Wow – We Had A Full Day!!!‏

Jerry and I did a Skype video call with the boys this morning which was wonderful! It felt so good to see and talk to them! They are doing well and Colin immediately asked where Jadyn was I explained that we didn’t meet her yet, but would on Saturday (our time) Friday night their time. Then, our day began promptly at 8:30 a.m. when our guide met us in the hotel lobby and we left for Tiananmen Square. It was about 45 minutes away and my gosh – the traffic is terrible! Not just the traffic, but the driving! I chose to simply look straight ahead and not at any oncoming cars, bikes, mopeds, or pedestrians. I thought we were going to hit or be hit by one of everything about every 10 minutes or so. Our guide explained that there is a lottery for license plates and that you have to purchase that before buying a vehicle. That is how they try to control the number of vehicles on the roadways. The price for a license plate is equivalent to $6,000 US dollars!
After Tiananmen Square we went to the Forbidden City and it is truly amazing. We were told that if a boy was born in the City, and slept in a different room each day of his life, it would take until he was the age of 27 until he had been in each of the rooms of the entire City. It went on and on and on…Truly breathtaking!
We stopped for lunch at a buffet style restaurant, not everyone’s favorite selection of food, but it gave us nourishment to continue on to the Summer Palace. We still had not warmed up after lunch so we all felt very cold and tired, but yet were very impressed with the views of the Summer Palace. We saw the boat that is made to look like marble. I’ve attached a pic below. The breeze coming off of the lake didn’t help matters any – it probably didn’t get much above 40 degrees here today; you could see our breath! Jerry also forgot his jacket in the truck at the drop-off to the airport so he was VERY cold. Needless to say, we bargained for a nice New North Face jacket in a flea market store front for tomorrow so he doesn’t freeze while we tour the Olympic Village and the Great Wall.
Jerry just ran out to pick up a cheese pizza down the street; we have had two disappointing Chinese buffet meals today so we are going western tonight Enjoy the pics