End of China trip
Sorry to give a cliff's notes version of the last few days, but got kinda burnt out by all of that posting. After visiting my mother-in-law's side of the family, we also had to visit my father-in-laws side. This side doesn't like the other. E doesn't particularly like her aunts. We were picked up by E's cousin, who had picked us when we first got to Chongqing. They put us up at a nice hotel, which could be referred to as a 'Roach Hotel'. The reason was not being clever at all. Everything in the room was nice, but every morning we would find 2 or 3 roaches. I had to kill everyone of them. I covered every opening and they still got in. Damn ninja roaches.
As far as seeing her family, we traveled to where CX's parents were buried and went to a local restaurant. Very tasty. We also visited where her cousin's parents were buried, a western style cemetery. I don't know if the bodies were cremated and buried there or not. Then the following day we went to see the whole Deng clan at her cousin's restaurant. Once again, great food. Very noisy table. After the food, we were forced to be in a ton of pictures. A personal hell for me. But we survived. All E and I wanted to do was sleep, but no, we had to have one last dinner. Went to a bbq place and it was very tasty. E loved it. We left Chongqing the next day and headed back to Shanghai.
We were able to get back to Mitch and Kelly's place without a problem. They let us rest, it was wonderful. The next day we finished our shopping for gifts and went to a fresh noodle place for lunch. It was really impressive to watch them work. We felt a great comfort in traveling Shanghai. We weren't visitors, we knew where to go. The last day in Shanghai was spent with Mitch, who had the day off. We decided to cook our last day in. We made dumplings. Well, E made dumplings, Mitch and I made abominations. But they were edible. It was fun to just chill out our final night. The next day we went to the airport for our flight to the US.
The flight back was only 11 hrs. I mean, what the frick?! We took a straight route and must have had a tail wind or something. We arrived in LAX really early b4 our next flight. We made it through customs without a problem. E was worried b/c of all the spices we had. We decided to stay in the terminal and eat an Applebee's. But that was not the first thing I wanted to accomplish. I took our empty tea bottles and filled them water from a fountain. I called them freedom waters. It felt good to be able to drink water without fear. We had a connecting flight at DFW, so everyone boarded the plane. There was an unclaimed bag discovered, so everyone had to get off the plane with their bags. This delayed the flight so much, others would miss their connecting flights.
An empty "Sorry" was expressed and we flew to DFW. We got there with about an hour to spare and made our final flight. My dad was nice enough to pick us up and we headed home. I wanted to get home quickly, so I drove. Felt good to be in control of something again. We didn't lose any baggage and made it home safely. Over all, China was an amazing trip. I am already wanting to go back with all of the knowledge I gain while over there. But that will have to wait a little longer. I'm still tired.
As far as seeing her family, we traveled to where CX's parents were buried and went to a local restaurant. Very tasty. We also visited where her cousin's parents were buried, a western style cemetery. I don't know if the bodies were cremated and buried there or not. Then the following day we went to see the whole Deng clan at her cousin's restaurant. Once again, great food. Very noisy table. After the food, we were forced to be in a ton of pictures. A personal hell for me. But we survived. All E and I wanted to do was sleep, but no, we had to have one last dinner. Went to a bbq place and it was very tasty. E loved it. We left Chongqing the next day and headed back to Shanghai.
We were able to get back to Mitch and Kelly's place without a problem. They let us rest, it was wonderful. The next day we finished our shopping for gifts and went to a fresh noodle place for lunch. It was really impressive to watch them work. We felt a great comfort in traveling Shanghai. We weren't visitors, we knew where to go. The last day in Shanghai was spent with Mitch, who had the day off. We decided to cook our last day in. We made dumplings. Well, E made dumplings, Mitch and I made abominations. But they were edible. It was fun to just chill out our final night. The next day we went to the airport for our flight to the US.
The flight back was only 11 hrs. I mean, what the frick?! We took a straight route and must have had a tail wind or something. We arrived in LAX really early b4 our next flight. We made it through customs without a problem. E was worried b/c of all the spices we had. We decided to stay in the terminal and eat an Applebee's. But that was not the first thing I wanted to accomplish. I took our empty tea bottles and filled them water from a fountain. I called them freedom waters. It felt good to be able to drink water without fear. We had a connecting flight at DFW, so everyone boarded the plane. There was an unclaimed bag discovered, so everyone had to get off the plane with their bags. This delayed the flight so much, others would miss their connecting flights.
An empty "Sorry" was expressed and we flew to DFW. We got there with about an hour to spare and made our final flight. My dad was nice enough to pick us up and we headed home. I wanted to get home quickly, so I drove. Felt good to be in control of something again. We didn't lose any baggage and made it home safely. Over all, China was an amazing trip. I am already wanting to go back with all of the knowledge I gain while over there. But that will have to wait a little longer. I'm still tired.