111 Weeks--Going Home

111weeks and zero weeks left.  WE ARE GOING HOME!!!!

Down to breakfast at 6:15.  Back to the room.  I laid back down while Todd and Cameron watched a movie.  After I woke up I watched a movie called Three Inches.  Luckily the bathroom had a TV so I could get ready and still watch it.

We walked to Home Plate for our last BBQ fix in Beijing.  They weren't opened yet so we sat outside waiting.  Todd had a long conversation with the owner while waiting.  Inside to order.  We had another good lunch.  We walked back to the hotel, grabbed our stuff, and went down to the van.

Off to the airport.  Of course the road was wall to wall cars.  We still arrived early.  Mr. Xue parked the van.  Him and Todd both went to get carts.  We unloaded all 6 bags and put them on the carts. We made sure we had everything and then Cameron handed Mr. Xue a red envelope and told him thank you.  I then did the same.  Mr. Xue looked surprised we each gave him an envelope. As we were walking away I got a little teary eyed...again.  It really was go time.

Inside we found the delta desk and had to wait for almost an hour to check in.  Todd got the bags all checked in and got our tickets.  Off to security.  When Todd handed me my ticket I immediately looked to see where our seats were.  Business class baby!  I looked at Todd and told him he wasn't so sly.  He had his proud little smirk on.  I was pretty sure we would be there but Todd had been setting us up like we weren't.  Cameron didn't think to look at the ticket.

Cameron reading in the airport.

That's a lot of luggage.

Security was a little bit of a nightmare.  We had a carry on suitcase, 3 back packs, the camera bag, and my purse.  It took 15-20 minutes for us to be checked. They had to take everything out and recheck everything.  We had the Wii, Xbox, all controllers, cords, etc. All of our expensive items that we needed to make sure got home.  The guy helping us was very nice and helpful.  Luckily Todd knew exactly how to put everything back in and which bag things came out of.  My job was to make sure nothing was left behind.  Check.

Off to the lounge. We got comfy to hang out for a little over an hour.  We then went down to the gate. Cameron was asking Todd if he thought we would get upgraded.  Todd said he doubted it.  We talked about who was getting the window seat and Cameron wanted to play rock, paper, scissors to see if he could sit on the isle.  Of course Todd told him no.

Todd handed Cameron his ticket and we started to board.  We had to go through a security check point again which meant they had to check my bags again.  They didn't take everything out but still a pain.

We were walking down the jet bridge and Todd turned down the business class isle.  Cameron said "whoa, why did dad go that way?  Oh, we have the bulk head."  He then looked at his ticket.  He realized he had seat 1.  He was pretty excited.

Got all our stuff up and got comfy.  They brought us drinks and we chatted with a guy from Detroit for a bit.  Then it was go time.  Up in the air.  Watched some movies, slept, ate, bathroom, repeat. Cameron basically slept the whole time.  He has never slept like that before.  That's what our 12 1/2 hours consisted of.

Asleep before he could even lay down.

Now he was comfortable.

As we were waiting to get off the plane an announcement came on.  They said there were 45 bags left in Beijing and this affected 35 passengers.  There were a lot of groans.  One of our stewards told me it was no one in business class.  Thank goodness.  We would have had nothing to wear.

Off in Detroit.  Ahhh...America.  Oh how we missed you.  We went right to Global Entry.  This was Cameron's first time getting to use it.  He acted like he was a pro.  When we went through the desk area we had to show our slip.  There were 5-6 security guys standing there.  The guy behind the desk asked me if he was my son.  I said yes.  He said he seemed too young for global entry.  We told them Cameron just got it a month ago.  They were all impressed and thought it was cool he had it. They called him a world traveler.  If they only knew all the places this kid has been.

Grabbed our 6 bags and then deposited them again.  We went to Chili's for a bite to eat.  I had to get a Michelob  Ultra also.  Yum.  I turned my new phone on.  Holy cow...I could get my email, get on Facebook, and send texts.  How exciting.  No more need for a VPN.  I love America.

