Our first full day in Beijing has almost come to a close. It started with an amazing breakfast buffet complete with your standard Western fare, fried rice, spring rolls, congee, squid, and just about anything else you can think of. Even the coffee was good. After breakfast Justin decided to go for a run. I figured he would be back to the room in about an hour and a half so I was pretty concerned when three hours went by and he still wasn't back. I was pretty convinced that he had gotten himself hopelessly lost, never to be found again. But, he finally strolled in the hotel quite pleased with himself for having run all the way to the Bird's Nest (Olympic opening ceremonies venue) and the Water Cube. Apparently, the bell boy told him it was a 30 minute drive and he couldn't possibly run there. Justin, of course, took that as a challenge and had to prove him wrong.
This afternoon our guide took us and the other family in our travel group that arrived the same time we did (the other 2 families experienced some flight delays and didn't make it until today) on a tour of the Temple of Heaven. It was part park and part historical site. Everything here is really clean and fairly pretty. We kept noticing that there were older people everywhere playing cards, dancing, and playing on the playground equipment (believe it or not the playground equipment in each community is designed for adults rather than children). Apparently, the retired community is extremely active. We saw several groups of older women in the park with kareoke (sp?) machines singing and dancing just for fun.
We then hooked up with the remaining families in our group and visited Hutang (??). This is a very old neighborhood in Beijing. We actually toured around in rickshaws. It was a little cold, but still a fun experience. Afterwards, we went to a tea tasting hosted by a professional tea person (like a somelier, but for tea).
We are back in our hotel now getting ready for dinner. Our entire group has a reservation at a Chinese duck restaurant. I guess we will all be splitting a duck that they will place in the center of the table after making a show out of carving it. It should be quite an experience. Oh, wait, I just found out that we can't get a reservation for tonight. We'll go to the duck place tomorrow night and to an Italian restaurant tonight. It seems strange to go out for Italian when you are in China...oh well.
We have thoroughly enjoyed the day, but also are quite anxious to get to Guangzhou and get Layla. Just a few more days...
Thanks, everyone, for all the comments! It was really fun reading them. Of course, we especially enjoyed the update on Henry.
4 comments:
Layla is beautiful. Henry did great at our house last night. he and Andrew had so much fun playing together. We took him to meet Andrew's grandparents. They hear so much about Henry, they wanted to meet him. He slept well. He told me several time that mom and dad went to get his Layla, it was really sweet. The boys were so cute this morning, they hugged and kissed on each other for the first 30 minutes they were up.They love each other and we loved having him over. I know you guys miss him and he misses you but he is doing really well. We can't wait to meet Layla.
Henry has successfully landed at the toddlers club and he is taking a bath with Kellen right now! I think he's getting a kick out of it! He's doing well and handled the transition awesome. told me that mom was going to come over and play trains with him. when I asked him about it he said "but mom and dad are getting layla". All is well and we have his bed all set up. have a good day!!
Well thats par for the course for Justin. Missing for 3 hours in a foreign country.
Glad to hear you made it safely to China and are enjoying the culture! Don't worry, my favorite restaurant in Ukraine is Italian! Enjoy! Praying!
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