We’re at the airport gate ready for the flight to Seattle at 6:45 am on American. We’re looking forward to getting back to Beijing and a little boredom. The flight departs on time at 9:05 and arrives in Seattle four hours later. There are some nice views of Mt. Rainier as we fly in. We transfer to our new gate area and get some lunch.

Hainan Airlines is our next airline, and the flight isn’t any better than the flight last year. Judy and I are crammed in the middle two seats of a “four across” middle section. It’s a twelve-hour flight, and the food isn’t very good. After all our flights the past year, we can be a lot more discerning about the quality, and it’s not good. The movies choices are not good either. We are relieved to finally arrive in Beijing. I think I’m going to avoid Hainan whenever possible. It’s hard to pass up the cheaper fares, but memories of this flight will linger.

The flight arrives on time, around 5:40 pm (Friday, Aug. 1). The taxi ride into town is slow due to traffic. When we finally get to our apartment, it is such a relief. The apartment looks great. Lilly has done a good job making sure everything is clean and ready for us, including defrosting the fridge. We find places to set our 5 bags down and open them, but the unpacking will have to take place tomorrow. When we head to bed, it’s been 26 hours since the alarm went off in our hotel in Irving. Neither of us slept much on the plane, so we’re both pretty washed up. We’re too old to do this many more times.