Anyway, I finally made it home. Almost 24 hours after I was supposed to. My Shanghai-Toronto 14 hour flight was 7 hours late, so I missed the options for getting to Manchester on Friday. They put me up in a travelodge overnight, where I got a tiny bit of sleep. Got up early to get to the airport for my 8:30 flight. First it was late. Then it was canceled. At this point I had already gone through Canadian customs the night before and then through US customs in the morning and taken the bus to the terminal area. When the flight was canceled I had to take the bus back to the main part, wait over 30 minutes for my luggage to be returned, head back through Canadian customs, and go to the ticket counter to get alternate travel. There were no more Manchester flights and the Boston flight was really late. With a snowstorm heading in, I decided to go for the noon-time flight to Baltimore, knowing that I could get onto a Southwest flight back to Manchester (SW has about 6 a day). Once I got onto the flight to Baltimore, things started going smoothly again. Thank goodness. I got my luggage and was able to check in and get to the gate for the flight home with little effort. My bags came out early in Manchester, too. And it was even easy to get to my car, which started, despite the very cold temperature.
Anyway, back to the tale-telling from China! David, the development manager, picked me up at my hotel Friday morning and we took a taxi over to the Yu Garden. There is both a garden, and a district mostly filled with shopping.
The first thing we did when we got there, though, was have breakfast at one of the best breakfast places in Shanghai. I think this may also be the best food shot I took the whole time. The dumplings were spectacularly yummy.
The garden itself was gorgeous, with beautiful trees and lovely buildings, all lined up so that every view was great. The creatures on the walls and rooftops were also delightful.
And of course, what would a 500 year-old district in China be without great rooflines for me to take a million photos of? :)
Once we hit the garden and then I did a little shopping, I went back to the hotel and packed up my stuff. And it brings us back to today!
So once I arrived home, I turned up the thermostats and went to pick up the dogs. They're so cute! And it's soooooo nice to be home. Especially after 44 hours of travel...
