Good morning from Wisconsin! We are really enjoying our time here with my parents and younger brother and his family. What fun to to get to know our nieces and nephews again and catch up with the adults! We are staying in a lovely cabin on the lake that some friends of Jonathan's lent us. We are truly blessed by this time together.

We had a great trip here, after a rather rough beginning in Manila. We checked in and were told they couldn't give us a seat, but we should go directly to the gate so we could ask them to seat us together as a family since the plane was full and if we delayed we may be separated. OK. Only when we arrived at the gate we couldn't enter the gate area because the airline was still setting up their security. After waiting a while we finally got in, but there was nobody there to assign us seats. I headed to the restroom, and was told I had to show my boarding pass and passport to get back into the gate area. And I'd have to go through security again. We decided I should wait, because Garry couldn't ask for the seat assignments without my boarding pass-- that is, WHEN the personnel showed up. Half an hour later security people came by and told us we'd have to either dump out our water or drink it. So, could I buy some? No. If you want a drink you go out of the gate area, with your boarding pass and passport, buy water and drink it, then come back through security. But you can't bring drinks in. Finally, I had to go to the restroom. After asking again, I found out I could talk to a lady behind another desk and ask for seat assignments. I talked to her, and she smiled condescendingly and told me we already had seat assignments, and they were all together. Well, at least we have seats.

Strangely enough, once we got on to the airplane, we had a great flight! The longest leg of the journey, a 12-hour flight, we were actually seated in "economy plus", which meant we had extra legroom! In Japan we were offered a very nice incentive to be bumped and travel through Honolulu.... knowing how limited our time was going to be with my family, we passed on that. Still, it was an interesting thought-- Hawaii and first class all the way!

Now, back to partying with my family!