Time To Go Home

Today was a big day in Linda’s life. Time to head to her permanent home with Mel and myself. From our last post you know we had a little issue getting Linda down and the night was pretty uneventful until about 4:00am. She became a little whiny so I got up and talked with her and stroked her hair to sleep the last half hour or so before real wake-up time. I wanted to do as much as possible so Mel could sleep as much as possible since her cold made it difficult for her to sleep. (Now that is one run-on sentence!) We got up at 4:45am as our check-on bags had to be outside at 6am and we were on the bus by 7am. I checked out, returned the Panda phone, and we had breakfast. Linda was still a bit fussy since it was a bit early.

Guangzhou airport is big. It is clean. It is pretty easy to get through though it would have been helpful getting there a half hour earlier. We had to stand in the checking line for a bit. Three lines and it became a little contest to see who would get through first. Our single mom and her mother got stuck. For some reason they could not find Grandma’s assignment in the system. They did find it finally. Phew. We all pretty much got on the plane at the last minute.

Hong Kong has a mighty big airport. After arriving on Chine Southern, we had to exit and transfer to Cathay Pacific. One family arrived to the transfer counter before the other 3. We slackers almost got to the counter before the first family got through! When they left the counter we gave them an ovation. Mel and I pulled a winner by walking to the gate when we find out later there was a train that ran there. We were tired and my shoulders were hurting after carrying Linda such a long distance. What are we, nuts? Being that we were going to be on a 12 hour flight, we thought the walk was justified. Since the US is being the US we had to go through another security check right at the gate! They made us toss Linda’s water. We boarded a 747-400 which was much more comfortable than the 747 we took going.

The flight was tough on Mel. She never really could sleep on planes and with the cold it complicated things. She did take care of the dirty work changing Linda and getting the fixin’s together for feeding. I had the easy job of sitting there and holding Linda and having Linda sleep on me. For some reason I was the pillow of choice and with my luck we estimated that Linda slept at least half of the trip! Talk about luck.

We arrived at LAX and got through immigration and customs without a hitch. Then came the worst part of the trip; we had to stand in line for our boarding passes. This line was not overly long and it moved like molasses. On top of it there was this couple with two boys that kept pushing their cart into me. It was a pain, and then they left the line. Go figure. We finally get through and now our flight is delayed due to weather! We departed at 3:30pm instead of the 2:30pm scheduled flight.

Linda has been on 3 plane flights before this one without any issue. Well, our luck ran out on the commuter flight from LAX to SAN. Linda was asleep when we boarded the little plane and was doing fine until the engines started and the cabin was pressurized. Instant wailing! Oh, talk about the embarrassment and classic parent moment when it comes to air travel. She would not suck on her sippy cup nor chew on a veggie puff. Just prior to take-off she stopped and fell back to sleep. The flight was fine and sure enough on decent about to land she begins to wail again! Conclusion: no more small plane flights for her.

When we arrived at the gate of the commuter terminal my Dad and Ellen were there waiting along with a surprise from our friends Jack and Carol. Oh the picture taking session began. It was nice since we have not had time to take many pictures in the last two days. Hopefully we will be posting a few in the next couple of days.

At home we finally found a little relief. Home. What a fine feeling. Linda was not too sure of the whole thing though she did enjoy her first car ride in a car seat. The strangeness of the place was bothering her along with the stress of being moved once again. Amber, our doggie, was taking everything in stride and came up to Linda and kissed her. Needless to say Linda did not like that one bit as it is probably the first time she ever saw a dog. The rest of the evening she was wary of Amber and when around would just stare. I think she will come around soon. We had a nice dinner that Ellen prepared and got some food into Linda. Dad and Ellen took off for the motel to let us settle down. Linda fell asleep just before 8pm and we hope will be a good night, but being in a strange house and a strange room does not bode well.

We hope to get some sleep now and start a new day at home with our new family.

Later!