(One year ago this month, Pa and I made the trek to China to adopt our sweet Sister Susie. I am going to take the first seventeen days of February 2008 to revisit that trip. Hop in for the ride!)
I was determined to travel to China and back with carry-on luggage only. Why? Because I could. Oh, and because of some miscellaneous pride and control issues, but who wants to talk about that.
Let's go onto something even more riveting--back pain. Pa and I each had a large rolling suitcase as well as backpacks that weighed about 387 pounds a piece. But we pack-muled that stuff through eight gazillion airports, that we did.
The thing about traveling carry-on only is that we had to wear 95% of the clothes we would need. Rest of the space was for baby. (Her stuff, not her.)
So on the flight there, I wore three tops.
That wasn't a bad idea, as it kept me warm on the plane. But then we had to go and miss a flight, and all my running (in vain) created bodily odors I would have rather left behind. But stuck with me they did, to two of my (grand total of) four shirts.
Did I mention this was a seventeen day trip? No??
So I was one sleepy stinky slime bug when I stepped off that plane in Beijing.
But what does that have to do with "China" or "baby" anyway?
Nothing, really. Nothing.
So.
We had to go through all kinds of hand-over-some-paperwork and give-them-the-passport kinds of lines, but that's all a blur to me now. Something about "customs" and "hauling raw meat into the country." It was fuzzy to me then; it's fuzzy to me now.
The memories, I'm speaking of. Not the meat.
Oh, see? Here I stand by the Customs Sign.
It was early Saturday morning. (Like I knew! I was still trying to figure out what happened to Friday. We left on a Thursday...landed on a Saturday...left on Thursday...landed on Saturday...huh??!?)
The rest of our travel group had arrived the day before, and had done exotic things like "sleep in a supine position" and "take showers" and "change clothes."
We were arriving just in time for a full day of sightseeing.
Let the caffeine begin.
(Read the whole China story.)
