Today may have been the longest day we’ve had in Kazakhstan during our entire trip. We were picked up by our driver and interpreter at 10 a.m., then spent most of the day driving from office to office trying to arrange all our flights home for Tuesday. We already had everything reserved, but getting the tickets printed, changing Katie’s ticket to her new name (instead of Aida) and trying to pay for everything took forever. We had to return to each office at least once because for one reason or another. Finally, at 2:30, we had finished everything; we finally held all of our return tickets in our hands.
Once we were done with the important errands, we got to have some fun. On every Kazakh adoptive family website we’ve found, there is always a picture in the mountains, overlooking an ice skating rink. During our first stop in Almaty, we didn’t even see the mountains, but on this longer visit, we decided that if we didn’t see anything else, we at least wanted to go to the mountains. Luckily, the scenic overlook (with the ice skating rink) is only a 30 min. drive from our hotel so Sem, our driver, was happy to take us.
The mountains were beautiful! The area we went to was located inside a national park, just like in America. The destination of our trip was an enormous avalanche dam (it’s like a normal earthen dam except there’s no water on the back side). From the top of the dam, you can see the whole valley, the snow covered peaks and a great view of the skating rink. In addition, you can also see some of the other avalanche features, like the tall look-out tower that faces the mountain slopes. If we had gone future up the pass, we would have also come across a full-size ski resort (Kevin was very sad that it wasn’t winter).
After our wonderful sightseeing trip, we headed back to the hotel where Marina met us. Both her and Kate (our interpreter) presented us with gifts; Kevin got a traditional Kazakh flask and Sarah got a beautiful wooden box. In addition to the gifts, Marina also brought Katie’s passport. It was the first time we had actually seen it, so we were extremely excited.
Finally we had in our possession not only all of our tickets home, but Katie’s passport as well. The only thing we’re still waiting on is our exit interview at the U.S. Consulate tomorrow morning. We are really hoping that they will be a little nicer than the last time, and that Katie’s clearance made it back from D.C. Assuming all goes well and both the appointment and drive to the airport don’t take a minute longer than expected, we will be getting on a plane home tomorrow. We are so excited!
If you have been planning on meeting us at the airport (and for some reason you’re not at work during business hours on Wednesday) here is all info you should need;
Day: Wednesday, July 6th
Airport: San Francisco International
Flight: United Airlines #926 (from LAX)
Terminal: Domestic
Meeting Spot: Baggage Claim
Contact: Barbara Lockwood; cell #831-234-0973
If anything changes, we will post and update on the website while we’re in Seoul, Korea, or we will call Barbara from LAX. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing everyone whether at the airport, or when we get home.