Day 4

Day 4 felt like it took two days. We were in transit all day long. We got up at 3:45 am and left from San Francisco. We had a lengthly layover in LA, and then a 13 hour flight to Shanghai.

Our flight was uneventful, and we all got caught up on all the movies we didn't see this past year. So, if you are curious about a movie that has come out in the past 12 months or so, one of us has probably seen it, or at least part of it.

So after 13 hours of reading, relaxing, and intermittent napping, we arrived in steamy and humid Shanghai at about 6pm local time. We hadn't showered, since we got up so early, and we were all way overdue for a good washing by the time we got to the hotel.

We had a van arranged to pick us up from the airport and take us to our hotel, which was nice. We went to check in, though, and they told us that there had been some flooding in some of the rooms, and they were going to take us to a different hotel. So, that was an unforeseen change that we had to navigate. It took two cabs to get all 5 of us over to the other hotel, but we got in there without problems. The concierge from the first hotel actually rode over to the second hotel with us, and took care of the cab fare and the price difference, so we came out no worse for the wear.

By the time we got into our room, we couldn't decide whether to sleep or shower first. We crashed hard. But, knowing we would only be in Shanghai one night, we wanted to walk over to the Bund, the riverfront walkway, so we could see the city at night. Anne and Hannah were too tired to go, but Calla, Elliott, and Kris made the trip. I'll have to add pictures later, but you could google "Shanghai Bund" and get the idea. It was a nice way to end a very long day. As we were walking back to the hotel, Calla smiled and said, "In two more days we get to meet Ruthie."