Turkeys and Retail or Retail Turkeys

I finished the last China post without even telling you the last of the story. We knew from Betty's handed down knowledge that we should prepare to leave the Hotel about 9:45 a.m. to give us plenty of time at the airport to get last minute souvenirs and to hit the Olympic store. We finished packing, had a leisurely breakfast and made our way downstairs with all our junk in tow. ( I personally hate to pay for luggage service at a hotel, but given how much junk we had I made an exception to my policy) We got in a cab, the first one driven by a female of the trip and were comforted by the fact that she didn't drive like she had something to prove. Most of our other freeway trips were driven as if lane lines and common courtesy had not yet been invented in that part o f the world. My opinion changed however when I realized she'd craftily covered up the meter and asked to be paid far more than what the fare should cost. We discussed for a few minutes and agreed upon something a little more reasonable and were on our way. Our trip through passport control was actually pretty easy, and we were actually given boarding passes for business class seats at the gate. We shopped some more picking up the magnet I was contractually obligated to bring my boss (she's a magnet collector, she got one from Hong Kong too) and a few final things at the Olympic store. We then found a nice quiet Hawaiian themed cafe within earshot of our gate. As we're sitting there they call us up and say we have one upgrade, will you split up? I love the lay-flat seat of first, and W actually prefers the business seat, so we said yes. A few minutes later they called us again and had managed to find 2 First class seats!!!! We even traded with someone to sit together and settled in for our flight. I got to see the Simpsons Movie and Transformers and thoroughly enjoyed the good life for 10 hours.
Real life came calling again once we got home, but thanksgiving has been a nice diversion too. We ordered the Boston Market turkey breast with all the trim. Friends Michael and Cyrus came by to help us celebrate, and we chatted and laughed until it was time go to bed early. W and I both worked, because I sold my soul at the BRO so I could have next weekend off. What could possibly be worth going to work on black Friday for? Well, we've got one more adventure to squeeze in, more to come. By popular demand I've included a picture of that which made our last day in Beijing so difficult. This is a sample of what we had done, if you want to see the rest, you really should come visit us.