June 11, 2014
Our trip started off with a serious adrenaline rush. Our friend Josh was kind enough to pick us up at 4 am to head to the airport. Kainan, Kai's installed carseat, Jason, Josh, two enormous suitcases - that carried the boys, Jason and my entire two week belonging, a large suitcase jammed packed full of donations - thank you everyone, the largest carry one suitcase we could bring, a backpack and shoulder bag (purse/toddler bag/last minute items/ toys); all were carefully packed into our Infinite QX56. This left a very small corner in the back of the care for me. We had a car service take Mike and Kathy and all their luggage, which was considerably less than ours.
Then we were off....
We arrived at Kansas City Airport at 5:05 am Central Time with a schedule flight of 6:55 am. We were lucky to arrive that early as we had to take a few detours on the way there due to construction on ramps. Jason and I had no idea were we were going, but so thankful Josh knew his way. As soon as we got to the United counter a lady looked at us, looked at Kainan, and went into emergency mode. At first we didn't know what was going on as she pulled us to the side, yelled down the counter at another agent that was helping Mike and Kathy that they need to make the gate stop and get us another flight. It was then we learned that our flight to Chicago had been cancelled. She rushed to get all five of us re-routed to San Francisco and on a 5:45 am flight. We rush to security and made it through by 5:30 am. Then when we asked which gate, an agent said it on the other end, and you better run, they are closing the doors now! So we ran. When we got their, our guardian angel flight attendant was a the gate making sure they held the door for us. And she kept reiterating it wasn't our fault. Have a great trip. When we got on the plan, it wasn't packed, and the front 5 seats were all open. We hopped on, all sitting together. Amazing!
When we arrived in San Fran around 7:30 AM Pacific Time, we had a 4 hour layover. We walked to our gate, then when looking for some breakfast. During all this craziness, I can not express how wonderful Kainan handled it all. No complaints, no crying...just go with the flow the whole time.
When we got to our gate we had more time to wait. We finally had a moment to take some family pictures. And although at the time we didn't realize, a couple we asked to take our picture turned out to be in our travel group here in China.
I don't have a ton of good things to say about an 11.5 hour flight. It seemed longer than 11.5 hours. But Jason, Kainan and I managed to switch enough seats around to all sit together. Mike and Kathy were in the row in front of us, but not next to each other. Kainan was asleep about as soon as we walked on the plane. I think it was the loud white noise sound, the fact that he didn't sleep at all on the way to CA, and that it was nap time for his little body. He slept for the first 5 hours of the flight. I was in and out during that time. Jason and Kathy said they didn't sleep much at all. We had several movies, non that were great, but at least it was something. We really didn't pull out our iPad to entertain Kainan til the end of the flight. But during our entire flight, Kainan was so good, handled it better than all of us really. People around us kept telling how great he was too.
As soon as we got to Beijing, we met up with that couple that took our picture, as we realized we were all in the same group. We headed through immigrations, then got our luggage, and then through Customs. All pretty painless. As we walked through Customs we immediately saw our CCAI Representative,Alice. She escorted us to the bus pick-up and a large tour bus came and pick us all up. We got on, and met two more families in our group. On the 40 minute ride to our hotel, our CCAI Rep went over all the ins and outs that we needed to know for the night and the next day. The group is heading on some tours and then heading to Old Beijing, where we'll go on rickshaws rides through town and then have lunch in a local family's home. We will be passing on the morning tours so we can go to New Hope, where Kai spent most of his rearing. A trip we've been waiting for for a long time! But our CCAI rep set us up with a van to take out there (we'll have a driver, don't worry...I know I was when she first suggested the idea). The driver will then call her when we are leaving and we'll meet up with the rest of our group in Old Beijing.
We got to our hotel and our CCAI reps had us all checked in when we arrived. The hotel is beautiful. Probably one of the nicest, or equivalent to, than I have ever stayed. We were told we could use the pool in our downtime, but swim caps are required. I'll take pics to post later today. We all got settled in - we have adjoining rooms, and the room sizes are comparable to room in the US. I was prepared for them to be smaller, so a nice surprise. Then we decided we'd just head next door to a suggested noodle restaurant. It was the first time I truly felt out of place. We looked at the menu, than goodness for pictures, and really small English print, thought for the most part, I still wasn't sure what it was. Mike, Kathy and Jason order a noodle dish. Kainan and I were planning to try everyones, and have fried rice and dumplings. The noodles were good; but their bowls were HUGE. Kainan and I just tried everyones food and that was more than enough food. We really weren't sure about drinks - probably my biggest fear hear is the water if not from a bottle, so we had cans of Sprite, all 5 of us. Really because we saw someone next to us had it on the table, so we pointed. I should have taken a picture, but we had so much food, and to be honest, we weren't that hungry. When our bill came, it came out to be about $20, for all 5 of us.
We winded down our night by coming back to the hotel and there was a bounce house Kainan had his eye on. He went and jumped for about 20 minutes. Remember, he slept most of our flight, so we was actually doing the best of all of us. Then we came back to our rooms and got ready for bed. I think we were in bed by 9 pm. And that ended June 12.
I'm sitting here writing all this at 4 am. Kainan woke at 3 am hungry and wanting to get up. I got him some snacks and turned on the iPad. After laying there for a few, I realized I too was hungry and awake. So I started typing.
We can head down to eat at the hotel breakfast at 6 am. We have to be downstairs for our van at 9 am. And we'll get to New Hope by 10 am.
I will keep periodic updates on FB. And try to recap the day here.
Thank you all for you support and prayers. It really is great having you all follow along with us.
All our love, the Capps!
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