I am on the plane heading back to Shanghai. The past two weeks went by really fast….I am feeling renewed and ready to return to my “real” life. Tucker took me to the airport very very early this morning. We left the house at 3:30am. My bags were over stuffed and over weight. It turns out that one bag was 16 lbs over weight and the other was 6 lbs overweight…..Oops!!! Originally I was going to pay the extra fee for heavy weight bags but the lady at the United counter said the fee for overweight “international” bags is three times the normal fee. The fee would be $300.….Yikes!!!! I don’t think so!!!! Lucky for me my parents’ bags were underweight so in the middle of the airport I had to open the bags and adjust the extra weight evenly between six bags…..a little embarrassing…but better than paying $300. I felt like I was on the Oregon trail and had to throw grandmas china off the wagon. Keep the fish crackers or the paperback novels?? Do you know how much peanut butter M&M’s and scone mix weigh? Not to mention 15 yards of quilting fabric. The scone mix was about to hit the trash can but was saved by my parents’ very empty carry on bags…..I should take a lesson from them on “stream line packing”. I was very happy to see those bags disappear into the x-ray machine.

The eager travelers…. I am impressed they are smiling at this time of the morning.

It is 2:00pm Shanghai time and my buns are numb….we have been traveling for 14.5 hours and up for 17 hours. We had a long layover in San Francisco. Only 3.5 hours until we land in Shanghai….but…who’s counting???? I finished reading my book, played Suduko, watched part of a movie, ate airplane food, and took a nap. The goods news….we all got to upgrade to Economy Plus so the seat in front of me is more than 3 inches from my nose and I have room to type on my computer. Tim is picking us up at the airport and we are all meeting Abi for Chinese food. Go figure! Welcome to Shanghai Mom and Dad.