We're Home

    We arrived in Portland last night about 9.  After getting our luggage, we headed to the hotel where we left our truck.  We slept over 10 hours, 12 if you count the few times of wakefulness.  That's about double the usual!  We can't seem to sleep on a plane, and had been up over 36 hours.  Neither of us have stayed up that long before, even as teens! 

   We saw more excitement the last half of the trip home than the first.  It began in Taiwan.  We headed out to the runway and were about ready to head off, when smoke came out of the middle of the cabin.  We went back to the gate and were told by the Taiwanese pilot that it was 'no big deal' (I thought his terminology was rather funny).  It turns out he was right.  The stewardesses started warming up the first meal as we headed out.  Evidently, one of the meals had not been sealed properly - spilled - and started burning.  They exchanged that rack of trays with another one, checked out the electronic stuff, and we were once again headed to the runway.  It only took an extra hour.  Then after we went through customs and we had to re-check-in, in Seattle.  I did the computer kiosk like a good girl, but it wouldn't print my boarding pass.  It printed Steve's and printed a receipt for baggage, but not my boarding pass.  We had to go to an agent to get that straightened out.  Next, we headed to our gate.  There was a slight commotion across the aisle, so we turned to see what was happening.  A woman was being led out of a shop.  Suddenly, she turned to the security officer, laid down, and said, "Now what are you going to do?"  He called for back-up and just let her lay there.  Once the back ups arrived (one of which was a woman), they removed her shoes, hand-cuffed her, loaded her onto a wheelchair (we think because she refused to walk) and off they went.  Last, but not least, we get to our hotel in Portland and they accidently gave our room to someone else.  Two couples had made reservations, but had not asked to be by each other.  One was placed on the first floor and one was on the second.  After complaining rudely, they were both given the first floor (the second room which was ours).  They flustered the guy at check-in so bad that he forgot to change our room to second floor.  He gave us the key for first floor, which thankfully didn't work.  We tried 3 different keys until, finally, the woman inside said, "This room is occupied!"  After a few phone calls, the mess up was cleared up and we were given the last room.  We were just so thankful to finally have a place to sleep! 

   We arrived home to much love and attention from kids and grandkids.  Way Fun!!!  I will try to post one last time, tomorrow, adding pics.  Thank you all so much for being interested in what happened in Indonesia, even though it wasn't what we went for (is it ever?!)  HIS plans are always better than our own.