China - Day 1

Day 1 Our adventure begins! Our day started at 6AM when my parents arrived to pick up to take us to the airport. As they drove up, we noticed that that they drove their sedan instead of their larger SUV. Little did they know, we followed the advice from a few different packing lists provided to us by other adoptive parents. We packed for every possible scenario! What that means is we have a lot of luggage - six bags and two backpacks. The two largest bags took up the entire trunk, which meant that we had to pile the rest of the bags and ourselves into the back seat. We where buried in bags, but we made it to the airport. Other than United charging us an additional $140 for our “extra” bags to accompany us on the trip, we made it to Seattle, our first destination, without an issue. Well other than I cried for the first time during a movie – The Odd Life of Timothy Green. Please don’t tell anyone! We had a two hour layover in Seattle. Redfin’s HQ is located in Seattle, so I have been out there a couple of times and I was excited to be there with Kristine. It’s a great city and only wish we had time to tour around a bit. We checked in for our flight to Beijing at the gate. As the agent was checking us in, she got a serious look on her face and came around the counter to talk to us. She was speaking in a soft quiet voice. I thought to myself, the flight must be overbooked and they need our seats. What I soon found out was that they did need our seats, but instead of bumping us off the flight, she was bumping us up to business class. It was f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c! We both were truly disappointed when the 12 hour flight came to an end. Rocky, our wonderful Beijing guide, was waiting at the baggage claim exit holding up a sign with our names on it. The first words out of his mouth – “Wow, you have a lot of luggage.” This time we were buried in the back of his sedan for our 25 mile, hour & 45 minute ride to our hotel. That’s an average speed of only 24 MPH. unfortunately, that is typical here in Beijing. Total travel time door-to-door = 23 hours, 55 minutes. Jim (Picures to come...)