Monday...Beijing

An early start with a stunning breakfast (what was not served?) and we were early for our tour so we went for a walk around the block just to take in the sites. This area is not a touristy spot at all and so there were some neat things to see including a pet shop, people getting ready for work and cycling by, folks doing their morning exercises and playing badminton. Then off we went to our day's outing at Forbidden City. We strolled through Tiananmen Square, stopping to admire the kite flyers and the soldiers. At seeing the soldiers lining up in formation and marching, our wonderful guide, Doyle ( he picked that as his "English" name because if you yell out Doyle, it sounds like you are yelling for your guide in Chinese) pulled out his old army i.d. to show us he ws once a soldier and proceeded to line our kids up (there are 9 of them; I mistakenly referred to 7 on the plane but no, all 9 were there) and get them marching. It was too funny They were having a great time, Doyle was having a good time and we had quite the audience. Pictures are attached!

We took the typical pictures in front of the picture of Mao at Forbidden City and headed inside. Poor Andie was soooooo tired and I immediately regretted not bringing a stroller. It was about 95 degrees and she wanted to be carried. I did so some, her cousin Jena carried her some (and for her generosity she was then approached by Claire (6) who asked Jena while carrying Andie, if she could get on Jena's back!, and Andie was on Mark's shoulders a bit.

Because there was so much behind scaffolding in preparation for the Olympics, we did some walking through the buildings along the sides of the city, formerly storage building. They now house displays on weaponry, parades etc of the era. There was air conditioning in those rooms and so we didn't mind too much. Evan can be seen in one of these pictures looking as if he is kowtowing. No, the child was just desperate to feel the air!

After we finished our tour, we headed to a noodle restaurant. The food was okay but I was surprised that the noodles were cold. Andie of course, loved them . See the picture of her enjoying her noodles!

After our lunch we headed back to the hotel. The ladies headed out to explore the local stores and Id found that everything was troo small (okay and a little skimpy and then there was the t-shirt Jena found with a giraffe and the words "Join me in waiting for football season" huh?

Back to the hotel. the boys had been swimming and the girls napping. the girls then went swimming with Mark ad then we headed to Mac d's for dinner. It was late and we were exhausted but we needed something in our bellies. We then headed to bed (although Andie had fallen asleep in Jena's arms on the way home. She was up again at 3:15 a.m.