the journey back to china

After a really great time in the US with our family & friends, we began the journey back to our beloved China. Mom dropped us off at the airport in plenty of time, and as we said our tearful ‘see you later’s’ (we don’t like goodbye’s), we were just about 2 hours away from departing Minneapolis….or so we thought. We savored our last Starbuck’s as we boarded the 747 and got all situated for the 11 hours to Tokyo. It’s a whirlwind of emotions to drop in and out of the people’s lives that you love so much, and leaving is just never easy.

After many announcements and a couple false starts, we were informed that our plane had some mechanical issues, and we would have to spend one more night in Minnesota. We lugged ourselves off the plane and back inside the terminal where we began waiting in lines to re-book, get meal and hotel vouchers and make plans to spend one more night in MN. People were not happy. We generally were not thrilled with the delay, because we had mentally prepared for the big trip back. But we quickly turned our misfortune into a wonderful memory, as we planned one final evening together in America. Complete with one last trip to the MOA, one last night of NFL football, and one more morning Starbuck’s latte, it really wasn’t too bad a deal after all.