America = Big smiles.

Yum!

We went to our gate to wait for our plane.  Boarded and in 55 minutes we were in the Moline airport and very excited.  We hit the bathroom and then walked out to the waiting area.  Mom, Dad, Scott, Kelly, Grace, Aunt Sharon, Bill, Joanette, and Ian (Cameron's friend) were waiting for us with a sign and balloons.  Oh was it good to see them.

Someone is happy to be home.

Happy to see family and friends.

The shirts Scott and Kelly gave us.  To cool.

Cameron with his buddy Ian and Grace.

Scott and Kelly had special shirts made for our return.  They were super cute.  We couldn't wait to wear them.  Our 6 bags were the first ones on the carousel.  Dad put 3 in his car and Todd put the rest in our rental car.  Cameron had to ride with my parents because the car was full.  We said goodbye to Ian, Joanette, Aunt Sharon, and Bill.  The rest of us went to our house.

We walked in and Kelly had made a big sign and it was hanging in the dining room with more balloons.  My parents had beer, pop, water, Gatorade, and all kinds of food in our refrigerator for us. How awesome was that?  My mom also had an angel food cake sitting on the counter.  Yum!  We certainly appreciate everything they have done for us.  It made this adventure so much easier knowing they were taking care of everything.  I'm not sure how we are ever going to be able to thank them enough.

Cameron couldn't wait to climb on the tractor.

A welcome home  sign.

All of our luggage.

Cameron loved the new carpet.

What a goofball.

We hung out chatting for a bit.  Everyone left, we showered, and were in bed by 11:45.  We were all pretty wiped out.

Last Night In Beijing

Up, ate breakfast, packed all of our stuff, and waited for Mr. Xue.  He was suppose to pick us up at 8:00 but Todd got a message saying it would be 8:15.  Seriously, we were ready to go.  He arrived and we packed the van...4 suitcases, 2 giant duffel bags, 3 back packs, a camera bag, and a giant purse.  All the essentials we need when we get back to America.  Off to Beijing.

We arrived to a lot of traffic in Beijing.  That's one thing we won't miss.  Our first stop was Chef Too for a light lunch.  Todd and I shared a burger and Cameron had fish tacos.  They recently made some changes to the restaurant.  Now they have a little store inside where you can buy meat and other items.  To me I thought it was odd because the things you could buy were really random and odd things.  I guess it didn't matter since we would never be there again.  Good lunch though.  While we were eating for some reason we were talking about hair or lack there of.  Cameron said "Grandpa isn't bald he just has a lot of space between each hair".  Holy cow we all started cracking up laughing.  We then had to decide which grandpa he was talking about.  He said it applied to both.

We went to check in the hotel next.  We chatted with William, Todd's friend who works at the hotel. He told Todd he was going to give us the biggest room in the hotel for our last stay but the hotel owner was in town.  Instead he gave us the second largest room.  What a nice guy.

Up to the 27th floor.  We found the Capital Suite.  The door opened outward.  We walked in and Cameron said "I wish we would have stayed here for a week".  Big living room, big table in case we needed to have a meeting, big refrigerator/freezer, whirlpool bath tub with a tv ...what more did a kid need?

Enjoying the comfy couch.

What an odd place to read.

Our gift...sweets, fruit, chips, beer, and a panda.

We walked down to Ladies Walking Street.  I was on a mission to get a pink Hello Kitty phone case just in case Cameron gets a phone.  Todd knew of this idea as well.  We started walking around and pretended to look at IPad covers when we were actually scoping out phone cases.  Cameron had no clue.  We lost Todd for a minute but then found him.  We continued looking around.  I found the perfect pink case.  It said Hello Kitty and had a picture.  I slyly asked how much...30 rmb (less than $5).  Sold.  I threw the money and quickly stuck the case in my shorts just as Cameron came around the corner.  I bent down and pretended to be looking at something in a case.  We continued on.  Todd mouthed to me he bought a case.  I mouthed back 'me too'.  He almost died.  We both started laughing.  Cameron asked what was so funny and I made up a story about the green iPad cover we saw and Todd played along.  Phew.

