Here, In China - Thursday and Friday

I know I promised I would update the blog while we were gone, but, honestly, I just haven't had a chance until now.  Once we landed in Beijing, our guides kept us moving in an effort to help our bodies adjust to the time difference.  It was good though, because it also helped keep our minds off of what was coming.  For me, it really did help me settle in and breathe while we waited.

So here is the play by play.....

Tuesday night (Crazy to think that was a week ago), we said our "See ya laters" to the girls as we tucked them into bed.  Talk about TORTURE!  That was one of the hardest things we've ever had to do.  Everyone was so sad that we had to be separated for 2 weeks.  Sam took it a little harder than did Georgia, but even she finally gave in to her drooping eye lids and fell asleep.  We had a few more things to do before we could leave, so we got busy.  Then it happened - I got a text from the airline letting me know that our flight out of RDU the next morning was going to be delayed by an hour.  Houston, we have a problem!  I appreciated the early notice, but that was no good!  Our layover in Detroit was only 37 minutes, so we were going to miss our international flight.  But, Delta made good on it and moved us to the 6AM flight out of RDU.  But now it's 12:30, and we have to leave the house by 3, so why even bother going to sleep?  So we didn't.  But, all was well.  It was just God showing up, to take a risky situation and make it golden.  Our flight left on time, landed in Detroit on time, and gave us a 4.5 hour layover instead of a 37 minute one.  So, we, and our luggage, made it to the international flight just fine.  We landed in Beijing around 2:30 in the afternoon, but had to wait for a few more flights to land, which would deliver a few more members of our travel group.  Then we made what turned out to be only about a 4 mile drive to our hotel, only it took an hour and a half I think.  So, we didn't get to our hotel room until around 10 that night!  Talk about a long day!  I think we had been awake for close to 48 hours by then.  So, needless to say, we slept just fine that first night.

Friday, we visited the Great Wall.  It was covered in snow, and was absolutely amazing!

After the Great Wall, we had lunch, served family style.  Our guides ordered for us, and it was pretty good.  I was pleasantly surprised!  In the same building as the restaurant, was a Jade Market.  So we took a tour, learned about Jade, got to see some workers carving the jade into artwork, then had a chance to shop!   :)

From there, we went to the National Park, also known as The Bird's Nest.  This is were the Olympics were held a few years back.  It was pretty neat to see.

Water Cube, where the swimming trails were held.

Olympic Flame

After that, we were all very tired, but it was still too early to go to dinner, so we visited a Chinese Tea house called Dr. Tea.  There, they lest us taste 5 different kinds of tea, and explained the benefits of each.  Then, of course, we were given the opportunity to shop!

By now, we were all just toast.  So we finished off the day with dinner together, and then it was back to the hotel for some much needed rest.