Epilog (Epiblog?)

Our trip home was epic. Four days in the making and every single one of our five planes was delayed and/or canceled. The six hours we spent in the Butuan airport on Mindanao were worthwhile when President Arroyo made a surprise visit in her private jet and accompanying military helicopter. She was coming to inaugurate a new national park and we were there long enough to see her arrive and depart with all the fanfare. That put us in late in Manila and we finally arrived in China for our transit at 3 a.m. We were lucky enough to get to leave the Shanghai airport and checked into a "nearby" hotel where, almost immediately, my body picked up where it left off and I experienced respiratory and digestive malfunction and spent a tired miserable night cursing China. But the next morning, we were excited to reunite with my brother and his family (new nephew! favorite nephew!) and we all boarded our plane bound for Canada. Many hours later we were still on the tarmac and by the time we would have been over Alaska we were checking back into a Chinese hotel while our plane underwent overnight repairs. The airport hotel was pimped out Chinese style with a round bed and mirrors on the ceiling and I fell asleep worrying that the mirrored tiles would fall on my head and kill me before I could get back on a plane and head home. I slept restfully, however, and we left on time the next morning and sailed across the sea and then into Seattle and on to Spokane and the homecoming celebration was made even more joyous by the news that our best friends had just given birth to their second kid and we swung by the hospital to pay them a surprise visit. The new parents were at the same level of exhaustion as we were but it was as sweet a welcome home as we could have ever imagined. Spokane is cold but the air smells so fresh and clean I could cry. The lilacs are blooming and Peter's family sent us some coffee and champagne (and fresh-picked asparagus) in a welcome home package and I can honestly say it is good to be home.