The sky is blue and trees are trees

 End of Day Three in China.  Wow.  Time has gone by so slowly, I can't believe it has only been three days.  I've quickly discovered that when life is a continuous adventure, you remember so many more moments in a day than normally.  I remember the bike trip being this same way. 

I'll start with how we got here.
                                                                                                                               Seattle, WA.  Aug 1-3
This trip to Seattle was one of the best ever; thank you to everyone for making it so special.  The first afternoon was with Brendan on Queen Anne.  Arriving after three days of painting the house back home with little sleep, finished with a night of almost no sleep as I packed for a year abroad in China (by no means an easy task), I was not in my best shape as I made my way to Queen Anne via train and bus with: a big backpack, large roller bag, day pack, and computer bag.  A challenge.  Transformers 3 3D was all I could muster an we spent the rest of the evening reminiscing about the glorious Chugach and Trail Crew.  Thank you Jeremy Norden for the romantic following day of sandwiches at the Seattle lookout in the sunshine an your tales of frisbee adventure around the world.  Thank you Aaron for the great evening at your house—I love sitting in your chair and talking about life.  Luka arrived at midnight an we spent the next morning with her for brunch.  A HUGE thanks to you Kelly for the use of your family's car as we drove all around Seattle doing last minute errands over the next few days.  Our activities change drastically once we discovered XBox Kinect.  Most of our time was dedicated to jumping logs in a raft, playing handball, boxing, and track and field.  From this, we have determined: Luke is the best javelin thrower in the world, but not the best long jumper; Jon is the world's best bowler, and I can crush Luke in boxing with my eyes closed.  Thank you Jon for dragging us away from the Xbox and taking us to a romantic dinner on the lakeside at sunset.  The sight of the sunset behind the Olympic mountains has been my happy place these last few days in the city.  Saw more friends before departure and before we knew it, we were packing the car for downtown.  A big final thank you to Jeremy for the amazing gifts of China ultimate jerseys and discs before we left.  The other teachers are astounded and baffled at our disc collection, and I think of your smile, Jeremy, every time I put on the Jersey.  Thanks to all of our friends who extended their hospitality while we were in Sea Town—it was magical to see you all!

                                                                                                        Bus and United Flight 857, Aug 3-5th
For some odd reason, flights were cheapest from Vancouver, BC, so we rode a shuttle to the Vancouver Airport.  Luke and I worked on our new novel, Game of Thrones, reading matching books on matching Kindles, wearing matching China team jerseys, on the bus traveling to China.  Canada customs thought us hilarious.  At the Vancouver airport for 5 hours, throwing frisbees and sleeping on the floor.  The excitement occurred when I we sent through customs to get back into the US, which we had left 4 hours ago.  I made it through no problem, and was waiting for Luke on the other side of a small doorway guarded by two customs agents.  Not thinking he'd take long, I tested calognes, looked at liquor prices at the duty free, and watched for Luke.  No Luke.  Maybe I missed him.  So I walked to our gate, which was loading.  No Luke.  Hmm.  Back to customs doorway, no Luke en route.  Had they seen the tall guy with a really red shirt, I asked.  "No, your friend is already at the gate or in the potty little boy," was his reply.  "Get on the plane, he'll see you there.  We wouldn't take him or anything."  I did not find his sarcasm funny at 5:45 am.  Panic began to take over me when I returned to the gate and, you guessed it, no Luke.  How in the world was I going to fly to China with no Luke?  Hastily I sent him this e-mail (because phones are very expensive in Canada):
Luka,
The customs officers mocked me when I asked to go back and see if you are ok.  Where are you?  I'm boarding now.  PLease come
love,
cam
And then I boarded the plane.  Sitting there, waiting for him was some of the slowest, most agonizing moments of my life.  I think he was the last person to board and did so with the biggest scowl I had ever seen on his face.  He got the "special treatment," complete with a private room interview, extra baggage check, and more waiting than you could imagine.  Luka the suspected insurgent.  He made it, but our next question was if his bags made it.  Us in the airport before customs:

Thank you Littlepage for picking me up at SFO during the long layover for my final meal in the US.  It was great to see you and catch up.  After that, the real flight began.  Here's Luke looking at our plane:

Being on that plane for 13 hours wasn't as bad as I expected.  We had two seats in the back next to each other as our own row and the stewardesses made everyone pull own the blinds for the flight.  The crazy thing about going west is that the sun never set—we were chasing the day.  If you ha enough