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Preparation
I spent most of my 2 preparation days getting ready for the
Autocross, that would be happening the day after we return..
The China
prep consisted mostly of thinking, and making a list. Implementing the list, and packing only took 2 hours, right before we were
ready to leave. Stephanie had a basketball game at 7pm, and we were to catch our ride to the
airport at 9:30pm. It was
good to keep busy these last couple of hours so we didn’t spend a lot of time
worrying, and in anticipation. Her team won, btw, 24 -12.
At the Airport (Tuesday, 7/22/02)
We arrived at the airport at 10:30pm, for our 1:30am
flight. We had obtained our seating assignments beforehand, (we couldn’t do it
via the internet, because we were not frequent flyer members at the time of
booking, but we called Hong Kong via a toll free number and did it via phone.)
and check-in was swift. There were large lines for the other airlines, but not
Cathay Pacific. The 13 of us, sat in 3 rows of 2
window seats, and one row of 4 center seats, back in rows 63, 64, and 65. Good
view of the Rolls Royce engines.
We were completely checked in by 11pm, and had 1.5 hours to kill before
boarding. I spent most of this time going to the ATM in the domestic terminal
to make some last minute deposits. Since they allowed us to pre-board with the
kids, we were boarding in no time.
The plane was only 60% full, so we had no problems getting
our seats and settling in.
On the Plane
We had our little personal TV screens, but I was
disappointed to find out we had no laptop power. The TV had a channel to show flight
progress and information, so that was one less thing I needed my laptop for, We
took off to the north, and flew up the California coast, as we were headed to
Alaska via the Great Circle route.
It wasn’t long before we were served dinner (2am local time!), and after dinner we
settled in to watch Dennis Quaid in “The Rookie”.
They show the movies on a rotating schedule, so you cannot choose when to
start, and you cannot get up, or you will miss part of it. DVDs on the laptop
are much better. The movies used the larger phone plugs, and I did not have an
adapter for the noise-canceling earphones, so I had to use the supplied
headphones. Not as good as the silent noise-canceling earphones. It was about
this time that I realized I forgot to pack earplugs. Luckily, the 747-400 was a
pretty quiet plane.
I had the longest and best sleep after the movie, and got in
4 hours from about 4am to 8am PDT. By this time we were up in
the Bearing Sea,
and starting to head south towards Japan. Watched another movie, and
then took 30 minute catnaps after that.
As I write this, we are flying over Japan, and there are many
lights of cities below. We are about 3 hours out, and it is 3am CST, and the cabin is starting to rouse, as
the flight attendants are going back to work, and people are waking up.
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