Made it Beijing .....

What a day, but we made it to Beijing.  We started the day off in Idaho Falls catching the 5:54 AM flight to Denver.  Since we had to make arrangements so late, Robin and I could not sit together.  As luck would have it, the largest lady in the airport came walking down the aisle and sat next to me!  She asked for one of those expanders for the lap belt.  I thought to myself, this could be a looooong day!  As we were preparing to leave, a light cover in the interior of the plane fell off.  According to the FAA, we couldn't leave until it was repaired by a "certified" mechanic.  Oh, boy... we only have a 1 hour layover in Denver!!!  Only connection we could make without spending a night somewhere.  Well, it took just over an hour to fix the plane.  Off to Denver and when we got off the plane we stopped an agent and asked about our plane to SF and if it had left.  The guys was really nice, but said it had just left!

Down to United Customer service (stop 1) we went.  We stood in line for about 15 minutes.  There was only one agent there and then she said, you'll have to go to to the main customer service center for international flights down by gate 39 - I have to go load a plane.  OH MY!!!  we are only a few hours in and looks like this will be an adventure!  We headed down to gate 39 (stop 2) and the agent there said - you have been rebooked for tomorrow, the same time.  We said we had to get to Beijing today, not tomorrow.  She pounded away on the keyboard and got us seats on Air China out of SF (initially, she wanted us to fly to Dulles and then to China!).  She wasn't able to get us boarding passes, but said you have seats confirmed but will have to check in with Air China in SF.  Off we went and made it to SF with no further issues.  We found the gate in SF for our Air China flight and checked in.  We had seats!!!!!  NOW... if our luggage will only make it as well (the saga continues..)

We landed in Beijing and headed through immigration webt to get our luggage.  We waited until all the luggage had been delivered and ours was no where to be seen!  Off to Air China customer service (stop 3) and see what can be done.  They were very friendly and found that our luggage was still in SF and wouldn't get here until tomorrow this time (6:00 PM).  We are supposed to be on an overnight train to Xian at that time!  What do we do now....  Fortunately, Robin packed our Xian clothes in our carry-ons!  WHAT A GAL!!!!!  Now we just had to convince the agent not to sent our luggage to Xian since we will be back in Beijing to catch up with our adoption group on Thursday.  He had a hard time understanding this, so we took a phone number and case number and headed out to meet the our guide Michelle (Sun Travel) to take us to our hotel.  It was so nice to see her and be able to let her get us to the hotel.  She also called Air China and got our luggage thing straightened out and it will be delievered to the hotel we will be staying at in Beijing!  She is GREAT!!!! 

Now the ride to the hotel....  Michelle and our driver took us to our hotel.  What a ride!  Our driver was amazing weaving in and out of traffic.  Never mind the lanes painted on the road - those are only suggestions. All said and done, we made it to our hotel and got checked in.  The hotel is very nice (note for those of our adoption travel group!).  We'll fill you in on the breakfast buffet tomorrow.

It's getting late and I'm tired.  Here's a few pictures!

Leaving the House

At the Idaho Falls Airport

Air China Flight to Beijing