Back to the hotel.  Mr. Xue picked us up at 3:30 to go to Yashow Market to kill some time.  We didn't need anything and we didn't really have room for anything.  We just didn't want to sit in the hotel.  We walked around but didn't see anything.  We went to the DVD store and bought 2 movies and season 34 of the Simpsons.

I see our van.

We decided to go walk around the outdoor mall across the street.  We ended up in an Adidas store. Cameron found a couple shirts he liked.  The under armor feeling type.  We asked how much.  400 rmb...whoa.  A little out of the price range (over $60).  I mentioned they probably had similar ones at the market so of course Cameron wanted to go look.

Back to the market.  The shop we buy jerseys from had the shirts.  Cameron found some he liked and we walked away.  Todd likes to be alone to work his negotiation skills.  We knew she started way out of the ball park so we weren't sure if he would get any or not.  He got 3.

Cameron and I saw a Nike shirt in another booth and it had shorts.  Cameron really liked it for whatever reason.  We waved Todd over and asked him to see if he could work his charm to get those too.  Again Cameron and I walked away.  We kept hearing Todd say "no, that's ok." She would give another price.  We couldn't see or hear Todd anymore so Cameron didn't think he would get them because the lady didn't seem like she wanted to negotiate much.  Next thing Todd walked around a corner with another package.  Cameron had a huge smile on his face.  Went in needing nothing ended up getting 4 shirts and shorts.

Mr. Xue dropped us off at the Kro.  We needed one last pizza fix.  Ordered a salad and meat fest pizza.  Delicious.  We went next door and got Blizzards from DQ.  We didn't need them but they were good.

We will miss this delicious pizza.

Back to the hotel.  Up to the lounge for a few minutes then back down to the room..  We watched The Croods.  It wasn't near as good as we hoped but it was something to watch.  Off to bed.

Cameron had to try the whirlpool tub.

Park Day

Up early as usual.  Todd and Cameron went to breakfast and I went to run.  I didn't feel like eating the hotel breakfast again.  Back to the room and showered.  At 8:30 Mr. Xue picked us up to take us to the apartment.  It was check out day.

Todd loaded our 5 suitcases into the van.  Monica, the check out lady, arrived.  We found out the landlord and our agent were not going to show up.  Todd and Monica went from room to room checking the check list.  For the most part all went well.  She kept asking where the 3rd bed was. We never had one.  After a few calls she dropped it. Todd signed off and we were out the door.  Monica said Linda would contact us later about the bed. Whatever.

Living room.

Master bedroom.

Cameron's room.

Wii room.

Cameron and I got dropped off at the hotel.  Mr. Xue was suppose to take Todd to work and then go right back to the hotel to pick us up again.  He never showed.  Todd cleared out my phone so I couldn't call anyone.  Then I remembered I had Cameron's phone which hadn't been cleared yet.  I called Todd.  At 10:30 he called Mr. Xue and he said he was on his way.  At 11:05 he finally showed up.  Irritating.  Come to find out he was doing something with the shop vac we gave him.  We told him he could have it or sell it.  He obviously thought doing something with that immediately was more important than picking us up.

While Cameron and I were waiting I asked him if he thought my phone case (a blue/green color) was too girly or if I should give it to Anthony (he was getting my phone).  Cameron said he would use it although he doesn't want an otter box case.  He went on to say he wouldn't care what the case looked like if it meant he had his own phone.  I said "really?  So if I gave you a phone with a pink Hello Kitty on it you would use it?"  His response "heck yes I would.  I wouldn't care."  Hmmm, we shall see.

Cameron and I went to TaiFung Park to meet some friends.  Megan, Stine, Mette, Peter, Erica D., Cecilia, Ivalu, all the kids, and all their ayi's were there.  It was hot. Peter took the bigger kids over to the side road to drive his remote control car.  Then the kids just ran around, chasing bubbles, and playing with the little ones.

