Wrapping It Up

I haven't had time to post about the end of the trip until today. Even though it's a bit delayed, I thought I would wrap it up for anyone who may still be reading. :-) (And I can't believe this all happened just over a week ago!)

Tuesday was my last day in Hong Kong, and it was a full day, as my flight wasn't until 11:45 pm. I hit the streets in the morning with a very specific shopping goal in mind. I don't think it took 30 minutes for me to go astray - wandering into cute stores, poking along at stalls, and in one case, being pulled into a Secret Basement Showroom (caps mine!) to see a wholesaler's purse line. (Yes, I bought a purse there. Okay maybe it was TWO purses.)

Around noon, I realized I'd better stop shopping and head to my lunch appointment with a local attorney. A friend (hello, Dorothy!) connected me with an attorney in her firm's Hong Kong office who had written an article about her pro bono work for the ABA. We went to a wonderful dim sum restaurant (my first dim sum!) and had a very pleasant time getting to know each other.

After lunch, it was off shopping again for a couple of hours.... at which point I realized that it was very possible I had too much to fit into my suitcase. This made me head back to the hotel where I confirmed that it was a tight fit. But it did fit!

Once Charlotte finished work for the day, we met for drinks in the hotel. We were joined briefly by a guy who was drunk, stoned, crazy, an actor, or possibly all of the above - whatever he was, he was entertaining for a brief time and knew when to leave. We were then joined by Charlotte's colleague and a local attorney, who convinced me you do not need to go to the airport 2.5 hours before one's flight. So I had a very nice dinner at a Japanese restaurant before setting off.

The flight back to LA was, for the most part, wonderful. I highly recommend Cathay Pacific business class! and in particular, true flat seats over the almost-flat seats on other airlines - it made a huge difference in my ability to sleep.

After a brief overnight in LA with a friend, it was back to domestic flying. I wanted to cry on the flight to Chicago - not only because my tooth was now rampantly painful (a story for another blog...), but because I was allegedly in First Class and it was nothing compared to my previous flights. I guess it was a fitting way to re-enter my normal life: hello, Reality!