Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Hobi's in India Video

I don't know where my brain has been!  While updating the Rising Star blogs I realized I never posted my family video from India on my own blog!!
Here it is...10 months later!

Monday, May 26, 2008

Camping with the Amish




For Memorial Day weekend we left the city life, the cell phones, and the toliets behind and joined up with the Amish in Lancaster, PA.  This provided a welcomed dose of "family time."
We pitched our tent, made a fire and enjoyed the SLOW pace of life- right in the backyard of an Amish Farm!  It is so great to have Sam around for long weekends.  Camping is at the top of our To Do List!  We had a great time here!

Friday, March 28, 2008

The adventure is in the journey NOT the destination!

My trip to China was definitely eventful! Upon arriving I puked in the plane, missed my connecting flight, experienced 12 hour jet-lag and Sam had his passport stolen! This trip could only get better!
It’s pathetic to admit but I enjoyed being strapped to my seat for 13 hours-knowing I wouldn’t be beckoned to the bathroom to wipe a toddler, or hear the words: “Mom, I’m hungry.” As far as I was concerned this 13 hour flight was 13 hours of bliss. Every so often a drink, snack and 3 corse meal were brought to me on a TRAY! I had an air conditioner, light, remote and stewartest button at my fingertips, and my seat transformed into my bed when I was ready to sleep! The last time I experienced treatment like this was at the Hospital after giving birth! I soaked it all up! When the final hour to my destination arrived my luck changed. I was hit with motion sickness! I no longer wanted to be alone. It was a humbling experience utilizing the “paper bag” and not have anyone to deflect the awkwardness. I was then burdened by carrying the evidence throughout the airport in search of the trash bin! That obscure little paper bag felt like it had neon lights and bells attached announcing my unfortunate luck to the population of Beijing. I had just enough time to find the “water closet” rid myself of the encumbrance then move on to customs and make a connecting flight to Xian where I was to meet up with Sam.
Once again my good fortune came through and I found myself at my next flight in no time. I checked the gate and saw passengers loading but the destination was not Xian, so I sat down to wait. After the airplane at this gate pulled away I checked to see when my flight was scheduled to leave. At this very moment fear struck me. The long and the short of it is I had to reclaim my luggage, reschedule my flight, recheck my luggage and go through security again. (Which apparently means; Chinese men get to cut in front of American woman! I surprised myself at my courage- considering my misfortune as of late.)
Now, I enjoyed another 2 hours of airport bliss before my journey continued. I’m a quick learner so I made sure to take Dramamine before boarding, as to not repeat the first adventure that started all this. I boarded the plane and fell asleep, for the first time in 20 hours.
I stumbled into Sam’s Hotel room, noticed the bed was pink and crashed.
The next morning I woke up 7am China time (7pm US) and was ready to go. That was the end of my jet lag!
I joined our friends at breakfast while Sam went to the Hotel Safe (located at the front desk) to secure my passport and money. My good fortune didn’t waste any time to sleep and jumped right in to pay homage to Sam. His safe was empty! His Passport, wallet & cash gone! Once again our agenda for the day was interrupted. The reality of this was Sam couldn’t fly in or out of the country now. He didn’t have an identity. While the Chinese police were called, and the US Embassy contacted I called home and disturbed 4 separate families at an odd time of night in search of a copy of Sam’s birth certificate and a fax machine ASAP! By noon, Sam had been questioned and did his fare share of questioning before we had a faxed birth certificate and Hotel management back in the safe looking in each box. After being assured it would be impossible for his key to open a different box, Sam insisted they take him inside the safe and prove him wrong. To our relief the 3rd box they tried revealed Sam’s misplaced property! It turned out the worker assigned Sam key #241 and put his belongings in box #214! Now, our vacation would begin.
The following 5 days were full of sites, chopsticks, and now memories!

My pictures tell the rest of our journey.