Herman was driving.

Everybody walking back to the park.

Cameron looked huge compared to the rest of the kids.

Mette, Cecilia, Me, Stine, Ivalu, Erica, and Peter in the back.

At 12:15 everyone started heading out.  Cecilia took Cameron with her.  They went to Papa Johns for lunch, got ice cream from McDonald's, and then went to their house to play.  I tried to go to Tesco to shut the service off on both phones.  My translator was deleted so this was a little difficult.  The guy understood I was going to America but he kept asking if I wanted international calling turned on. NO, I want service ended.  He finally handed me his phone to type in English and then he translates it. Ahh, now he understood BUT I had to go to a different store with my passport to do this.  Ugh!

Back in the van and I went to the hotel.  I watched the Katy Perry movie and then went to get Todd at work.  We stopped at China Unicom on the way home to shut the service off the phones.  Mr. Xue and I went in.  It seemed like it took way longer than it should have but we got it accomplished.

We gave the little Nokia phone to Mr. Xue to do with it as he pleased.  We stopped at Ashanti to give my phone to Anthony.  He was at his apartment taking a nap so I wrote him a note and left it with one of his employees.  I later received an email from him that is below:

Momma Wallace,

Oh how the time has flown by! I still remember meeting you not so long ago on that day that opened my eyes to the world.

There are few that I'd consider friends after they leave but you're definitely one! You're infectious and genuinely an awesome person. Nothing but the best for you, Todd and young "Garlic Cameron" in future endeavours. You name our next exotic location to meet and I'll be there.

Hugs,
Panda
PS - I'll always think of you and Tsingtao when I look at the phone!

We started calling him Big Panda for some strange reason and he calls Cameron Garlic ever since those two ate garlic together in Korea.  Anthony ran a great restaurant and was a great friend.  We will miss him.

After leaving Ashanti we went to the hotel.  At 4:45 we walked back over to the apartment because we needed to check the back of the TV for the wii Skylanders.  However, if I would have asked Cameron the attachment attaches to the back of the wii not the TV but he was still with Manuel playing and I didn't have a phone to call him.  Needless to say the piece wasn't at the apartment. Better to be safe than sorry.

As we were walking back Cecilia and the kids were headed to the pool.  We jumped in their van since it was raining.  Up to the room so Cameron could get his suit on.  Down to the pool. I chatted with Cecilia and Ivalu while the kids swam.  At 6:00 Cameron and I went back to the room.  He showered and we went to the lounge.

The food selection was not good again.  We ate some fruit and then headed back to the room and ordered Jacky's.  We watched The Pirates, Band of Misfits and ate.  I had chicken fajitas and they were extremely spicy.  But, oh so delicious.  My mouth was on fire and my lips were numb but I couldn't seem to stop eating them.

Off to bed for our last sleep in TEDA.

Wrapping Things Up

Up early even though everyone said they were going to sleep in.  5:00 a.m. is not sleeping in.  The boys went to breakfast.  I just didn't feel like eating that breakfast again.  I showered.  We ran over to the apartment at 9:00.  I had to give Xiao Li a few last minute cleaning things that needed to be done. She came in on Sunday to clean before we turned the keys over. We then went to Bestown.

Bestown was in Eco-city.  Ileana and I tried to find it the other day but couldn't.  Luckily because that was the day we found the water park instead.  And Bestown...is anything but the best.  We walked around for about 30 minutes.  It could be nice when it's finished.  It looked like it was going to be like Ancient Culture Street in Tianjin with many shops.  Right now there were maybe 10 and they were selling water and snacks.  No shopping to speak of.  There was also a big city wall but it wasn't open yet either.  There will be numerous apartments that look like they will be nice but of course they weren't finished.  There were a couple restaurants open. Todd said they should change the name to Sucktown.

