Today, Saturday December 23rd, finds Phil and me in Shanghai, China. We left Chicago Thursday morning (12/21) for San Francisco, then caught a flight at 12:18 (west coast time) for Shanghai. The flight took 13.5 hours; we arrived at 5:15 PM Friday, December 22nd.

One really fun item for us: we were confirmed in first class (by upgrading) on a two-class United 777 from Chicago to San Francisco. The aircraft was changed to a 747, and we somehow maintained first class seating on that 747! What a fun way to begin our trip!

The picture above is of Phil opening the luggage bin in business class, upstairs on the 747 bound for Shanghai from San Francisco. That business class area (there's also business class downstairs behind first class) is right behind where the cockpit is located. By the way, the pilot of Air Force One, which is the plane on which the president of the United States flies, says the trickiest part of flying a 747 is the taxiing -- it's like "dragging a gymnasium behind you." One of the pilots on our flight yesterday said that is true....and he added, "You also hate to get this thing stuck in the mud!" :-)

Part of our journey from San Francisco to Shanghai took us over Siberia. Here are three photos I took looking out the plane window.

Siberia December 2006

Siberia December 2006