Travel stress

Becca is our worrier. In fact, I often tell people that I don't need to worry about things because Becca will take care of that for me. This is particularly evident when we travel. If our plane is delayed, she worries that we will miss our connection. If we are running late, she worries that we will miss our plane/train/bus/boat (as the case may be). When we were in Vietnam for Chinese New Year, the kids and I were going to return to China by ourselves and Andy was going to immediately start traveling for business. We got to airport to check in and were told that they had overbooked the flight and we were going to have to take a flight back to China the next day. Andy and I proceeded to argue with the airline representative, to no avail. If we were in the US or even China, I don't think that I would have worried about flying the next day. And while I had enjoyed our time in Vietnam, I was ready to go back home to China. As we were discussing things with the check-in attendant, she was fairly insistent that the kids and I were going to have to fly the next day. Suddenly, it proved to be too much for our girlie who of course had been listening in to every word. She burst into tears. And within minutes, the kids and I went from not getting on flight to being upgraded to business class.

This week we had a holiday (Tomb Sweeping Day) and we took the opportunity to go to Shanghai for the day. We enjoyed a great day. Took the bullet train in -- only 25 minutes from Suzhou to Shanghai. We then met up with friends for lunch. After lunch we went to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Finally, we finished our day up with dinner out. Truly a terrific day as a family. After dinner, we had a little bit of time. Andy wanted to walk down to the river, but B was worried about missing our train. Andy insisted that we had time, so we started walking. We got to the Huang Pu (the Pu River) and Becca was stressed out, feeling that we needed to go catch the subway to the train station. After less than 5 minutes, we left the river and started the journey to the station with Becca asking every couple of minutes what time it was. Our train was scheduled to leave at 9:04 PM. We arrived on the subway at the train station at 8:50 PM. We then sprinted through security, up the escalator, found our platform (keep in mind the Shanghai Train Station is HUGE), practically threw our tickets at the attendant. Just imagine our family running, and yes the kids were running as well. Tori was running and giggling the whole way. We boarded the train and it started moving. Seriously a close one. As Andy said later, "ok, going to the river might not have been the best idea. Not my finest moment."

Now most of travel experiences are not quite so extreme. Through all of our travel, Andy and I generally don't get too stressed about delays or other incidents. We keep waiting for Becca to get to that point. But for now, she just suffers from travel stress. Every time. But Andy and I think we are ready to audition for the Amazing Race. Cause at moments like those, it seems like we are in training for the Amazing Race - family version.