Today my parents left for Urumqi, China. They’ve been planning this trip since March, at least. We drove them down to the airport this morning. Dad let me drive the Jag (since it was the only car all the luggage would fit into). The luggage turned out to be overweight and they had to pay $100 extra, and they’ll probably have to pay even more at Beijing, which sucks. Now Camira and I are home alone for three weeks. It’s nice to have a break from them, but the house feels empty.
Mom’s going for our cousin Ilnure’s wedding. Dad’s going to celebrate his mother’s 80th birthday. She actually already turned 80 a few weeks ago, but they held off the party to coordinate with the wedding so mom & dad could participate.
Dad wrote all this in his journal this morning and he read it to us on the way to the airport. They were both in surprisingly good moods as they left and there were no last-minute freak-outs. Other than the luggage overweight charge, everything went really smoothly. I hope it sets a good precedent for the rest of the trip.