Fancy sign even though they lead to nothing.

The big city wall in the background.

At the gates of the city wall.

Walking on the roof.

Todd filming and me taking pictures.

We walked back out to the van and went back to the hotel.  I grabbed an envelope and then we ran over to the apartment.  Xiao Li was finished and waiting for us.  She had to give us her key so she couldn't leave.  When we walked in she was going through and looking at the big bag of change we gave her.  She was so excited.  I then told her she could have all the cleaning supplies.  Oh my...more excitement.  I ended with giving her a red envelope with some money in it.  Those are generally given at special occasions and never seeing her again after working for us for two years is a special occasion.   She looked like she had just won the lottery.  Again, we made her whole day.  She left with a big smile on her face.

We hung out watching tv.  Todd ran to Times to get himself a snack for lunch.  He then ran back to the hotel to take a load and to cool off.  The apartment didn't  have air for some reason.  I worked on the blog and watched some bad tv. Cameron was playing with Manuel and Edgar.

At 2:30 Ron and Regina came over to get our grill.  They were very excited.  They couldn't wait to start grilling.  We also gave them a bunch of charcoal and lighter fluid.

At 3:00 we walked over to Ashanti's for a late lunch with Manuel, Cecilia, Manuel, and Melisa. Anthony gave himself the day off so we didn't get to see him.  The rest of the staff took care of us though.  We ordered, ate, and chatted.  Before we left we took some pictures.  We said our goodbyes and the Wallace's walked back to the hotel.

The Cuevas' and Wallace's.  They were our first friends in TEDA.

Melisa, Manuel, and Cameron sitting at the bar.

We went to the lounge to have a drink and eat some fruit.  Back to the room to watch Hancock.  What a weird movie.  Off to bed.

In the lounge looking at our old apartment.  Sniff, sniff.

Beijing Wild Animal Park

Up at 5:23 because of the alarm.  We got ready and went to breakfast.  At 7 we were in the van headed to Beijing to the Wild Animal Park. None of us were overly excited to go but we wanted to do something to keep us busy.  It was super foggy so we weren't sure if the road would be open.  Todd asked if the road was open and Mr. Xue said yes but we headed out on a different road anyway.

We got to the park at 9:10.  Easy drive.  Todd got the tickets and we headed in.  Our first impression was the park was big and seemed to be pretty nice.  We were walking around and Cameron saw little carts to drive.  He asked if we could drive them and we said probably not.  He said "Come on, we have to drive one of those at least once in China".  We walked over to check it out.  We realized we could get a bucket of veggies and drive the cart through an enclosure and feed the animals.  Cool.

The entrance.

That water doesn't look very clean.

We were hoping Cameron didn't get attacked.

Todd paid the money and we got two carts and two buckets of food.  We headed out.  Cameron was driving and I was riding with him.  We stopped at several pens and fed the animals.  So cool.  There was a nice path to drive on and the animals seemed well taken care of. We were having fun.

We are going in.

Cameron was excited to drive.

Cute llamas.

Todd's new car.

Funky looking deer.

This is a compact car.

Cameron had to push us since we didn't have reverse.

Next we drove into a big gated pen where animals were roaming freely.  Oh no.  I wasn't big on this but we didn't have a choice.  We started in and we were throwing carrots.  Next thing a BIG llama was approaching along with deer and goats.  Cameron stopped our cart and we were swarmed. Cameron tried to drive away but got off the path into dirt.  We were stuck.  Animals everywhere.  Me screaming.  I was filming so I'm pretty sure that will be funny to watch and listen to.  The BIG llama slobbered on me and stuck his head in our bucket and ate everything.  Then the deer with his antlers stuck in my stomach tried to get more veggies which were gone.  The guard guy took his sweet time walking over to us swinging his stick. Another guy came on a motorized cart.  They finally got the animals away and got our cart back on the path.  They were laughing.  I'm sure it was funny watching us...Me!

Getting our car out of the dirt.

A little too close for comfort.

