Airline Tickets + R Baby Shower = This Must Be Real!

Ok - where to begin. As noted in the previous post, we got official travel approval. Then R huddled with the travel agent and we finalized the plane tickets. We are all flying ANA out of Dulles -- via Tokyo -- to Beijing. We depart DC on Monday, July 30 at 12:20 p.m. -- arriving Tokyo at 3:25 p.m. on Tuesday, July 31. We depart Tokyo at 5:20 p.m. and arrive in Beijing at 8:05 p.m. on July 31.

Then we have the rest of the week to get used to the 12 hour time difference and to see a few sites. We expect to fly to Nanchang on Saturday, August 4th or Sunday, August 5th (the internal China travel is being set up by Barker and we expect to have that finalized early this week). As noted in a previous post, we hope to have Jennifer Rose in our arms on Sunday, August 5.

We are departing Guangzhou on Wednesday, August 15 and will stay one night in Tokyo. We depart Tokyo on Thursday, August 16 -- arriving back in Washington, Dulles on August 16 at 10:40 a.m. I got tired just typing that! We'll provide more on travel once we have the domestic travel intinerary from Barker early this week.

What else has been going on? It seems like a lot. Rachel had a nice baby shower on Saturday at Rachel Burton's parents house in Chevy Chase, MD. Rachel Burton is a best friend from R's childhood and it was so nice of her to host the shower together with Morna, Diana, and Des. I have attached a few photos --one really nice one of R and R; and one of the cake. I can attest to its quality since I had two pieces. Or was it three? I spent the afternoon of the baby shower with Keith, Doug, and Chris while Keith and Chris were on baby duty. We had a good time having lunch at the Cheesecake Factory but then I got a chance to see the tail end of the shower when I went to pick Rachel up (thus the 2+ pieces of cake).

Rachel got some amazing baby things that I know we will be able to put to good use. It is such a wonderful feeling to have so much support and love from family and friends. It was also really cool to see Debbie Heverin and Elaine Sullivan at the shower. Debbie posted a really nice entry in her blog (see link here: http://heverin.blogspot.com/2007/07/wonderful-celebration.html).

Ok - I'll sign off now. I have an early flight tomorrow for a work trip to Atlanta on Monday, Chicago on Tuesday, and Dallas on Wednesday. Back in DC on Wednesday night. Then one more full week of work before we depart for China. Yikes - so much still to do! Deep breaths. Ok - will go pack now for Atlanta.

J.