We're Here!

 

We have arrived safe and sound. Well actually we have about 3 hours left, but I figured I would use this time to update the blog. Those of you who really know me, understand why I think I may as well be productive! LOL

So...as I'm writing we are flying but I can't send it till we land, so when you are reading this, we really have landed! :-) I'm listening to my classical music on my Kindle Fire HD which I got for my birthday. LOVE it!!! I'm enjoying some Chinese tea and even just treated myself to a small macademia nut cookie. 

All is going/went well with all of our travels today except for a slight bump at O'Hare when Emmy was randomly selected for a spot check. Because she's a child they use the parent for the check. They took my kindle and swabbed it and then ran the swab through the computer. It was checking for traces of chemicals. No big deal really.  This flight was really long but uneventful, which is a good thing. :-)

The service on Cathay Pacific Airline is fantastic! The attendants are very good! I even wrote a letter for them bragging on them. Mars is my favorite. That's his nickname for his full name, Marcus, which is really cool since that was Ian's file name when we were first introduced to him. Mars very nice and sociable and excellent at his job. We have not wanted for anything the whole time. He takes good care of us! He also gave me an adorable pilot teddy bear for Ian!!

The food with Cathay is pretty yummy for airline food too. Small portions which is good,since we don't need "pig portions". :-) Emmy and SJ loved the little cups of Haagen Daas ice cream!

The technology for the personal entertainment system is awesome! Each seat has a tv screen and remote and headphones. There are movies and music and a cool web cam from underneath the plane! We flew over the arctic!! So cool! We saw snow and ice. The girls saw icebergs. Right now there is just fluffy clouds with an outside temp of 70 degrees. So beautiful. There is also a cool GPS map thing that tracks where we are and the path we have taken. I love this!!! I have been taking pics of it with my phone that I will post. :-) I can see Beijing on the map now...should see Hong Kong soon!

The only bummer on this flight is the leg room and the seat cushion. My tush is sore but my legs have held up great. For those who know about my Lymphedema condition, I wore my ugly support stockings for the entire day right up until the last five hours. Then they had to go. Just couldn't stand them any more. No swelling though...in my legs or hands and that's a good thing! I drank lots of water and got up and walked around pretty often. I dozed off for a bit but just really couldn't sleep and finally decided to "give up the ghost" and stay awake. I took the jet lag supplement I bought, every 2 hours, and am hoping that when we get settled in the hotel I'll just go to sleep and get onto China time.

We met a nice guy named Henry who is a Chinese interpreter in Chicago. He is also a volunteer translator, at a hospital in Chicago, for adoption families. He's married and has two little kids at home. They are so cute. He is going to visit his parents for his grandfather's 80th birthday and is really bummed his family couldn't come with him. He will be on our flight home too and is excited to help us translating with Ian on the plane ride back if we need him! He also gave us some tips for getting out in Hong Kong tomorrow. We don't fly to Changsha until 4:50 pm so we are going to try to do the sky ride cable car and go see the Big Buddha. :-) Emmy's teacher really thinks we should do that too and they both said since Hong Kong was a British Colony, they are very Americanized and getting around is not a problem. We are going to check in at the airport after breakfast and then go out with the plan to be back by 3pm. They said the HK airport is rated #1 in the world and extremely organized.

So that's our scoop! Check back for a Hong Kong update tomorrow!