Arrived home

Good thing for AC upgrade vouchers. It made the almost 12 hours crossing bearable. Service was really really good this time compared to before; must be the crew; it made things nice. I actually remember two flight attendants from my previous trans-Pacific flights. Did I fly too much before? Must be. Food and wine were better than any American airlines I flew during the last three weeks. No surprise there. I didn't eat much though, maybe 3/4 of the food. In-flight movies, sucked as always. Must be the cost cutting; the same ones as we flew across to North America.

One thing I did notice, not that many people flying on this flight. Maybe it was Friday, maybe not. The AC lounge in Vancouver was deserted. And not many people boarded our flight. I could see lots of empty seats. Wonder if the Olympics has anything to do with it.

During our transit in Vancouver, I thought we could just walk over to the International without clearing Immigration and Custom. Because it was too early in the morning, we had to. Go figure. One good thing, our checked bags were done automatically without picking them up and so on... At that hour, not much traffic except the Honolulu flight arrived 45 minutes before us. Zipped we were thru Immigration. Then we couldn't get thru International security. It opened at 8am. Nothing before. And then 8:30am before AC Lounge is opened. Lots of waiting it seemed in North America. The shops inside the International waiting area was opened by 8am and why not AC Lounge? Ummm....

Our early arrival at Shanghai was delayed by people hooking us up to the gate; so what was the point. I noticed our ID was scanned "due-diligently" at the Chinese immigration. Basically, my ID card were looked over three times and my boarding pass read letter by letter. Olympic security. Wait until today go to the airport (July 20). The extra security at all major airports. You need to be screened at the door before going into the airport, passengers or not! How complex is that going to be.

We arrived home at 3:00pm or so; then by 4:00pm we were sleeping... woke up twice briefly, then slept until 6:45am this morning. A 14-hour sleep. That was the most sleep I had in 3 weeks! I am sure, two really early flights, one from Oakland to Seattle, then from Seattle to Vancouver took a toll. Then all the traveling with the cross-continent time zone.

Now I am home. This coming week I am suppose to go to KuanShan with Audrey for her work from Tuesday to Saturday. I better stay home and work. Then the follow weeks we will be away.... Macau/Hong Kong. Then Chongqing and Singapore. Should be back in Shanghai by mid-August.