Surprise! Unexpected pitstop in Chicago

About five hours from the end of our flight from Beijing (or seven hours into it), Ryan and I started to do some math in our heads. The estimated length of our flight was not adding up to the time difference we had planned. From our itinerary we had planned to leave Hong Kong and fly to Beijing for a brief layover, then fly to Chicago. According to our original planning, we would arrive at 1:20PM on Saturday. But during the flight the math wasn't adding up. We soon realized we would be arriving on FRIDAY not Saturday! Whoops! We're not sure how the original error was made, but here we are...in Chicago...on FRIDAY! Thankfully our parents were already here in order to greet us tomorrow, and just advanced their plans to get to the airport this afternoon. 

Our first flight was alright. Ivan was a bit cranky from being woken up at 5:00AM to go to the airport. However, he rebounded beautifully during our layover and we were hopeful the flight from Beijing to Chicago would go well. My, my, were we wrong. Ivan did not like being restrained in his own seat and he let everyone know. He cried and screamed. Screamed and cried. At one point I asked Ryan if the fight was going better than how he thought it would or not. His response was "Worse".  Ivan was able to be rocked to sleep when the cabin lights dimmed and remained asleep until we landed. 

Starting the flight

Ending the flight

Once we made it through customs and immigration, we were greeted by our parents!! What a happy sight! We made it!  *Sigh of relief*

So our adjusted plan is to spend the night here in Chicago and take the Amktrak train home tomorrow, Saturday morning, and arrive at Macomb at 10:58AM.  We are looking forward to getting settled in at home! And not lugging around all of our baggage will be nice too! ;)