February 7, 2013-
Oh my. Where to start?
Our flight out of Beijing was scheduled to leave at 8am on Friday (February 8). Now, in the past we've gotten up REALLY early and high-tailed to the Beijing airport. This time we decided to bypass the stress of the early morning wake-up call (I mean, who really enjoys getting up at 2am????? I certainly don't! Even if it means going on an awesome trip.) and stay at the Beijing Hilton Airport hotel.
So…after a long day of work for Mark, school for the girls and preparations (and library volunteering) for me…we zoomed up to Beijing.
Oh, and I might mention *the other reason* why we drove to Beijing on Thursday night instead of Friday morning. Due to the incredibly bad air quality of late the highways between Tianjin and Beijing sometimes are closed (yes folks, it's that bad!).
Anyway, we made it to the hotel….and checked into our amazing posh freakishly expensive room. Two years ago I would have choked at the cost for this room but now it's just par for the course. Boy, times sure have changed for us.
Just for your information: Mark tried to book a room for all four of us online…they showed only one room that was over 2000USD/night (ummm….no thanks!). When he entered in THREE people…this room popped up. Now, I'm pretty sure in the USA a room like this could easily fit two FAMILIES. China, you're just weird!!!!
Here's the room:
Check out my gorgeous lobster dinner (I don't want to think about how much it cost!):
Time for bed! We've got to get up early to catch our Cathay Pacific flight out of Terminal 3. Nighty night!
>>>>> Good Morning<<<<<<<
Are you ready??? We've been ready for this day for MONTHS!!!
We're all checked in and through security. Can someone please explain to me why it is that you have to go through not one …not two…but three different passport security checks??? I'm glad that China takes it's security issues very seriously!
We didn't get any breakfast at the hotel (can you believe it- for the price we paid the room didn't come with breakfast?!?). Hey! We see an old stand-by favorite….Starbucks!
Of course, there have also been many flights canceled lately due to the lousy air pollution in Beijing. Keeping our fingers crossed that we get to leave today!!!!
Whew! Looks like our flight is boarding. First stop- Hong Kong!
Luckily for us, flying gets easier and easier. May or may not have anything to do with the TVs, iPods and other gadgets. Ahem. Anyway, we've made it to Hong Kong! Time to go through yet another round of passport control and security checks to get to our next gate……
And we're through.
Let's go find some lunch and find our gate!
Guess what's for lunch???? SUSHI!!!! We do love sushi. It's our favorite airport food when we can find it (I'm sure I don't need to mention that it's much healthier than McD's or KFC, do I????).
Can you see the name of this airline?
It might be difficult to read but it's EVA AIR. I don't know why but it just tickled my funny bone to take Ava's photo with an airplane with her name on it (Okay, okay…so her name isn't Eva. However, if I'd done the German spelling of her name she would have been Eva. And yes, I'm easily amused!!!)
Anyway… our flight for Auckland is Now Boarding! Time to go! Bye!!!!!!