Aidan and Lydia are fast asleep as we land at Beijing Airport, completing the flying portion of our return trip home. The day started out at 8AM PST (12AM CST) with me driving to Peet’s coffee, Jamba Juice, and Noah’s bagel (in that order) to satisfy our family’s cravings on our last vacation day in the states. Back to the hotel I help Yang shower the kids and do the final packing. By helping to shower the kids, I mean I tell Lydia and Aidan to keep their towel wrap on until their mom can tell them what to wear. By helping to pack, I mean I carry stuff down to the car.

York has graciously volunteered to take us to the airport. We will in fact travel in style and with escorts – his cargo van and Shao and Sebastian in tow. They arrive at the hotel a bit early – which is to stay they were only 15 minutes late – and we load up the van and head to SFO. We want to get better seats on our return flight, so we make sure to get to the airport by 11:15AM PST (3:15AM CST) and we quickly make it to the check in counter. We check in five pieces of luggage (smaller gifts please) with our two heaviest pieces just straddling the 50lb limit at 49 and 51lbs (this is why Yang packs). The check in process takes a long, long time. Suffice to say the check in clerk is really nice and she needed to be because she was really,really slow. It did give the kids time to bond (pictures taken by Lydia)

We got a bulkhead row – four seats across just in front of the movie screen – so our early arrival was worth it. York and Shao were nice enough to run down to La Tapitia and get us some burritos, saving us the horror of Air China meal service (think frozen TV dinner) which we managed to eat anyway. We spend some more time with the Fremont Chao’s and at 12:00PM PST (4AM CST) head to the security check. More waiting and it turned out our flight was delayed by an hour. The kids took the chance to draw, even Elisa getting into the act.

We board, scrounge some overhead space for our carry-on backpacks, and by the time we takeoff everyone is asleep but me. It is now 3PM PST (7AM CST). The flight was mostly uneventful. Kids slept for a couple hours, then awake for eight, then slept for the final two. Aidan and Lydia were comfortable entertaining themselves, Lydia with her drawings and watching DVDs. Aidan with his homework, toys, and games.  Yang and I took turns taking care of Elisa which is to say Yang mostly took care of Elisa. Well, I actually did help a bit. Elisa was happy but active and not wanting to stay in our seats. So we (she) walked her (us) around a lot.

By the time we landed it was 2:30AM PST (6:30PM CST) and the weather forecast was right. It was cold and snowy in Beijing. At first, it seemed like not a big deal. We landed pretty much on time accounting for out delayed departure and we got through immigration quickly. But then things slowed down. Luggage took a long time to come out. There was a huge line of people waiting to get on the subway back into town. There were no taxis (the main way people get to/from airport here) to be found. It turned out Beijing was in the middle of its heaviest snow in 40-60 years, only one runway was open, and as a result nearly all flights were cancelled.  I thought of the man behind me on the plane, frustrated that the un-boarding taking so long, because as it was he was running late for his connecting flight. I guess he had plenty of time now. We were one of the fortunate ones. Yang’s father had sent his driver to pick us up and once deposited in the car we could safely – if cautiously – drive home. The roads we “ok”, wet with snow but not yet slick with ice and we made it home in under and hour. It was 5AM PST (9PM CST). Door to door time, 19 hours.

And it was nice to be home with warm dumplings waiting. And then it was nice to sleep.