Today we said good-bye to Jeff, Darla, Kady and Michael. Then we boarded our plane for home. We already really miss everyone and miss China. It was a wonderful experience.
However, the trip home left a bit to be desired (at least parts of it). The airline staff for Northwest on all of our flights was wonderful. But, let me tell you about security.
At Guangzhou's airport, security went through all of our carry-on luggage (this was OK. Everybody needs to be safe these days). But, Karen had the remainders of a soft-drink and bottled water to make bottles for Natalie. The officer went to the trouble to make Karen open and taste all off them. OK, no biggy. But, after all that threw them away and left us without anything to make a bottle for Natalie. Karen was fit to be tied, which she should of been.
Then another check in Tokyo. When we arrived in Detroit, everyone's luggage was removed for a customs check (point-of-entry into U.S.), then put onto next flight. OK, no big deal. But, one piece of our hard-side luggage was shattered with pieces missing. OK, so since we have a little over a 4-hour layover, we go upstairs, get it replaced (thanks, Northwest because their replacement piece was WAY nicer than our busted-up one). go BACK through security after re-checking the new piece.
Their were two pleasant points to all of this. The new piece of luggage and what happened next. Karen was giving the Detroit security officer the rundown of all our mishaps on this flight and ended with "all I want is to unwind before we finish our flight home and drink a cold pop." The officer grins at her and from out of nowhere pulls out an unopened, ice-cold Diet Pepsi, tells Karen to enjoy it and drink as much as she can before we get to our next point in line. After everything, this made Karen's day. Gotta love random acts of kindness.
Then we got home we were surprised by Karen's son an our friends with a "It's A Girl!" sign in the yard, a welcome home sign and a beautiful cake. It felt SO GOOD to be home.
No comments:
Post a Comment