Wuhan -- Capital of the Hubei Province

We arrived in Wuhan around 2:20pm

It was a 50 minute bus ride to the hotel. It is a very very nice hotel. There is a crib in our room and take home rubber duckies on the tub for Merrilee. And, we have a GREAT view.

We have a group meeting tonight to go over paperwork.

We got more updated information about Merrilee. We learned she likes baths -- two a day. And her foster family included mom, dad, brother and sister. She is still eating six times a day. She loves fruits including watermelon and bananas.

We get her at 10am tomorrow.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Our First Day at the White Swan

Today was a pretty good day! We started with a wonderful breakfast at the White Swab Hotel buffet.

A little later, our CCAI rep took us on a tour of the neighborhood surrounding the hotel. Everyone we met on the street was so nice.

Then, we sat in the lobby bar and had cold drinks with Jason and Darla from Nashville. They are another great couple from our group.

This hotel is filled with Americans who are going to get their babies, or who just got them. It is quite the sight to see. All of the babies seem so happy!

We're off to a BBQ restaurant tonight. We can sniff out good food, you know.

Tomorrow we check our and grab a China Southern flight to Wuhan just after noon.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

By the way...remember we are 12 hours ahead of Baltimore.

The times on the blog are Baltimore times. So while this one will show as 8:45pm or so...it's really 8:44am for us on the 16th

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Guangzhou

Well good morning from Guangzhou!

Despite the snafu in flights everything went like clockwork. When we got into Tokyo, we were loaded as a group onto a bus, taken to a different terminal, issued new boarding passes, and put on the Japan Airlines flight to Guangzhou.

Everyone's luggage made it and that was a relief! The bell man finally delivered it to our room about 12:20 this morning.

We slept for a few hours and were both wide awake at 7am on the 16th.

Finally got to meet our friends Nikki and Billy face to face. Lots of nice, fun couples in our group.

Off to breakfast soon...maybe some touring later...and likely more rest.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

CHINA! Half a World Away...

We are in CHINA!

We arrived at 10pm on the 15th.

Long day...long flights....need a long nap!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

No Trip is Possible Without Some Airline Issue

Hiccup in travel

Our flight from Tokyo to China was cancelled.

We have been rebooked. We are on the same NW flight (27 to Tokyo) arriving in Tokyo at 5:05 pm. Then we have been rebooked onto Japan Airlines flight 669 from Tokyo to Guangzhou. We will arrive in Guangzhou at 10:10pm which is actually a little earlier than planned. All 25 people who had that leg of the flight cancelled are supposed to be rebooked on the Japan Airlines flight. We have called CCAI to notigy them

If you are in our travel group and see this...please call CCAI

The journey continues...

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

San Francisco -- City by the Bay

Well we made it to San Francisco. We landed about 2:30 Frisco time. We skipped the hotel shuttle and grabbed a cab. Best $20 we've spent so far.

As soon as we checked into our hotel, we had to call Northwest Airlines. In their infinite wisdom they booked us several rows apart on our last flight. The nice guy sitting next to Mark was kind enough to swap seats with Beth.

Since we have three seats tomorrow (Mark bought two seats so we'd have more room) under two different confirmation numbers, we knew it would be a problem. After about 10 minutes on hold and the involvement of a supervisor, Northwest assures us we will have three seats together for the rest of our journey.

By the way, you have to buy anything you eat on a NW flight. Snacks were $3, a snack box $5 and Beth got a fruit and cheese snack box....which was $7. Why don't they just raise the ticket price and throw that stuff in for free?

Still, we're glad we knocked out this part of the journey today. From the time we left our house until we landed in SF was 10 and a half hours.

We're having dinner and breakfast here at the hotel and plan to leave for the airport at 10am Thursday. We'll meet others in our travel group there, and then it's an 18-hour trip from SF to Guangzhou...with a plane change in Tokyo.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry