Friday, August 11, 2006

We made it to China! We've been so busy, we haven't had much time to write, but we're settling in and will hopefully write every day now!

Our trip started off as an adventure when we learned the airports were on high alert and were told it was taking 4 hours to get through security. Our travel agent said we would probably miss the flight because they were not holding any planes. As we were racing to San Francisco (at speeds I'd rather not say) our morning became even more exciting when we hit a 4 mile traffic jam due to a crash involving 3 semi-trucks. At this point we got off the freeway and miraculously found roads that took us past most of the traffic. Finally, we arrived at the airport where our car was pulled over for a "random" security check (of coarse). And after racing through the airport we were again slowed by Connor, Gramma & Babop all needing to have their carry-on bags fully inspected. The good news...we made it to our gate just as they were boarding our flight!

The rest of our day went much smoother. The children did so well on the flight. They enjoyed a couple of movies, played card games, read, drew pictures-and yes, they even slept a little. We arrived in Beijing around 4:30pm August 11. Our guide, Michael, met us at the airport where he had a car and driver waiting to take us to our hotel. When Connor discovered there were no seatbelts he said, "I like China!!"