Home

We made it home in one piece but the trip was awful.  First I'll tell you about our last day and then get to the trip.  Our last day in Guangzhou was nice.  We packed in the morning and then went to a museum next door with our friends Jennifer, Andrew and Sammy.  When they were building the hotel they found the tomb of an emperor.  A museum was built and the hotel was moved over.  The burial site is preserved and you can walk down into it.  All of the artifacts are on display in the museum.  I would have loved to have stayed for the day but we only had two hours.

Entrance to the tomb.

Part of the excavation of the site.

At 2:45 we met other families in the lobby and headed out to get the kids' passports.  Then it was time to go to the train station.  This is where the trip home started to go bad.   We had to take all of our luggage on the train with us.  BAD IDEA.  It was just too much to handle.  Then it was a two hour ride on an old and dirty train.  We then had to go through customs in Hong Kong.  Filling out paperwork while holding a baby in a carrier is not easy.   Christopher wouldn't go with my dad.  My dad couldn't fill out the cards because the print was too tiny for him to read.  All four families made it through customs and then our van driver decided that we had too much luggage and called for a van to help.  We sat waiting for at least hour.  The ride to the hotel should have been 40 minutes but our driver got lost and it took and additional 20 minutes to get to the hotel.  I think it was around 10pm before we got to our room.  My dad headed out and found us food since we were all really hungry.  The flight home was awful.  As you know Christopher was being treated for bronchitis.  Well what we didn't know at the time was that he also had an ear infection.  He went into screaming fits a bunch of times on the 14 hour flight home.  I have to say Chicago has the worst airport in the world.  I thought for sure we were going to miss our flight to Pittsburgh.  Getting through customs was easy but having to go through security again was a nightmare.  There were huge lines and the security guard was harassing my dad.  He had a hip replacement and we didn't have time to wait in the line to go through the scanner.  The man was rude to my father and looking for a fight.  He wanted him to drop his pants down as well as show him his money belt in the open.  Of course my dad was getting angry and I thought we weren't just going to miss the flight but end up detained.  I wish I had gotten that man's name he was enjoying getting us upset including me.  At this point I was in tears.  Jet lag had set in and I was also sick.  We got to our gate and they started boarding 10 minutes later.  I was so happy when we got off that plane.  I don't want to go anywhere by plane for a long time.  As bad as the trip was I am so glad to have my boy home.  I also had a great time with my dad.  We are both almost done with antibiotics and are feeling so much better.  We are almost back on schedule.  We are sleeping until 5am instead of waking at 3.  I hope in another week we will be on a normal schedule again.