Our Trip                                                      

November 18, 2001- Day One

click HERE for Day One Photos

Questions for Ms. Foster's Classroom: Can you follow our route from Minneapolis, to Chicago, to Los Angeles? What do the clouds look like that we saw? What is another type of cloud? What is the most beautiful thing that you saw today or last week?

Paige’s Comments:

Greetings from Los Angeles. Sitting at O’Hare this afternoon, we mentally tabulated that it was three years and a week ago that we were propelled into this adoption journey during a visit to an orphanage outside of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

I don’t think that either of us actually believed this was a reality until the flight attendant closed and sealed the door at 10:54 am in Minneapolis and we pushed back from the gate. To say that we were exhausted is an understatement. After a week of non-stop packing, poring through checklists, going to notaries, and copying 10,000 (seemingly) documents in triplicate, we looked like survivors of the Bataan Death March.

But we’re now, at least mentally, ready to go. And in the words of one of the greatest characters in American cinema (the midget psychic in "Poltergeist") "Now let’s go and get your daughter."

We left the farm in the capable hands of Housesitter-To-The-Stars (and us), local high-school student Becky Gellerman, who the dogs have already bonded with in a BIG way. Traitors! While were gone and she’s watching the ranch, an old friend from our WLOL days, an artist named D’Arcy Teasley will finish painting Sophia’s nursery. She already did the playroom and it turned out amazing.

Today started at 5:00 a.m. when we watched the Leonid Meteor Showers; which seemed oddly prophetic in some weird way. Casey kept begging to go out and stare at them, so we obliged.

By the time the limo came at 8:45, we were packed and ready to roll. More of a necessity then a perk of my job, the limo run to the Minneapolis airport kept the Sunday morning drivers safe, since neither of us were in any condition after this last hectic week, to handle a hurtling 2,000 pound piece of Japanese machinery in a mad dash to catch our flight.

American Airlines took us to Chicago where we transferred to a flight to LA, which will be our temporary headquarters for the next 36 hours. A decision based on frequent flier ticket availability, and a desire to decompress before flying halfway around the world for instant parenthood. The flight attendants on the Minneapolis-Chicago run were gaga (baby talk already) over Sophia’s picture and were giving us all sorts of tips on what to do if her ears hurt when she flies for the first time.

The hotel in LA is the Park Hyatt, around the corner from Twentieth Century Fox, and my home when doing market visits to KLAX. Nice place. They upgraded us to a room with a patio on the corner of the 16th floor, overlooking the backlot and sets of Fox. Kinda cool in a gawking Hollywood sort of way. (One of the dozens of motor homes down there is Jennifer Anniston’s dressing room!) After getting settled, we retrieved the rental car and navigated our way to Beverly Hills and a dinner at Mr. Chows with some old friends from Charlotte and Kiss 102: Wayne "Jo Jo" Wright, his wife Dena, Mark Shands and Colleen Cassidy. In July 1989 Mark was the Program Director at WCKZ and made the horrible mistake of hiring me and Wayne within a week of each other. Myself as the Marketing Director, and Jo Jo as the Night deejay. Incredible dinner with great friends. George Lucas was several tables away and Wayne and Dena say we missed Kirsten Dunst by a week. Kinda digging the Hollywood scene. Very similar in many ways to Scandia.

Two years later we both went to KSOL (now Wild 94.9) in San Francisco within days of each other. Along the way Jo Jo married my assistant, Dena, and we’re now in our second decade as couple-type friends. Presently, he has a minimal audience on some small station called KIIS. Oh, and he’s been in a bunch of TV shows and movies that went straight to the C. Thomas Howell Shelf at Blockbuster. Colleen is my co-worker in Clifton Radio, and despite a nervous tick, shows no permanent damage from almost 30 years with Jerry Clifton. A true survivor.

Tomorrow will be some sightseeing, lunch with the gang at KLAX and dinner with my niece Abby, who goes to Masters College in Santa Clarita.

Tuesday? Onto an Asiana 747 for the 13 hour hop across the Pacific. But right now? SLEEP.

Ann’s Comments:

Seeing the meteor showers this morning was an amazing way to start this part of the adoption journey. There were a couple of meteors that were really bright and had long tails. Not sure if that’s the right word…but that’s what they looked like. The Big Dipper was so bright and clear…maybe because the sky was so dark.

The morning for me consisted of cleaning the house, filling the sheep stock tank, putting a big blue bow on Biscuit (the sheep with the bad attitude!) so Becky can easily identify him from the other 21 sheep, and planting some seeds in the butterfly garden.

Also went through a book that D’Arcy brought last week that described the different images and meanings of Chinese kites. Wrote down several images that I want to look for in China so we can hang the kites from the ceiling of Sophia’s nursery.

The flight was comfortable…to say the least. The first segment – from Minneapolis to Chicago went fast. The second part – from Chicago to Los Angeles – was much longer. We realized it was only 1/3 of the time we’ll be on the plane from Los Angeles to Korea. Needless to say, we’re happy the flight is divided into segments.

Really enjoyed looking at the clouds out of the plane…and finally being able to identify the different types (thanks to pilot training!). Saw towering cumulous and standing lenticular clouds today mostly. The sky was overcast for most of the flight from Minneapolis to Chicago. It cleared up more to Los Angeles, but there was lots of turbulence.

Saw the Grand Canyon for the first time!! It was beautiful. It was late afternoon so the Grand Canyon was a deep reddish brown.

Now we’re in Los Angeles. The flowers are blooming here – lots of hibiscus. There are also palm trees.

We’re staying on the 16th floor of the Park Hyatt in a corner room with a balcony. There was a beautiful sunset over the ocean…reds and pinks mostly.

Today has just been an amazing day in terms of nature…it was really a wonderful start to the trip!

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