Warning! This is a long post with lots of details for those who want them. Forgive me if you don't fit in that category, just skip to the end. We begin with the 4:30am wake up call in Charlotte to catch the Country Inn & Suites shuttle (thanks Chuck!..good idea). We had an extra hour and a half delay so ended up having plenty of time for breakfast and watching Surf's Up. Andie was pretty excited for her first plane flight and was very anxious to board. We strapped her in with accompanying White Swan and prepared for lift off.
It was a smooth flight to San Francisco and she soon settled in to drawing and coloring. The transition to the International wing of San Francisco Airport was a bit of a challenge as signs were surprisingly weak and we wandered around a little, but luckily had plenty of time. We did have to stop for a wall Mosaic photo, as it was impressive. Unfortunately, we found out upon our arrival in Hong Kong that San Francisco is where Lynne's suitcase would be staying behind. Evidently, it was chosen for a security check and was detained for some reason. Luckily it was delivered to our hotel today in good condition having been interrogated for hours.
We boarded for Hong Kong and 14 hours of air time. Ouch. If ever wealthy this is where I will spring for first class. We were middle row and luckily had an extra seat but it was still pretty cramped quarters. By the end of the trip I felt a little like John Glenn in that first orbiter, but I don't think he wore size 13 Crocs and probably had less carry-on technology than I did. This also caused one to think of the return flight with the addition of a one year old in said cramped quarters..or maybe its best just not to think about that at all for now.
Airplane food...whats up with that? Don't get me started!..actually the meals were not bad, but I always feel like I am at child's tea party with all the little minutiae on the tray. The attendants on Cathay Pacific were delightful and I loved to hear them say "You like fish with wice or cheekin wit potato?" The on board restrooms..well, not so nice after 14 hours. Just gives you a reason to think of that lovely hotel room awaiting at the Regal Riverside in Hong Kong (photo at bottom).
We hit some heavy turbulence somewhere over the Bering Sea near Alaska, and that tends to get your attention when over a sub arctic ocean..but Andie slept through it all, lucky her. In fact, I'm not really sure what we were doing over Alaska anyway unless to gather speed for a downhill run to China? Anyway, it was evidently a run with a lot of mogles. Watching the Robin Williams movie License to Wed helped a little bit, but by the third viewing I realized it was not a very good movie after all. My other in-flight options however, were choices such as listening to Chinese country music, watching reruns of Friends (which appears surprisingly dated now) or running down the IPod battery..so I did the latter.
We arrived safely in Hong Kong and all is going well other than I have no idea what day it actually is. Our guide said it was Saturday but someone else said Friday, so I will split the difference. To accentuate the positive, today could not have been more spectacular. The weather was beautiful, the humidity being low and the temp around 78 (sorry Todd, no sweating here). CCAI provided us with an awesome guided bus tour of Hong Kong from the highest peak to the harbor fishing village. Though I was disappointed that we were not in the Great Wall vicinity of China, Hong Kong has been an amazing city to visit. There are 7 million people on these small peninsulas, most living in high rise apartments.
I would have imagined total chaos, but instead it is incredibly clean, very cosmopolitan and all in all quite beautiful. It is clearly a leading world economic center as in exclusive areas the wealth is staggering. If you own a vehicle, it is likely a very nice one! (Porsche Cayannes abound along with a few Maseratis, I can always manage to check out the hot rides). Most of course, use the bullet trains or buses. The locals are very proud of Hong Kong and its western sophistication. A lot of British influence still abounds and the locals are clearly concerned and wary of the return to Chinese rule. In fact, visually, the streets appear a lot like London.
From their references I anticipate a different experience when we travel to mainland China tomorrow. This very well could be our easiest day of the trip. There has been little focus today on the fact that tomorrow we will all be getting a baby girl. I think it may be a good strategy to jam pack this day full to keep us from fretting over what is about to transpire! In all honesty after the plane flight and the intensity of the day it all seems surreal to most of us I think...that tomorrow, everyones lives change forever! Visit the web photo album linked on this page to see many more photos of the trip thus far.
