My alarm went off at 2AM, which is what time Mackie asked me to call her and wake her up to come pick up Mom and me. Then I reset my alarm for 2:45 and went back to sleep. My alarm again went off at 2:45 and I got up and used the toilet. Mackie called shortly thereafter for final directions to our house. After a few minutes of final preparation for departure, we left the house at about 3:15.
Mackie asked me to drive (Linda’s car) and we arrived at the airport about 3:50; when we tried to check in, the guy behind the desk stated he couldn’t find our reservation in the computer. The manager came out and after looking up Mom’s bank card number, they deduced that we were supposed to be on the TUS->LAX flight *yesterday*. Well… that was obviously not right, so he fixed that free of charge. Then he asked "and you’re coming back on the 13th, right?" Mom was like "Noooo… we’re coming back on the 14th." (Grumble) So we had to pay $180 for them to move our reservation to the 14th.
Then we went to the plane and boarded. I asked the stewardess for a pillow and blanket and pretty much passed out until we hit the gate at LAX.
There we disembarked, retrieved our baggage downstairs, and went up to check the Air China desk to see if we could just re-check our bags. Unfortunately there was nobody there, so I called Ninda. "Ninda; come pick us up and take us to breakfast!!" This was, of course, probably surprising to Ninda. I *had* emailed her last night and suggested that she meet us at LAX, but there was no commitment requested or implied. She agreed to meet us at the Starbucks near the KLM baggage claim at Terminal 2 no later than 10:30.
The time was now 0745. So we got coffee and read. Read more. I read a Scientific American. Then I read another one. Got up to pee. Read more. Read 2 cantos of the Paradiso. Mom went up to check the Air China desk to see if there was anyone there yet. There was not. We read more. Drank more coffee. Read more. I went up to check the China Air desk. I saw two people in line and 2 girls behind the desk. I went back downstairs. "Let’s go, there are only 2 people in line." So we went up; the time was 0950. I saw a lot of people this time. I realized that I had mistaken a long line in front of the Air China desk for what I thought was a long line in front of the Hawaiian Airlines desk. Alas. We stood in line for a few minutes, and then I suggested that Mom go back down to Starbucks and wait for Ninda. Meanwhile the line was moving slowly. I chatted briefly with a nice old Vietnamese man. Just as I was reaching the head of the line at 1030 Mom showed up, without Ninda. (Sigh.) So we checked in and went back downstairs to wait for Ninda. Finally she showed up at 1050, with DENNY’S. The French Slam. 3 of them. We were happy.
While chatting with Ninda we realized that we WERE INDEED returning on the 13th and NOT the 14th. After spending time with Ninda she decided it was time for her to go since she had a test tomorrow. We went back to Terminal 1 and switched our tickets back. There was no extra charge for that, but there was also no refund of the aforementioned $180. Alas. Upon leaving Terminal 1 we noticed that the security line was quite long. In fact, it stretched down the sidewalk and past Terminal 2. We hoped that the Security line for Terminal 2 was not that long. Fortunately we did not have to wait for more than 30 seconds. We have now been waiting for 90 minutes at the gate; scheduled to begin boarding in about 10 minutes.
2 747s' worth of people
Our 747 to Beijing
Have you ever been really enjoying a very nice afternoon and wished that evening wouldn’t come so quickly? If so, I recommend you fly to Beijing. It was a beautiful afternoon for 18 hours. It was nice from 1PM-3PM in LA, then it was nice for 13 hours on the 747 while we chased the sun across the Pacific, and it was a lovely late afternoon in Beijing when we arrived at 5PM there.
Long way to go
Shouldn't we make a left turn to go to China?
The flight was so long we had 5 movies. Well, actually just 4, because they showed Dr. Doolittle II twice. They showed two different Chinese movies, and Saving Silverman, which I expected to be really stupid but it wound up being very funny. Can’t believe they would show a movie borderline PG-13/R on an airplane though. Must be because it’s an international flight.
Nothing like seeing the Cascades of northern CA & southern
Oregon
on your way to China from Los Angeles.
We sat next to a nice guy, and behind us were a couple with their little daughter, Stephanie. She was adorable; but occasionally she would start to get really antsy, so I would turn around and talk to her.
We wound up sitting over the wing so we couldn’t see out in spite of having a window seat; therefore I was standing up a lot looking through the window of the emergency exit. MAN the Kamchatka peninsula is gorgeous. One long reach of snow covered mountains. I was finally able to fall asleep when they began to show Dr. Doolittle II for the second time, so I got in an hour nap or something. Added to the 2.5hrs I got last night before leaving for the airport, I’m pretty exhausted right now.
Asians
Alaska from 35,000'
Icebergs in the North Pacific Ocean near the Aleutian Islands
Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula
(Super cool view)
Booooooooooooooooost!!
When we finally landed in Beijing mom and I were surprised by how many trees there are. I was also amused that the huge TV in the Beijing airport's baggage claim was showing a Blue Angels video.
The Blue Angels
Beijing reminds me a lot of Mexico City, except it has more trees and there are Chinese people instead of Mexicans. We were assigned to "Bus D." The "Bus D" guy didn’t have a flag, even though all the other tour guides did. I was thinking "Geez, we don’t get a cruise or even a tour guide with a FLAG???"
Our tour guide, John
(Back left, holding a pen)
Oh Arnold, have ye slipped so far?
View from the front of the Beijing airport
Anyway, so then we went with the "Bus D" crowd to our bus, which took us through a beautiful toll booth and then down a nice toll road into town where we had dinner at a big seafood restaurant.
Toll Booth "Gate of Beijing"
Restaurant where we had dinner
We did not have any seafood, however. Just some beef & pork & soup & vegetables. Nevertheless it was very tasty & I was satisfied. Our waitress was a very nice girl just out of high school, her "English" name was Mei, can’t remember her Chinese name but it had "gold" in it; when I was finished eating she took me upstairs to show me the tea room they have.
A very bad picture of Mei
That looked like a nice place to spend an afternoon. There were some guys up there that were probably wondering what was up with the dumb American filming their tea room. The restaurant was in fact staffed with all sorts of attractive girls. There were even 2 on either side of the door going out that would wave their hands in front of the infrared sensor so that it would be open for you. I was in favor of that.
Random dishes including fish heads and some sort of eel.
After leaving the restaurant, the bus brought us to Hotel Shangri-La, where we are staying. It’s supposed to be the nicest hotel in Beijing. It certainly SEEMS nice. The elevators even have floor mats with the day embroidered on them. "SATURDAY" it declares. Anyway, here we are in room 1510. It’s not bad. 8) Okay, dead tired, gonna lie down.
Jefferson, our "National" tour guide.
He will be with us for 6 different towns.