The Beginning

And so it begins... My China Adventure started this morning with a lovely breakfast at Perkins with Haley. Then she dropped me off and I got checked in and through security. Word of warning to those who travel a lot... When you are used to going through security with certain items, be extra vigilant when you change that up. I usually travel with a backpack, but today I had a purse and a roller bag. Well, I grabbed my purse and jacket and took off! Thankfully, I had only walked about 40 feet away from the security checkpoint before I realized it. I went right back and grabbed it - it was still on the security line, but they were watching it and looking for the owner.

My next stop was a planned visit to Brookstone. Jake (my son) was kind enough to loan my his tablet computer for my trip, but I was really hoping to find a case with a keyboard. Success!! So now I have a case to protect his tablet and be sure it doesn't get damaged - plus I have a keyboard (albeit a tiny one!) to be able to type my blog posts. :)

Next stop - currency exchange. Rather than having to try to find an ATM immediately upon arrival, I decided to change my money to Chinese money here. When changing US Dollars to a currency that has a value of only a partial dollar (.16), you end up feeling really rich after the exchange because you're carrying thousands of dollars! :D

Last stop, Caribou Coffee! It might be my last really good cup of coffee (well, latte) for the next 2 weeks so it was a must.

So here's hoping that all of the travel goes well and about 20 or so hours from now I'll be in China - ready to see my sister and start this fabulous adventure!