Getting to Shanghai - Part 1

I'm finally able to post after 5 busy, bewildering days for us. Here's a recap. After spending two nights at the airport hotel and one very long day of the final shutdown of the condo, we were ready to begin our China adventure. We checked in for the flight to Chicago and was able to send our bags straight through to Shanghai. Two of the four bags were a few pounds over the weight limit so we had to readjust the contents to fit in the carry-on bag. So of course, G. gets singled out for the inspection (he ALWAYS gets pegged - and they say they don't racial profile - ha!). So naturally, we "lost" a couple of our previous checked bagged items during that search. Arrived in Chicago without a problem, boarded the plane bound for Shanghai and... SAT, for four hours! Since 4 hours had passed, the airline had to dismiss the flight crew (they couldn't go over their allotted hours), gave us a hotel and meal vouchers and let us loose. Thankfully, I had the good sense of packing a set of clothes for each of us in the carry-on. We enjoyed a nice meal and yet another hotel night. We got up in the morning to start over again. So of course, we had to get through security again. Something went on at O'Hare the day before concerning cheese, so security was hyper-viligant. Again, G. gets singled out and we "lost" more items from the carry-on! Finally, a day later and a few pounds of luggage lighter, we boarded the flight to Shanghai.