Travel Day - Beijing, China

I should have known that the first day of our journey would be filled with some kind of craziness of another, but honestly it never crossed my mind (for some reason I thought the whole travel thing would smoothly).

The day started off great. We had just about everything packing and ready to go on Tuesday night and we had our plan for the day set. We got up Wednesday morning, got the kids up, ate breakfast, got dressed, finished packing, loaded the van, and were on the road to drop the kids off by 8:50am. We had the kids unloaded and settled by 10:30am and were eating lunch by 11:45am. We said goodbye to the kids (that was hard, but they handled it really well) and then we headed to Jason's parent's house. We were at their house by a little after one, transferred our luggage to their car, and we were off to the airport. WE arrived at the airport at 1:40, checked in at the airline, cleared security, and were sitting at our gate by 2:15pm with plenty of time to spare.

We settled in to wait until boarding at 3:30pm and at 3:25pm the airline rep came on the public address system to let us know that our flight was delayed due to mechanical issues with the plane (the plane had just landed at the gate fifteen minutes prior). We were told that they needed to do some checks, but that they expected to start boarding soon and we were all still ok to make our connecting flights in Chicago. At 3:45 (the time we were scheduled to depart) the rep came back on to tell us that the plane needed additional testing and that they would be taking it to the hanger. They promised an update and decision by 4:30pm.

At this point I started to panic a little and a line was quickly forming at the counter with people who were now going to miss or possibly miss their connecting flights. I didn't get in line right away because we don't travel much and I wasn't sure what we should do, so I contacted our travel agent to ask. She told me to talk to the airline reps at the desk and find out what options there were if we missed our connecting flight in Chicago. I got in line and got a plan for the worst case scenario which was flight cancellation. The plan was to reroute us to LA and then onto Beijing which would add hours to our travel time and have us landing in Beijing 8 hours later than originally planned.

All there was to do was sit and wait, and get our prayer warriors on it. At 4:30pm the update came that they had decided to fly a new plane in from Cincinnati, the flight was on, and they hoped to begin boarding at 4:45pm. I went back to the desk to make sure they thought we could make our connection and they were confident we could, BUT it took longer than expected for the plane to arrive and 4:45 came and went with no boarding. We finally boarded the plane at 5pm (after having to gate check our carry-on because it wouldn't fit in the overhead bin) and were taxiing down the runway at 5:15. We knew we would have to practically run to make it to the gate for our flight to Beijing because although the gates were in the same terminal they were not what one would call close (the Chicago airport is BIG).

Although our flight was delayed (and I almost had a heart attack worrying we would miss our connection) God had a special treat in store for us as we flew from Columbus to Chicago. In Columbus it was overcast and dreary, but once we got above the clouds it was gorgeous, and we got to see the moon rise over the clouds as the sunset (which we would not have seen had our flight left on time).

 Sunset

Cloud carpet

Moon rise 

Chicago

When we landed in Chicago we had a ways to go to get to our gate and then had to wait to get the gate checked carry-on which meant waiting at the gate for a good 10 minutes after getting off the plane. We then ran (speed walked) to our departing gate only stopping to use the restroom (we contemplated stopping at the McDonalds to grab a sandwich because we hadn't eaten since lunch and it was now 7pm EST, but decided not to risk it). When we were still a good 10 feet from the gate desk the guy at the desk looks up, says our last name, and upon our confirmation that we were who they were waiting on ushers us to the gate and onto the plane.

Whew! We were crazed and frazzled, but we were on the plane and headed to Beijing! We settled in for the longest plane ride we've ever been on, and let me tell you it was long. Jason slept a little, but I didn't sleep more than a half hour and about halfway through I was over it (I contemplated asking a flight attendant if we were there yet, but decided against it). Finally, at 9:20pm China time (8:20am EST) we touched down in Beijing, and I have never been so happy to get off a plane in my life. The Beijing airport is huge but was not very busy that time of night so we cleared immigration, retrieved our luggage, and were through customs in about 30 minutes.

We had landed about 20 minutes early so our guide wasn't there yet, but after a quick call to him we learned that he was on his way. He picked us up at the airport front entrance and after a quick return to the airport to pick up a family we had missed (they had switched to our flight, but we did know it) we headed to the hotel. When we had first landed in Beijing we thought it was foggy out, but once we were outside we quickly discovered that it was smog.  We arrived at the hotel at about 11:15pm local time, checked in, and headed to our room. We were exhausted, but couldn't sleep very well because our room was so warm and our sleep cycles was on EST. We did manage a few hours of sleep though and it was just nice to be off the plane and not sitting anymore.

Will blog more soon! In the meantime, here is the last photo of us as a family of 5 :)