The other team couples and families are all great folks and easy to be around. We are all nervous about the intensity of tomorrow and finally getting the babies. It has been great to have some other children on the trip. Andie and Madison (7)have really connected and have been inseparable on our touring travels. It is great to listen to them discuss their upcoming little sisters. We didn't have the chance to stop them before they climbed in the photo opp rickshaw and of course had to cough up the cash, but money well spent I suppose.
After a trip up a long winding very narrow road in a very large bus to Hong Kong's magnificent Victoria Peak, we descended and went to an open market area. The shopkeepers were very friendly, not overly pushy and the goods were very reasonable in price. Luckily, we didn't stay there too long, but long enough for me to get a Chinese Chop (stamp) carved for future rice paper paintings. We also found a matching set of silk PJ's for Andie and Genevieve so stay tuned for future photos (if they cooperate). At least several couples among the two travel groups on our tour today are returning to adopt their second child from China. I will try and remember the plane flight, the cost, the waiting period, and my advanced age should any such thoughts arise.
Some info sources had referred to the attention drawn to blonde children which proved to be true. I think we could have made some Hong Kong Dollars letting locals have their photos made with Andie. The lady in the picture spoke no English but finally made us understand via an interpreter that she wanted her picture taken with Andie.
After an awesome meal at a downtown Hong Kong Dim Sum (a rotating buffet) restaurant, we were back at the hotel around 4pm. I finally got my internet connection working to write this first (long) post, so while connected I'm going for the gold here. Not to go in to too much detail regarding the technology, but for those of you IT folks in-the-know who may be reading this; I am connected via an Ethernet line that leads to a 240 Volt wall plug. How that gets me on-line I have no idea. Some young fellow with that beautiful spikey black hair wearing a nehru jacket came from below to plug it in and coax my Mac into submission. He mumbled some things in Cantonese, thanked me and left the room..voile, I was on-line. Oscar, you can explain the clothes dryer voltage DSL hookup to me later. Maybe Charter should offer that as an option. This is our room, Todd was right the beds are for 1 1/2 persons, but comfortable and the AC is cold as a....
Its 8pm, Andie has crashed in her silk PJs and we are not far behind her. We head out early am to catch an 11 o'clock flight to the mainland where the real games begin. Zai jian for now. WES
Warning! This is a long post with lots of details for those who want them. Forgive me if you don't fit in that category, just skip to the end. We begin with the 4:30am wake up call in Charlotte to catch the Country Inn & Suites shuttle (thanks Chuck!..good idea). We had an extra hour and a half delay so ended up having plenty of time for breakfast and watching Surf's Up. Andie was pretty excited for her first plane flight and was very anxious to board. We strapped her in with accompanying White Swan and prepared for lift off.
It was a smooth flight to San Francisco and she soon settled in to drawing and coloring. The transition to the International wing of San Francisco Airport was a bit of a challenge as signs were surprisingly weak and we wandered around a little, but luckily had plenty of time. We did have to stop for a wall Mosaic photo, as it was impressive. Unfortunately, we found out upon our arrival in Hong Kong that San Francisco is where Lynne's suitcase would be staying behind. Evidently, it was chosen for a security check and was detained for some reason. Luckily it was delivered to our hotel today in good condition having been interrogated for hours.
We boarded for Hong Kong and 14 hours of air time. Ouch. If ever wealthy this is where I will spring for first class. We were middle row and luckily had an extra seat but it was still pretty cramped quarters. By the end of the trip I felt a little like John Glenn in that first orbiter, but I don't think he wore size 13 Crocs and probably had less carry-on technology than I did. This also caused one to think of the return flight with the addition of a one year old in said cramped quarters..or maybe its best just not to think about that at all for now.
Airplane food...whats up with that? Don't get me started!..actually the meals were not bad, but I always feel like I am at child's tea party with all the little minutiae on the tray. The attendants on Cathay Pacific were delightful and I loved to hear them say "You like fish with wice or cheekin wit potato?" The on board restrooms..well, not so nice after 14 hours. Just gives you a reason to think of that lovely hotel room awaiting at the Regal Riverside in Hong Kong (photo at bottom).
