goodness. Our new flight will leave tomorrow afternoon at 3, so we won’t reach Dayton until nearly midnight the next day. Sorry, kids! We miss you and can’t wait to get home.