Today is Megan’s first birthday, and her longest day (33 hours) yet since we will be gaining time as we travel to San Francisco in the evening. We pack up our things, have breakfast and then visit the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. This is a really big place and one which warrants a much longer visit. However, much of what there is to see is outside (the gardens and the buildings), and it happens to be a miserable, rainy day. The inside of the hall has historical items of interest about Chiang Kai-Shek though and was worth visiting even though we didn’t have a lot of time. Next time…..
We pick up our luggage from the hotel and have a few minutes to wait in the lounge before our transfer to the airport. We had been told by a saleslady we had befriended in one of the hotel shops that there was another family staying there who had just adopted a 7 month old boy from Tainan and that they were leaving the same day. As we are sitting in the lounge I spot this family as they walk toward the elevators. Two Caucasian parents with an Asian infant stand out in the hotel filled with business people. I run out with Megan to say hello and they join us for a few minutes until we have to leave. They are from a Chicago suburb, and we exchange stories and email addresses.
The airport is virtually empty, and we fly through check-in and security. We’re not sure about how secure the security is though since we both forget that we have several bottles of water between us, and none of them are detected during the security check. The duty free section in Taipei goes on for miles, and we keep ourselves busy strolling through it. Then we board. It is an evening flight and since Megan is a good sleeper, we figure Megan will sleep though most of it. Boy, were we wrong. She wants nothing to do with the baby meal, and she doesn’t want to sleep in the bassinet that they install on the wall of the bulkhead. The flight attendants take her from me for I don’t know how long, but it must have been at least a half hour. When they return, she’s fast asleep. We put her in the bassinet where she sleeps peacefully for about 15-20 minutes and then she gets fussy again. I end up sleeping with her in my seat though she wakes up about every 15 minutes because she can’t get comfortable. It was a very long flight. Did I mention how wonderful EVA Airlines is? We would fly them everywhere if only they had domestic flights. Every single person we came in contact with from the check in people to the flight attendants to the people who helped us with their bags couldn’t have been nicer. The flights themselves were long (not their fault) but otherwise excellent.
When we land in San Francisco at around 4:40 p.m., the airport is mostly empty. The Homeland Security employees who take and review our immigration documents for Megan are as nice as they can be. We go right through customs and turn in the banana I forgot I still had from the hotel to the USDA area.
We go right to the American Airlines lounge to wait for our 11:35 p.m. flight to Miami. Megan enjoys having more space to wander and happily munches on her cookies leaving behind piles of crumbs wherever she goes. We try desperately to take a photo of her in her birthday hat before she takes it off. We have to be fast, but I think we got one. She even receives her first set of wings from the ladies who work in the lounge. We hope she’ll sleep on the flight tonight.
We pick up our luggage from the hotel and have a few minutes to wait in the lounge before our transfer to the airport. We had been told by a saleslady we had befriended in one of the hotel shops that there was another family staying there who had just adopted a 7 month old boy from Tainan and that they were leaving the same day. As we are sitting in the lounge I spot this family as they walk toward the elevators. Two Caucasian parents with an Asian infant stand out in the hotel filled with business people. I run out with Megan to say hello and they join us for a few minutes until we have to leave. They are from a Chicago suburb, and we exchange stories and email addresses.
The airport is virtually empty, and we fly through check-in and security. We’re not sure about how secure the security is though since we both forget that we have several bottles of water between us, and none of them are detected during the security check. The duty free section in Taipei goes on for miles, and we keep ourselves busy strolling through it. Then we board. It is an evening flight and since Megan is a good sleeper, we figure Megan will sleep though most of it. Boy, were we wrong. She wants nothing to do with the baby meal, and she doesn’t want to sleep in the bassinet that they install on the wall of the bulkhead. The flight attendants take her from me for I don’t know how long, but it must have been at least a half hour. When they return, she’s fast asleep. We put her in the bassinet where she sleeps peacefully for about 15-20 minutes and then she gets fussy again. I end up sleeping with her in my seat though she wakes up about every 15 minutes because she can’t get comfortable. It was a very long flight. Did I mention how wonderful EVA Airlines is? We would fly them everywhere if only they had domestic flights. Every single person we came in contact with from the check in people to the flight attendants to the people who helped us with their bags couldn’t have been nicer. The flights themselves were long (not their fault) but otherwise excellent.
When we land in San Francisco at around 4:40 p.m., the airport is mostly empty. The Homeland Security employees who take and review our immigration documents for Megan are as nice as they can be. We go right through customs and turn in the banana I forgot I still had from the hotel to the USDA area.
We go right to the American Airlines lounge to wait for our 11:35 p.m. flight to Miami. Megan enjoys having more space to wander and happily munches on her cookies leaving behind piles of crumbs wherever she goes. We try desperately to take a photo of her in her birthday hat before she takes it off. We have to be fast, but I think we got one. She even receives her first set of wings from the ladies who work in the lounge. We hope she’ll sleep on the flight tonight.
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