Time in the USA, Part One

The trip from Shanghai to the US wasn't as bad as the trip from the US to Beijing that we made back in August. The first flight, from Shanghai to Seattle, actually wasn't all that long--only about 10 hours. And the good news was that I slept a lot of the way. Didn't watch any movies except for a small part of the sequel to Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. Once we landed in Seattle, we got to spend a couple hours with Jeff, which was nice, except we forgot to give him his gift bag that was in our suitcase; instead, we transferred the bag on to the next flight. Oops! Still, we had a nice chat at a coffee shop in the airport. However, we overstayed a bit; we didn't realized that we had to go through security a second time after going into the main terminal. As a consequence, we barely made it to our second flight. The second flight was also shorter than expected: I watched the film The Founder with Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, the man who "founded" McDonalds (he actually stole the concept from the two McDonald brothers, it turns out). Interesting film! I was tired when we got back, but that evening we still met up with Crystalyn, Amber, and Destiny at Acapulco--I was SOOO in the mood for Mexican food, especially guacamole! Kerry was so tired by the end of the evening that I had to drive home; it was so weird to drive for the first time in five months!

The view from the plane, flying into MN.

Me, Kerry, and Jeff, in Seattle.

Wednesday:we went for our dental appointments; they were pretty uneventful. We had to see the dentist that I didn't care much for, but Therese, the office manager, is very nice. Afterwards, we hung out with Rachelle a bit: breakfast at Baker's Square followed by some shopping at JCPenney's. That evening we got to see Alison and Art! We all had lasagna for dinner. In the midst of dinner, Bradley showed up with Bette!!!! I was so happy and held her tight.  :)  Later, we distributed some gifts all around. It felt like Christmas--lots of fun.

Thursday:Kerry and I shmoozed at Century for a bit, saying hi to a lot of people. Unfortunately, we were late to lunch at Jethro's with Pat, Melanie, and Randy. Randy had to run, but Pat and Melanie stayed. Fortunately, we were able to postpone our doctors' appointments. Had a tasty BBQ burger and fries and good conversation with the ladies. Afterwards, we went to the doctor--we met with Dr. Leppink instead of Dr. Monteiro. Very long wait, and Dr. Leppink likes to talk, but the news was mostly good. Kerry's A1Cs went down quite a bit!  Then we went on to Fogo for Crystalyn's graduation party. Alison and Art did not come because Alison had a bad cough. The food was very tasty, but the pace was very frenetic and they screwed up the bill a bit. Kind of annoying. On the plus side, I managed to pace myself and went home full but not sick.

Fogo meat--it can't be beat!

Crystalyn's graduation party!!

Friday: A very low-key, quiet day, mostly because I didn't hear from Alison until late. We spent much of the day at home, and then we went to the post office and some grocery stores (Wal-Mart, Target, Cub) to do turkey shopping (we're going to have a turkey on Super Bowl Sunday). Alison and Art did come over for dinner in the evening; we had Maureen's speciality, "Anna's chicken."  Then we visited a bit before Kerry took Alison and Art home.

Saturday: Today we ran around with Alison and Art. Kerry and Art went to a gaming store while Alison and I went to Barnes and Noble for a bit. Kerry and Art later joined us. I bought a couple discounted stuffed toys and a couple discounted books (some were 75% off!). From there we went to Donatelli's. Even though the food I had was good, there was one incident that ruined the meal for me: the waitress forgot to bring out my appetizer, so basically at one point everyone was eating their entrees and I was sitting there drinking iced tea. Fun. Then we went to another gaming store so Kerry could find more miniatures. I found a vintage version of Alice in Wonderland for only $8, so that was pretty cool. At the end of the day, we went to the winter carnival in St. Paul and saw some beautiful ice sculptures and the ice palace. Gorgeous, but freezing. We didn't stay a long time. Around 8 pm, we dropped Alison and Art off and then went home and watched TV.

Gate to Winter Carnival in St. Paul.