Going to the states - all the juicy details

I was packed the night before. I woke up as Chris was leaving and kissed him as he took my suitcase and headed off to work. I fed the cats, showered, and had my breakfast with e-mail. I had a few minutes left, so I made a pair of lightweight seersucker pants. Praise God for sergers which make such things possible. Michele and I grabbed our carry-ons and headed for the walk-in gate. We met Chris there at 8. He dropped us off at the DHL to catch the shuttlebus to Incheon. Mary Ann was there to see us off. She went with me to the ATM. Then as we waited for the bus I realized that this was the last time we would see each other before she PCS'd. Tears came to my eyes as we hugged. Then I boarded the bus and we were off to the airport. I think we had the slowest driver in bus history. When we got there, we used the 'easy check-in' machine, then went to the counter to ck in my suitcase. It seemed to confuse the lady that the third leg of our flight was on a different airline. When we went through security, they scanned my luggage several times and then pointed to something on the screen. It was a sewing machine screwdriver and they wouldn't allow it. So I had to go back. The wrapping station packed it in a box which I then checked through the luggage station. I tried to go through the security line again, but apparently they had marked my ticket, 'cause they sent me around to a special door. Then my stuff and I were scanned again. And they wanded me. Finally I cought up with Michele who wasn't allowed to come with me. It seems they don't like it when you go back through security. Then we caught the airport shuttle to the concourse and found seats near our gate. When I checked last week, we had no seats assigned on this flight, but we were seated together on the long flight. But now we were seated separately on both flights. I hoped we could get it changed back. As we filed towards the plane, we went through another bag check. It was not very thorough. Then we sat two rows apart on the place to Narita, Japan. The crew was very nice and the steward looked like Tony D'nozo on NCIS. We were served a sandwich (which I declined) and a beverage. I read my book on improving eyesight. My ears, which were fine on the way up, had trouble with the descent. In the airport we had trouble finding the gate for our connecting flight. But the steward took us to a shorter security line and told us our gate would be right after that. It might have been a shorter line, but it moved slowly. At the other end, a lady standing in front of a sign board, pointed the way to the Continental gate. When we got to the gate, I presented my ticket and the print-out showing our reserved seats. The agent printed me a new ticket with the original seat number on it. Whew! Then I did some stretching as we waited for the plane. I got tired of sitting on the last plane, and was in no hurry to sit on this one. During the 12-hour flight, the meals were better than I expected, and I was able to watch 6 episodes of Big Bang Theory, and two movies. Because of the time difference in the states, we were scheduled to land 5 minutes after we took off. Michele cleverly said "By this time today we will be in the states." Twice during the low-light period I tried to sleep, but the first time it was too noisy and the second time just didn't work. The landing was a little rough and Michele threw up. We had to leave the bag in the seat and I whispered to the stewardess so she would find it sooner rather than later. Then we stood in line for customs. Michele went first. Then she motioned to me. They had a problem with our official passports. We were taken to another area for questioning, but were soon released even though we could tell them nothing that we didn't tell them at the customs station. From there they let us into the baggage claim area where we picked up my suitcase and the little box with the screwdriver in it. Then we waited in another line to drop off the suitcase. Then we passed a Continental check-in machine, so we used it to get boarding passes. But after confirming our flight, it said to check with an agent. We came to a security ck pt but they wouldn't take us without a boarding pass. So we tried another machine, but that one did not help us either. An agent told us where to find the check-in counter, but it was full of machines, too. Only when another agent had run our info through and gotten nowhere were we given a person to talk to. She was able to give us passesm but by then we were short on time and still had to get through security. That turned out to be slow, but uneventful. Except that we noticed a man in line that looked like Michael Caine. When we were done with security, we were lost, so we asked two men standing by the wall. One of them took us down the hall and told us to catch a bus to our terminal. Luckily it was a 3 minute trip. And a small terminal. It only had a few gates and ours was one of them. Another plane boarded from our gate at the time we should have been boarding. So we boarded late. And then we sat on the runway while someone tried to figure out how to get to Richmond on the fuel we had. Finally we turned around and went back to the terminal for more fuel. We had lost our place in line to take off and were not a priority being such a small plane. I fell asleep waiting for take off. I'd wake up, notice we were still on the ground, and go back to sleep, several times. At the time when we were supposed to land, we took off. The one good thing about that is that we got to see the coolest cloud formation at night, all lit up by rapid flashes of lightning. Really neat! 55 minutes later we landed. My in-laws were waiting for us. We stopped at baggage claim to find my suitcase just rolling by. We had an uneventful trip back to their house, and stayed up talking. Cecily showed us her newly renovated bathroom. And I ate one of their homegrown tomatoes. Then we went to bed. I slept in until 9:30. I sat outside and read for awhile, then came in for breakfast. I tried to post to my blog, but it wouldn't take my password. Their password recovery system refused to believe I had ownership of the account. Michele wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory and then do some shopping. So we all went. First we ate, and then we shopped. I found some tops at Ann Taylor. I thought they were 50% off because there was a BIG 50% off sign on that table. But the saleslady told us as we checked out that it only applied to items with a special tag. That was NOT what the sign said. And we didn't see anything with a special tag. But Cecily wanted to get them for me, so she did. She got some for Michele, too. We then went to a few other stores and Cecily bought Michele a dress and a pair of leggings. Then I noticed that my wrap was missing so I went back to Ann Taylor to find it. After that, we walked into Williams Sonoma to get a bread basket. We stopped by the Cheesecake Factory to get two pieces of cake to take home. When we got home, I sat at the computer to try blogging again. It still did not work, so I decided to record the events in an e-mail to myself. Cecily made supper and we sat down to eat. We talked then for hours. When she went to bed, I went back to blogging.