Day 2 -- Exhaustion and Anticipation

Ryan: Our guide, Grace, said that people with blonde or red hair and people with blue eyes are considered celebrities in China.  At Tiananmen Square, my dad gets grabbed by this lady to take a picture with him.  After her picture, she wanted a picture of dad and her husband.  Then at the Great Wall of China, this guy comes up to me and asks if he can have a picture with me and I say yes. Then we were at the food courts this mom wanted one of her twin boys to take a picture with me. At first he ran away. Then a few minutes later he came back to take a picture. So now my dad and I have a competition going to see who can get the most pictures with Chinese people. I will keep you posted.

Tammy: “This is an experience of a lifetime.” Jonny has been saying this for some time. Today we had one experience of a lifetime. Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, and The Great Wall of China. It was very interesting to listen to the history behind all of these places. Google the Dragon Lady see what you find out. We got to hear about the concubines. 

Some of the interesting things I have noticed that are different from home.  The men flop their shirts up over their belly to keep cool. Thinking I saw way more man skin than I should have. When we got here yesterday it sounded like we were in New York City, honk, beep, beep, honk. We have rules about pedestrians. Well you cross at your own risk here! We were walking back from dinner tonight and I got beeped at by a little motorbike while on the sidewalk!

Tomorrow we travel to Emily’s province and hope to have her at 3:30. It could be earlier. It is just crazy to think that our day is finally here to see her little face. The next time I post I will be the mommy of a little girl.

Jonny:  We found an intesting item in our van today.  The picture (see below) shows glass being broken by a hammer.  My dad said this was the "oh no..we had a crash hammer."  We laughed at the little hammer and were glad we didn't have to use it.

The Great Wall steps were very very uneven and it was hard to get up and even harder to get down.  I didn't make it even half way...my dad did though.  If you ever go to China....beware...it is hard to climb The Great Wall of China.


Roger:  One word for me right now...exhausted.  Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and The Great Wall is a lot for one day.   The Forbidden City was amazing.  It was built over 600 years ago and has about 9000 total rooms in 870 buildings.   Luckily, Grace (our guide) took us to only a few of the buildings.  I am not sure we would have survived the "complete" tour.

 Here is a little video clip of my experience at the Great Wall.... 

One person from our group of 16 made it to the top and back in the hour and 15 minutes we were given....hats off to her.

On the way back to the hotel we realized we were less than 24 hours from meeting Emily.  She has been on our minds and hearts for a long time.  It is going to be a great day for the Scott family...full of much emotion...and paperwork.

Outside the first gate of the Forbidden City

Tammy and the boys listening to our guide Grace



Lunch with our group

  

One lady's choice of shoe to climb The Great Wall.  I guess i shouldnt say anything...she made it as far as I did.