Returning Home

We awoke in Beijing after spending the night at the Sino-Swiss Hotel adjacent to the Capital Airport. We had decided to reserve a nice room in this hotel since it had a shuttle to and from the airport (and that would save us cab fare and eliminate trying to communicate with Chinese speaking cabbies) and they accepted credit cards, a real rarity in China. We found the people at the airport very helpful in locating the shuttle and the short trip to the hotel was uneventful.

The room was actually a split-level suite and it was very nice. It featured a fresh fruit welcome tray, international cable television on two television sets (we watched news on the BBC network with English speaking announcers, the first time since arriving in China and the HBO Family channel) two bathrooms, and three twin beds! Here are a few pictures of the room.

We checked out of our room at 8:30 and caught the shuttle back to the airport at 8:45am. We checked in for our flight, checked our luggage, then went to have breakfast at Burger King. The only problem was, all they served at the Burger King was their lunch menu, hamburgers or chicken sandwiches and fries at 9:30am! Shawn had lunch, but Barb and I got coffee and then I went next door to Starbucks for a couple of muffins for us. Shawn tackled his Whopper with gusto! At 10:30 we headed for our gate and awaited our boarding call for the flight to San Francisco. After we boarded at 11:15am, we took off at 12:30 pm for our 12 hour trans-Pacific flight, one which featured some very turbulent travel complete with the captian's instruction on several occasions for the flight attendents to return to their seats and buckle up due to the extreme turbulence! (Our prayer life was in full evidence during this flight!)

When we landed safely in San Francisco (after flying for nearly 12 hours) it was 8:45 am on Wednesday morning, almost 4 hours before we left Beijing!!! We transferred to another flight to Chicago which would take about 4 hours and then in Chicago we got on a plane to Hartford for the 2 and 1/2 hour flight home. We arrived in Windsor Locks at 9:30 pm Wednesday. We had been in the air and in airports for over 21 hours and were home 9 hours after we left Beijing, China, but don't ask me how.

Our neighbor who had taken us to the airport 2 weeks ago when our journey began, was waiting for us when we returned, and we were happy to see him since the last thing we wanted to do was call another cab to take us home!!!

The entire trip was a blessings that we recognize happened solely by the grace of God, and we give him our thanks and praise for a job well done.