Two Whirlwind Days in Beijing

We all crashed in the hotel and slept fairly reasonably. I seem to be the only one still jetlagging (or maybe that's just nervousness). In the morning we had breakfast and met Rose and two travel companions (Mark and Anne, adopting a little girl in Guangdong). We took a private bus to a section of the Great Wall that
protects a strategic pass through the mountains.
We tied Gus onto Jim's back and hiked up the first sets of stairs. I didn't expect that the stairs would be a) so steep and b) so uneven. Some are very shallow, and then there are stairs that you practically have to hoist yourself up. The men who manned this wall must've been some of the fittest in China.
We got up to the first tower, and decided to walk a little of the way around the loop. Gus wanted to get down and hiked some of the wall himself. Eventually we did the entire loop. My calves are still mad at me, but it was really neat. You look back and think "I climbed THAT!?"
We discovered a new Chinese hobby: taking pictures with random tourists. We all got stopped at one point or another to take pictures with other climbers. Jim got stopped most often (tall white man with a toddler tied to him).
After that we went to an amazing lunch on top of a cloisonne factory, and did a little shopping there (we like to collect Christmas ornaments from interesting places, and although I was surprised to find them in a Communist state-run store, there they were). We came home with a hummingbird (beautiful), an armadillo (because really, an armadillo?), and did not come home with a burnt-orange Longhorn Dad ornament. The arm of the Longhorns is long indeed.
Then we drove back to Beijing and saw the Water Cube (which is way cooler in person) and the Bird's Nest. Gus was losing it at this point, so we skipped a tea ceremony to go take a nap. We barely woke up for dinner, and then went back to bed. Discovered that a lot of the milk in China may be rice milk, which Gus doesn't like. It put him pretty off-kilter to be milk-less for a few days; maybe we'll find some more like home when we get to Guangzhou.
The next day we took a walk to the Temple of Heaven. Only got to see the Temple through the trees, because the real purpose was to let Gus climb all over the Seven Mountain Stones (everyone else's kids were climbing all over them, so we figured we weren't desecrating too much). We saw a neat game with balls and rackets and bought a couple sets to play with later, then headed to the Hong Qiao Pearl Market for some quick shopping. Jim and Dad grabbed a couple of things that they needed, and I did some necklace shopping. You're supposed to haggle, but it's hard when they say, "Best offer, $40." And you're supposed to say, "No, $4!" but you're thinking "$40 is awfully reasonable!" So I bargained down to about $30 and felt fine with that.
Then we had another amazing lunch and went to Tiananmen Square. Not fun for Gus. At the end of it is the Forbidden City, and he could run around a bit more there. Super-hot. Apparently there are 15 layers of bricks underlying the whole place to discouraging tunnelling assassins. It is humongous.
We were told that the hawkers there are relentless, so to tell them right off that you aren't interested. Reb said, "I don't want any, thank you" with such great sincerity, big smile, and apparently murderous pronunciation that one hawker actually stopped to give her a big smile and pat on the arm in the universal sign of "It's okay, dear, at least you're trying."
Then back to the airport, where Gus and Reb slept the whole flight, into the next hotel (which is WOW). Gotta stop typing to go meet Jed!

A Long Series of Flights

The Amazing James dropped us off at the airport at around 4 a.m. Gus was up late picking up Dad from the airport, so no one slept more than 5 hours (and I only slept around 3). Then we flew to Minneapolis, sleeping on the way. Ate breakfast in Minneapolis and had a six-hour layover. Unluckily, Minneapolis has only one interesting thing for children. Luckily, it was right on our concourse, and it was a pretty good playplace. We managed to spend 3.5 hours there, with some effort. Then had some lunch and got on the LOOOONG flight.

Which wasn't too bad, actually. We all slept a few hours here and there, nothing too long. Gus was hysterical twice when he woke up and found himself still on a plane, but overall he did well. He was amused by the first bit of turbulence and scared as it got worse. I barely missed throwing my glass of water all over my husband (he woke up not from the turbulence but from the gasps from the passengers).

We landed in Tokyo and took Gus to a playplace. He was NOT in the mood to play, so we headed to the next gate instead. We were afraid that the next flight would be a diasaster, but Gus settled down to watch some movies and was fine. He lost it again as we waited in Immigration and Customs lines, but we all survived (and moved a little faster through Customs as the lady took pity on the family with the freaking-out kid). At 10:30 p.m. we exited the secure area and waited for our Beijing guide, Rose. Gus has a huge crush on Miss Rose.

Leaving tomorrow!

Just realized I didn't announce this on the blog (been posting about the packing process over at Facebook). Once the excited grandfather arrives, we will have everything we need to go.

We will meet Jed on Monday (Sunday evening over here). We would appreciate prayers for the transition for everyone, extra patience for us, and relief from jetlag.

We'll post when we can!