Arrived at LAST!

We have MADE IT! There were a few times in the day where we seriously did question whether we would, but we did. Starting in Portland very early this morning... I woke up 5 minutes before the alarm at 4:25 am. We were up and showered and Jeremy brought me to the airport where we met Nurit & Pearl and Nurit's Parents, who had brought them to the airport. Here is our little travel group:

We checked in with no problem, then had a cup of coffee and started walking to the gate an hour before the flight. We arrived at the gate 45 minutes before the flight only to be told, "no, this flight was cancelled. We announced 5 times already, everyone is re-booked on an alaska flight, but you need to get to gate C3 NOW!" We were at A7, which is the furthest possible place in the A/B/C terminals...so we started our morning by running down the hallway to C3. Pearl was absolutely a super trooper and did GREAT. We made it and they were very reassuring when we got there, they said don't worry, just get on now! They had changed us to a 6:45 flight which was late, and finally left at the same time our flight was supposed to leave- 7:45. In the end, we got to San Francisco at the same time we would have anyway, maybe even a few minutes earlier.

We went to the International Terminal and found Mary, Glen & Maeve and we all checked in together, then went to our gate. We had a few hours to spare becuase the next flight leaving San Francisco was delayed due to weather yesterday in Japan, and high winds today in San Francisco! We hung out at the gate, walked around a bit, and snacked on some pizzas we bought there. Pearl & Maeve loved the cardboard cutouts of the flight attendants outside the business class lounges...Finally we boarded our plane for Tokyo. About 5 hours into the flight we started realizing that we were going to have a VERY tight connection in Tokyo! Here are Mary, Nurit & Glen before we realized this little possibility...

We talked to one of the flight attendants and explained our situation, and she worked very dilligently with her head flight attendant to help us out, but also explained, "I just don't know..." The big problem was we would have to clear security again in Tokyo, and with the weather they had yesterday, and the time of day that we were arriving, she said it would be a very long line!! She told us *maybe* there would be someone there with a sign for us, and maybe not. She DID allow us to move up to economy plus along with some other people with tight connections to be closer to the front so we could get off sooner. Finally after 11 hours on the plane, we landed in Tokyo and started RUNNING. We got to security and saw someone with a Guangzhou sign!!! We ran right to them and said "YES! that's US!"- so they stuck stickers on us and sent us to the front of the security line. They just pointed to the line, but as I saw a flight attendant pulling one other person straight through to the front of the line,w e 6 just tagged onto that and went right to the front! It worked and we blasted through security in record time, and even made it to our gate with 10 minutes to spare!! I look a little sweaty and a little worse for wear, but here it is- the departure gate for Guangzhou! THANK YOU JAL!!!! We would not have made it without you!

And now it's late. Tomorrow we fly to Guilin & drive to Yangshuo for a little holiday/relaxing, but right now, it's time for sleep!