We have now arrived in Shanghai so it looks like our adventure for the next 7 months has finally started. Certainly there were times over the last few years that I wondered if we would ever get here. Hard to believe its now happening.
   We flew 14 hours from Los Angeles to Shanghai. It wasn't too bad since the plane was half empty. Even better than that was a surprise I never expected. Nick has always been fascinated by some of the newer planes, namely the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787 dreamliner. I had hoped to get us a few legs on one or both of those during our trip but it didn't look like that was going to fit with any of our planned flights. When we boarded the plane I thought it looked different and sure enough it was a 787.  Its a really cool plane. The ceilings are higher than usual and windows are noticeably bigger than usual. It has a great entertainment system even for those of us in the cheap seats. You could binge watch every Star Wars movie.  Also had games, live TV, and an E-reader.  Even had a way for you to send text messages to someone in another seat. I tried sending a text to Syd and Nick but didn't hear anything back. Kept us all entertained though for the whole flight.
 Even better than the entertainment system was  the windows which can be darkened like an LCD screen.  We took off at 10AM and flew west which means we were going to be in daylight for 14 hours until we landed in Shanghai at 3pm Shanghai time and midnight Denver time. Terrible for jet lag and circadian rhythms. Instead they began gradually darkening the windows shortly after feeding us and during the first 2 hours after we took off. So by mid afternoon it was dark as night in the cabin and everyone was going to sleep. Then a few hours before landing they served a second meal and began gradually brightening the cabin.  I thought it worked pretty well and I arrived feeling like my clock had reset. Everyone managed to stay up until 8pm Shanghai time, 5AM Denver time and then we all crashed. Now we are all awake at 7AM and hopefully not much jet lag.
 I'll leave Margaret to describe the drive into the city and the first dinner. I'm going to make the kids start posting tonight so be warned