We hit some heavy turbulence somewhere over the Bering Sea near Alaska, and that tends to get your attention when over a sub arctic ocean..but Andie slept through it all, lucky her. In fact, I'm not really sure what we were doing over Alaska anyway unless to gather speed for a downhill run to China? Anyway, it was evidently a run with a lot of mogles. Watching the Robin Williams movie License to Wed helped a little bit, but by the third viewing I realized it was not a very good movie after all. My other in-flight options however, were choices such as listening to Chinese country music, watching reruns of Friends (which appears surprisingly dated now) or running down the IPod battery..so I did the latter.
We arrived safely in Hong Kong and all is going well other than I have no idea what day it actually is. Our guide said it was Saturday but someone else said Friday, so I will split the difference. To accentuate the positive, today could not have been more spectacular. The weather was beautiful, the humidity being low and the temp around 78 (sorry Todd, no sweating here). CCAI provided us with an awesome guided bus tour of Hong Kong from the highest peak to the harbor fishing village. Though I was disappointed that we were not in the Great Wall vicinity of China, Hong Kong has been an amazing city to visit. There are 7 million people on these small peninsulas, most living in high rise apartments.
I would have imagined total chaos, but instead it is incredibly clean, very cosmopolitan and all in all quite beautiful. It is clearly a leading world economic center as in exclusive areas the wealth is staggering. If you own a vehicle, it is likely a very nice one! (Porsche Cayannes abound along with a few Maseratis, I can always manage to check out the hot rides). Most of course, use the bullet trains or buses. The locals are very proud of Hong Kong and its western sophistication. A lot of British influence still abounds and the locals are clearly concerned and wary of the return to Chinese rule. In fact, visually, the streets appear a lot like London.
From their references I anticipate a different experience when we travel to mainland China tomorrow. This very well could be our easiest day of the trip. There has been little focus today on the fact that tomorrow we will all be getting a baby girl. I think it may be a good strategy to jam pack this day full to keep us from fretting over what is about to transpire! In all honesty after the plane flight and the intensity of the day it all seems surreal to most of us I think...that tomorrow, everyones lives change forever! Visit the web photo album linked on this page to see many more photos of the trip thus far.
The other team couples and families are all great folks and easy to be around. We are all nervous about the intensity of tomorrow and finally getting the babies. It has been great to have some other children on the trip. Andie and Madison (7)have really connected and have been inseparable on our touring travels. It is great to listen to them discuss their upcoming little sisters. We didn't have the chance to stop them before they climbed in the photo opp rickshaw and of course had to cough up the cash, but money well spent I suppose.
After a trip up a long winding very narrow road in a very large bus to Hong Kong's magnificent Victoria Peak, we descended and went to an open market area. The shopkeepers were very friendly, not overly pushy and the goods were very reasonable in price. Luckily, we didn't stay there too long, but long enough for me to get a Chinese Chop (stamp) carved for future rice paper paintings. We also found a matching set of silk PJ's for Andie and Genevieve so stay tuned for future photos (if they cooperate). At least several couples among the two travel groups on our tour today are returning to adopt their second child from China. I will try and remember the plane flight, the cost, the waiting period, and my advanced age should any such thoughts arise.
Some info sources had referred to the attention drawn to blonde children which proved to be true. I think we could have made some Hong Kong Dollars letting locals have their photos made with Andie. The lady in the picture spoke no English but finally made us understand via an interpreter that she wanted her picture taken with Andie. 
After an awesome meal at a downtown Hong Kong Dim Sum (a rotating buffet) restaurant, we were back at the hotel around 4pm. I finally got my internet connection working to write this first (long) post, so while connected I'm going for the gold here. Not to go in to too much detail regarding the technology, but for those of you IT folks in-the-know who may be reading this; I am connected via an Ethernet line that leads to a 240 Volt wall plug. How that gets me on-line I have no idea. Some young fellow with that beautiful spikey black hair wearing a nehru jacket came from below to plug it in and coax my Mac into submission. He mumbled some things in Cantonese, thanked me and left the room..voile, I was on-line. Oscar, you can explain the clothes dryer voltage DSL hookup to me later. Maybe Charter should offer that as an option. This is our room, Todd was right the beds are for 1 1/2 persons, but comfortable and the AC is cold as a....
Its 8pm, Andie has crashed in her silk PJs and we are not far behind her. We head out early am to catch an 11 o'clock flight to the mainland where the real games begin. Zai jian for now. WES
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