As I mentioned in my previous post, Anthony and I just flew to my folks' place in Ohio, from Kyoto.

The 12-hour flight went as fine as a 12-hour flight can go. We actually took off ahead of schedule(!), and made more time during the flight, so we arrived half an hour early. Kudos to Northwest for that.

We had a couple of hours in Detroit for customs/immigration, and to make our connection to Cleveland. Everything went smoothly, so we had time to check out a fun fountain in the middle of the main terminal.

The red thing above is a shuttle train. It actually comes right into the terminal. Very cool.

Sometimes, the water streams jumped all around...

We eventually had to make our way under the runways to the “C” terminal for our flight, in what appears to be almost an exact copy of the under-runway tunnel in Chicago, except Chicago has weird music and neon lights, while Detroit has weird music and non-neon lights.

As we approached the halfway mark of this tunnel, I noticed a big curtain-gate starting to slowly shut. People a few seconds ahead of us had strolled past the shutting gate, and from the looks of the speed, Anthony and I could stroll by with plenty to spare (it wouldn't finish closing for another full minute), but some snot-nosed rent-a-cop standing there decided that we would be the first people he wouldn't let by, so we and everyone coming after us, from either side, had to wait for no apparent reason.

Slowly, slowly, slowly the curtain moved from right to left. Some Northwest pilots were not far behind us, and were like “come'on, dude, let us go!” but the rent-a-cop said no. I don't really know why I or anyone else felt compelled to abide by what the guy said (he wasn't police, port authority, sheriff, etc... he was at the exact same authority level as a sanitation engineer), but no one complained too loudly, and eventually the curtain closed and the matter was settled. Anthony and I sat down.

The annoying “funky” music, and ever-changing colors continued...

Half an hour later, the gate opened as inexplicably as it had closed, and the two groups of people that had built up on either side of the gate simultaneously tried to proceed, which created quite a crush until the gate opened sufficiently (it was a slow-moving gate, as I mentioned before).

Anthony and I still had plenty of time before our flight, so we waited at the side until the floods cleared. Eventually, we could join the other salmon headed upstream.

The flight from Detroit to Cleveland is only 25 minutes, but we spent about 30 minutes taxiing before. At some point about when we were ready to take off, Anthony asked whether we were there yet. Even though we hadn't taken off, I noted “we're half way there, time wise”.

My mom picked us up at the airport, and he slept for the hour ride home. Of course, he was full of energy once we got to the wealth of toys that is Grandma and Grandpa's house.

The big backhoe is a favorite he remembers from last year and from the year before.

Josh is two years four months old, and so this is the first time that he and Anthony can actually play together. They're definitely both little boys, so trucks and sand and crashing things... they're two peas in a pod.

It's almost 8pm as I write this, and the sun's still out, and so are the boys. They're out playing in the sand pile while Grandma watches. I slept well last night, but jet lag is always a big problem for me, and I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open. Will sleep soon....