Are we there yet Dad?

Hello from Beijing!

We arrived safely around 3:50pm - Friday. ;) My dad and I take off for Harbin City in about an hour, so we'll do a quick post from the "Sunbird Digital Relaxation Harbor." Sounds fancy, doesn't it. Well for 100 RMB (whatever that is!) it better be. Unfortnately I can not see the actual blog, so we'll be posting blind this trip. My apologies moving forward for the formatting being all thrown off, I'm sure.

We were able to Skype to home and talk with Rose, and do a little video conferencing as well. Elizabeth was up and in her usual form. She "had" to sit in her own chair...which put her out of view from the darn camera. ;)

Well, the trip started just as we would have wanted on Thursday morning - with the electricity out in the house! I wake up to my cell phone's alarm, so that was okay. But I just "couldn't figure out" why Rose would have unplugged the alarm clock! Nor could I understand why she, um, had "turned off" the computer. Husbands are thoughtful that way, always asking the "why's" about their wives.

Anyhow, it didn't take me much longer to figure out the power problem. I went back into the bedroom, woke Rose, and said, "Honey, the power's out. We're moving to Plan B" (as if there had been one). She was great, and the kids got in the car without incident. I did a quick in-the-dark-change into the clothes I would be wearing for the day, and then we shoved off to my parents to take a shower. Fortunately we took the back road, because the lights at the top of our street were out.

The traffic on 795 wasn't too bad and we arrived at my parents around 6:55am. I went right in while Rose stayed out in the car, and my parents put their luggage in their car.

Right back out in 12 minutes (Heather, I'm sure you can beat that time. Amy B, I hope you were sitting down when you read that figure. My apologies if you were not.), we had a pleasant surprise of seeing my Aunt Rose, my Godmother!

Our two-car caravan pulled around @ 7:10am and off to BWI we went. Traffic was...horrible, as the sun just beat us without mercy. But we got there around 7:42am (at least that's what the parking garage ticket said), went up the ramp, and double-parked for our good-bye time. That cherished time was unbearably short. Rose and I have never been away from each other for this long (no, coming home late after work with everyone being asleep doesn't count!).

But then it was time to go.

We were greeted with the best thing ever inside...NO ONE at the United ticket counter!

The fellow told me the bags were overweight and graciously offered for me to "move 20 lbs" from my bag to my dad's. "AS IF!" Rose has those two bags perfected packed - and I was going to turn that cart over? NO SIR!

Security was quick (yeah!), and...with that...I gotta go. Our flight to Harbin takes off soon.

Peace and Love to All. We'll pick up tomorrow. THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY.

dem