Todd didn't get attacked.

This llama is the guy that chased us and he was after Todd.

We continued on our way and I told Cameron not to stop the cart again if there were animals around. We were almost at the end and we were watching Todd feed the animals.  All of a sudden the BIG llama was charging after us again.  Cameron floored it...as fast as the slow cart could go.  The llama stopped and we went to the exit to wait for Todd.  Phew, I was never so happy to be out of an animal enclosure before.  I was stressing but it was funny.

Todd bought more veggies for each of us since the hogs ate all of ours.  We continued on the path. There were some free roaming animals but these guys weren't as aggressive.  They just slowly walked around.  Except for one white deer.  He just kept haunting us.  Every time we stopped he was there.  It was hilarious.

We stopped at a cage that had 3 small bears in it.  The cage was not big enough but the bears didn't look bad.  They just needed a little more room to play.  Maybe they don't live in the cage all the time. Who knows.

We continued on the path feeding the animals.  We were finally at the end.  We dumped all the rest of our food into a pen before exiting.  We turned our carts in and started rehashing everything that just happened.  Too funny.

We walked around.  There were all kinds of pens and enclosures for animals.  For the most part I would say they all looked pretty good.  The enclosures were nothing fancy but they seemed adequate and relatively clean.  There weren't any animals we looked at that we thought looked bad.

Good thing the sign says Keep Away.

A butterfly landed on Cameron.

Cameron wanted to take his clothes off.

We bought tickets and got in line for a safari ride.  As the truck came in they stopped to put chicken on the side in a box and poured carrots all over the bed of the truck.  We got inside the caged truck with 20 of our Chinese friends and started our journey.  The guy drove fast in the parts there weren't any animals.

The first animals we ran into were bears.  One giant bear stood up and worked on getting the chicken out of the box.  He finally got it. We were feeding carrots to the bears too.  One bear climbed up on the cage and stood there, spread eagle like he was being frisked by police.  He was right in front of us.  Good thing he didn't decide to pee or anything.

The bear trying to get the chicken.

Grabbed the carrot.

Please let me come with.

The sign in the vehicle...Don't feed the animals.

We continued driving.  Todd gave us the idea to stick the carrots in the small spaces of the cage so the animals could grab them instead of us feeding them.  Worked out great.  It was fun to see all the different animals...deer, ostrich, bear, tigers, boars, and llama.

Cameron loading up the cage with carrots.

Cameron had to have his picture with the zebras for Grandma Janet.
She hates zebras for some reason.

After the safari we continued walking around the park.  They had some shows going on but none of us wanted to watch them.  We finally made it back to the front gate at 12:00.  The Beijing Wild Animal Park was a great place to spend a couple of hours checking out animals.  I'm glad we decided to go.  We definitely had a bunch of laughs.

Is this a kiosk or a kisok?  Hmmm.

The bathroom where I went potty.

Oh man, we were just about to ride this guy.

We found Mr. Xue and headed back to TEDA.  We decided we needed a little lunch. Me stopped off at a mall to get McDonalds.  We don't think Mr. Xue wanted that but after the craziness of trying to find a parking space and then trying to find McDonalds, we think he decided it would just be easier for him to eat there too.

Lunch time.

Back in the van and headed home.  Got back to the hotel.  We grabbed a few things then walked to Ashanti to pick up our giant steaks to grill.  We headed to the apartment for our very last "real" TEDA dinner.

Todd grilled the steaks.  I made beans and chicken rice.  We had one knife so Todd had to cut our meat for us.  Pretty funny.  The steaks were delicious.  They were the best ones we have ever had in TEDA. Cameron ate 3/4 of his steak and then said they were ok.  When we asked why he said it was the marinade on them.  It wasn't his favorite but he still devoured it.

Yum.

Last apartment dinner.

We cleaned up and then went back to the hotel. Todd ran to the lounge quickly while Cameron and I took showers.  We then watched the last Die Hard movie.  Off to bed.