We didn't have to leave the hotel until 10:30 so we got to sleep in a little, take our time having a good breakfast, and pack our bags. I bought a tote bag in the shopping district the day before so I had plenty of space to pack up all my dirty laundry (which seems to take up more space that clean clothes) and souvenirs/gifts. We had lunch at a restaurant out of town. We were early and ended up being the only group there. No one was very hungry as we had just had breakfast but in true fashion we all had beer. I mean, we all had shandies... the Brits got us hooked. It's 3/4 beer and 1/4 Sprite... very delicious!
Next they drove us back into town to catch the Maglev Train. It's a high speed train direct to the airport. We ended up going 300 kilometers per hour! That's about 186 MPH! Woo, it took us 8 minutes to get to the airport and cost about $4.00.
The bus brought us our luggage at the airport and we checked in for our flight. Of course, Dede used her elite status to go straight to the front of the line. We also got passes to the Chinese equivalent of the Admiral's Club. They had free water, soda, beer, wine, and liquor as well as a variety of snacks including Lay's potato chips and peanuts. We also got free wifi there. After stuffing our bags full of bottles of water and potato chips we headed down to the gates to do a little last minute shopping and spend what was left of our Yuan. Dede and I had no trouble accomplishing that. I got a cute blue and white tea pot and some matching tea cups. Dede got a tea steeper to match her kitchen. Tom and Dede had requested an upgrade to Business Class again but didn't get it. They said all the seats were full. James and I were giving them a hard time about having to sit back in steerage. Our seats are by the chickens so they must be sitting near the cattle. Ha.Ha.
Our plane was originally delayed 30 minutes but we ended up taking off 2 hours after scheduled, sitting on the tarmac for over an hour. The flight was direct to Chicago, thank God! James and I sat right behind Tom and Dede. Their overhead lights and video screens weren't working. Dede was getting upset so James and I switched with them. We both had tablets to entertain us. No big deal. I ended up getting that restless leg thing and had to stand up for about 30 minutes during the flight. While I was up walking around I noticed an empty seat in Business Class. Dede asked a stewardess about it and she said actually there are two empty seats in Business Class. Wow, that made Dede even more upset! We joked that she will have an appointment with the president of American Airlines on Monday morning in Dallas. I maybe slept for an hour. Our flight was technically over night. We left Shanghai around 6pm Saturday evening but arrived in Chicago around 6pm Saturday... only it was a 12 hour flight... so 6pm in Chicago is actually 7am Sunday in Shanghai. Did you follow that? Ha.Ha.
I was so happy to be home. We went straight to the lake, with one small stop at McDonald's for a cheeseburger and coke, then I went straight to bed. When I did emerge in the morning I had a big tall glass of ice cold milk. Gosh, I love AMERICA! Had a wonderful trip but, so happy to be home! I'm still trying to figure out what time it is...
I had a chance to look over my previous blogs and noticed I made a lot of typos! I'm going to go back and edit them and also insert some photos. I also plan to write a summary blog of the trip highlighting some major themes and topics. Hope you all have enjoyed reading about my trip!
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