Thursday, November 30, 2006

Ni hao!

Greetings from Beijing! We arrived safely late this afternoon and, after crawling through rush-hour traffic, checked in to our hotel. We're off to bed early tonight because we're leaving at 8 a.m. sharp tomorrow for the Great Wall!

Here is our travel group (minus two couples) Wednesday morning:


(kneeling in front, l to r: Chad, Frances, Lynette, Chuck. Standing, l to r: Alex, Anne, Mickey, Jacquie, Jennifer, Tamara, Erik, Barbara, Bob, Regina, Jeff, Judy, Lance, Susan)

That photo was taken BEFORE the 13 1/2-hour flight (which, incidentally, was delayed on the ground 90 minutes, although we arrived less than half an hour later than originally scheduled). We touched down in Beijing late afternoon Thursday. Would you like me to tell you how Thursday turns out?

Here's the same group on the bus from the airport:

We still look pretty good, don't you think?

Here's techno-geek Lance on the plane:

In this photo he's watching a movie stored on his iPod on the bigger-screen DVD player. And they're both hooked up to special batteries. And he has his noise-canceling headphones ready.

And here's the photo of our plane, which Lance insisted I include (and since he downloaded the photos for me, I didn't have much choice):



Well, that's enough practice for today. The technology appears to be working, so we're all set for Rachel day -- stay tuned.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah! I'm the first to read about your trip. Thank God you made it there safely. Tell Lance the techno geek the picture of the plane is wonderful. Thanks, Lance.
How exciting. Keep us posted.
Have a wonderful time. We won't stop praying for you. Hi Rachel!
From Aunt Chris, Uncle Keith, Casey & Candace XOXOXO

Anonymous said...

Hi, Susan,
When you write "techno geek" you mean it! I clicked in on a lark...didn't expect to see an update. Since I'm riveted to Rachel's story (and yours)I checked anyway.
I get good goosebumps thinking about all of you.
Margaret C.

Anonymous said...

Yay! You made it and you get a few days to settle in and adjust to the time change and enjoy your surroundings. Just think: they are getting your precious little Rachel ready for the change of a lifetime! Very exciting stuff, and please keep blogging! :-)

Laura

Anonymous said...

I laughed out loud when I saw the plane picture! Hope you are having fun.

Anonymous said...

WOW!!! Your that much closer to Rachel. I am so excited. I actually started to cry looking at your pictures, knowing that you will be holding Rachel in your arms again. What an amazing gift. Best of luck. We will see you in December.