Buying our first airline tickets

Lianna and I went to Ottawa to get our visas for China. The kids stayed with my mother and Steve in Sutton.
We started off by waking up at 5:50 a.m. (Luckily I woke up automtically, without an alarm, as I was supposed to get up to put on the alarm, which didn't happen) to pack. We didn't really feel like packing again, so we just took all our stuff!
We were supposed to be at the Chinese embassy by 11 if we wanted our visas the same day - which we did. The reason the visas were so rushed was because the kids had to have their passports to fly to the states. Se we had to wait till we met them in Vermont and returned to Canada. Montreal does not have a Chinese consulate. And with time being tight, we had to drive them over to Ottawa.

As it happened, we left Vermont with an emotional good-bye to Lianna's sister Risha, Shabbir her husband, and their three kids Dyami Zara and Tohan, and FORGOT THE PASSPORTS!!!! Halfway to Montreal from their place in Vermont Lianna remembered the passports. Big decision: go back or have them couriered. We opted for the latter, which worked out.
So L and I were of and running, on the road by 6:30-ish. All was well: we stopped for coffee after the bridge, which wasn't too bad.

By the time we get to the embassy, it was 10:45. We walk in and there's a big line, one wicket open, and at least 11 people in front of us. As we wait in line we hear the lady ask everyone for hotel reservations and return tickets. Knowing full well we had neither, we waited fatalistically, and when we get to the front 45 minutes later, she askes us the same thing, to which I say, "no". and she sends up packing.
Demoralized, disoriented, and determined to get in, we head to my friend Sheila's place for lunch.

On the way, through these tight narrow, one-way Ottawa roads packed with cars, I spot an adventure travel store, with a large sale sign in the window. I make the spontaneous decision to go in there (we'd just listended to the Seth CD on just that topic!), and sure enough, they sell Osprey backpacks!! The very ones I had tried to hunt down in Vancouver for months, to no avail! AND, they have the exact models we want, and they are on sale, and they have exactly the right quantity - we take the last 3! I also buy a pair of Keens, which I'd been searching for for months having actually purchased a pair and then returned them some days later - and got a pair of great pants, and Lianna got a pair of shorts. In short, total success.
I intuitively know I have to ask the guy there for a good travel agent for China, as we realize we have to step this up a bit visa process up a bit.
We also realize that we have not really tackled the issue of tickets and visas head on, so this was the time. Well the guy did know a travel agent, and apparently before he HAD to recommend one, as the owner of the store owned it. But he reocmmended another, just behind his store. Went there and after some very good information (about safaris and possible ticket purchase problems) was given a great tip: go to Chinatown and have a Chinese travel agent arrange it. So we did.

First place we stopped: dud. Second place, third floor up, way in the corner, visible - barely- from the street as we drove by. Lots of parking. Go up. Golden. She'll do the visa for us and make all the necessary arrangements with hotels etc. So we're in baby! She also gives us a better deal on our ticket than the first travel agent, so we book our first plane ticket! Vancouver - Tokyo - Beijing.
We leave on 14 September for Tokyo Japan! Over to China 8 October, overland to Tibet, then to Nepal.
Mark