Friday, May 27, 2011

Home

This was a real, truly live place. And I remember that some of it wasn't very nice.......but most of it was beautiful. But just the same, all I kept saying to everybody was, I want to go home. And they sent me home.

Oh, but anyway, Polly, I'm home!

Home! And this is my room -- and you're all here! And I'm not going to leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all!

And -- there's no place like home!

I'm sitting here in my pajamas, my laundry is in the dryer. I've had a McDonald's hamburger and a spoon full of peanut butter, the dogs have all been cuddled, and I'm about to catch up on TV that was recorded while we were gone, though given that I've been up more than 24 hrs, that probably isn't going to last very long! In fact if I don't finish this entry soon, I'm going to go to sleep first and finish it later. I am fading fast.

Yes, we are finally home. 15 days, so many cities I can't remember, 3 boats, 9 flights, 8 airports and we are finally unpacking our luggage back in Davis again. (That sounds like something you'd hear on Amazing Race).

The elevator reminded us what day it was when we went down to breakfast

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(We are imagining a "changing of the carpet" ceremony in the lobby of the hotel, as eight employees march in with 8 rugs and remove the old one and install the new one for each day, the old ones ceremoneously rolled up to be stored for another week. I'm sorry I was never up at midnight to watch it!)

We finished our packing and met down in the lobby, where we chatted with local guide Polly for a bit until the bus arrived to take us to the airport. I could tell from the air as we walked out the hotel door that we were leaving at the right time. It was going to be the first hot and humid day we'd had.

The ride to the airport was nice, to see the harbor for the last time, and to see the bridges we had come over at night on our way in. Disneyland Hong Kong is on the same road and I loved the highway signs!

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They say that Disneyland-Hong Kong is small and not riotously popular, though another is to be built in Shanghai and everyone is anticipating that.

We were at the airport in plenty of time and began to ease back into life in the U.S. with milk shakes.

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Getting through security was not fun, since they unpacked EVERYTHING in everyone's carry-on and examined it. I had carefully packed something breakable in my backpack and it was removed, examined and shoved back in without any regard for anything (fortunately it escaped unscathed).

The flight was long and the movie choices were not all that good. I was unable to sleep at all and ended up watching Criminal Minds and House! Just like at home.

We drove Mike and Char home and then headed to Davis, stopping for a Jack-in-the-Box hamburger. We picked mail up at the post office before coming home. Nice thing about being away is that there is so much mail waiting for you when you get home!!!

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Oh, Aunty Em...there's no place like home! But I sure had fun on this trip...

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