It is 2am, the wee hours of Monday morning, Bellingham time. It is 8pm here in Vladivostok, also Monday. We are tired! Nevertheless, Victor wants to wait until dark to sleep, so we are writing.
We arrived to our hotel in Vladivostok 2 hours ago, after four flights and 30 hours of traveling. We flew United Airlines to Portland and Alaska Air to LAX, and then Korean Air from there. As we arrived to Los Angeles around midnight we met our first obstacle. The pilot couldn’t find a place to park! Not even yellow curbs for loading/unloading; not a single fire hydrant. Double parking came to mind. Victor briefly thought of opening the emergency door by puling in and and up and then carefully throwing it outside the distressed aircraft and then sliding down that nifty inflatable wing slide raft thing that’s supposed to deploy in the event of a water landing. “That would be cool”, thought Victor. Imagine not being able to find a spot to park a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. The pilot assured us we were lucky. Other planes had waited 4 to 6 hours to park that day. We only waited one hour. Apparently there had been some sort of huge immigration upset earlier in the day that was delaying everything. So we scooted and skulked around waiting and trying not to get in anyone’s way.
Once we got out, we had to leave the terminal we were in and find the international terminal. This meant going through security all over again. We spent 30 minutes in the security TSA line, only to have the entire security system shut down. They kicked us all out of the luggage scanner area at 1 am, and we sat around the international terminal with a few thousand people not knowing what was happening, or whether we’d get on a plane that night at all. The international terminal was full of internationals trying not to feel terminal. …pause for groan … People were sleeping in all kinds of nooks. It looked like a disaster movie. Fortunately, we discovered two open snack shops on the international terminal’s second floor. They had a Scottish food place (“McDonalds”), and an ice cream/smoothie/coffee place. After 45 people and 45 minutes in the other line, we comforted our weary selves with sorbet and a smoothie. It was about 3 in the morning when the security checkpoint reopened as mysteriously as it had shut down. We discovered that our plane had waited for us all, and we took off at 4am. We were dead tired, but we were just beginning the12 hour flight to Seoul.
We finally arrived to Vladivostok after our 30 hours of travel. Our luggage did not. We don’t know where it is. Last we saw it, it was begin loaded onto our plane in Seattle, so we know it got as far as Portland. Our baby clothes, socks, toys, gift bag full of children’s shoes, our unmentionables (Jockeys and Maidenforms), our spare clothes and toiletries – all of them like sheep without a shepherd had gone astray. Victor’s suspicion is that they are grazing the green pastures near the still waters of LAX’s dispossessed possessions department. Gratefully, all our adoption documents, cash, medications and this computer weren’t checked. Our room does have hot water in the mornings and evenings so we can shower to deal with this muggy August air. But we’ve been in our only set of clothes since Saturday Morning… and that has it’s odorifically increasing consequences… We appreciate your prayers that we be reunited with our baggage soon.
We were given a schedule of events by our adoption agency. Tomorrow morning we get to visit with our daughter for 2 hours. Same on Wednesday. Thursday morning is our court hearing, and if all goes well, we will have Lidia with us by Thursday afternoon, and ever after.
Keeping you informed (and ourselves entertained),
Victor and Carina
We arrived to our hotel in Vladivostok 2 hours ago, after four flights and 30 hours of traveling. We flew United Airlines to Portland and Alaska Air to LAX, and then Korean Air from there. As we arrived to Los Angeles around midnight we met our first obstacle. The pilot couldn’t find a place to park! Not even yellow curbs for loading/unloading; not a single fire hydrant. Double parking came to mind. Victor briefly thought of opening the emergency door by puling in and and up and then carefully throwing it outside the distressed aircraft and then sliding down that nifty inflatable wing slide raft thing that’s supposed to deploy in the event of a water landing. “That would be cool”, thought Victor. Imagine not being able to find a spot to park a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. The pilot assured us we were lucky. Other planes had waited 4 to 6 hours to park that day. We only waited one hour. Apparently there had been some sort of huge immigration upset earlier in the day that was delaying everything. So we scooted and skulked around waiting and trying not to get in anyone’s way.
Once we got out, we had to leave the terminal we were in and find the international terminal. This meant going through security all over again. We spent 30 minutes in the security TSA line, only to have the entire security system shut down. They kicked us all out of the luggage scanner area at 1 am, and we sat around the international terminal with a few thousand people not knowing what was happening, or whether we’d get on a plane that night at all. The international terminal was full of internationals trying not to feel terminal. …pause for groan … People were sleeping in all kinds of nooks. It looked like a disaster movie. Fortunately, we discovered two open snack shops on the international terminal’s second floor. They had a Scottish food place (“McDonalds”), and an ice cream/smoothie/coffee place. After 45 people and 45 minutes in the other line, we comforted our weary selves with sorbet and a smoothie. It was about 3 in the morning when the security checkpoint reopened as mysteriously as it had shut down. We discovered that our plane had waited for us all, and we took off at 4am. We were dead tired, but we were just beginning the12 hour flight to Seoul.
We finally arrived to Vladivostok after our 30 hours of travel. Our luggage did not. We don’t know where it is. Last we saw it, it was begin loaded onto our plane in Seattle, so we know it got as far as Portland. Our baby clothes, socks, toys, gift bag full of children’s shoes, our unmentionables (Jockeys and Maidenforms), our spare clothes and toiletries – all of them like sheep without a shepherd had gone astray. Victor’s suspicion is that they are grazing the green pastures near the still waters of LAX’s dispossessed possessions department. Gratefully, all our adoption documents, cash, medications and this computer weren’t checked. Our room does have hot water in the mornings and evenings so we can shower to deal with this muggy August air. But we’ve been in our only set of clothes since Saturday Morning… and that has it’s odorifically increasing consequences… We appreciate your prayers that we be reunited with our baggage soon.
We were given a schedule of events by our adoption agency. Tomorrow morning we get to visit with our daughter for 2 hours. Same on Wednesday. Thursday morning is our court hearing, and if all goes well, we will have Lidia with us by Thursday afternoon, and ever after.
Keeping you informed (and ourselves entertained),
Victor and Carina
