Great Wall - We're tired!

There are a few things I thought I'd never say in my life. One, "My bed in China is too soft." Anyone who has travelled to China knows that most beds are very hard….not ours. The other thing I never imagined saying was, "I got injured climbing the Great Wall of China."

We started out our morning enjoying another great buffet at the Renaissance Hotel. I can't believe how much the girls are eating in the morning! We had another good conversation with our waitress from Mexico. She has only been in Beijing for a few months and said, "I don't miss the big city and crazy traffic of Mexico City!" Again, if you have ever been in Beijing, you laugh along with us!

After breakfast we headed over to the Great Wall of China. Tom and I had been to a different part of the wall when we were here in 2004. It was a crazy climb! I had tweaked my knee yesterday while running across the street before the light turned green. I must have done something to it today as I climbed to. I don't think it is anything serious, but I welcome the prayers as it is much too early in our trip for me to be hobbling around. The kids did a great job climbing the wall….it was a tough climb. Lily would occasionally break into that Miley Cyrus song, "It's the climb." Sarah had absolutely no problem climbing the wall and had a good bit of energy when it was all said and done. Lily? Well, it was more of a challenge for her, but she made it. I was glad she struggled a little bit…..it gave me an excuse to look like I was taking it slow to help her! We decided to skip walking back down the few miles we climbed and opted for the cable car. Sadly, I kept my eyes closed most of the way down because the view was frightening…plus, there were seven of us crammed into this little car and I thought we were over the weight limit, but I didn't have the ability to convert in my head the conversion of our total weight into metric! When we got back down, we allowed the kids to buy a t-shirt that said, "I Climbed the Great Wall of China."

Again, "rockstar" Dane was a huge hit as he was approached four times on the wall to have his picture taken with someone! That just cracks me up!

After the wall, we headed over to the Olympic Village. We experienced McDonald's first….sorry, but it doesn't compare to our McD's on Memorial. We then took a walk around the Cube and the Bird's Nest.

After a brief rest in the hotel, we went over to watch the Acrobatic Show. The girls loved it!

Tom is out roaming around Beijing looking for food and a Starbuck's! What a guy! Just a few shout outs to people:

TJ, love you! We pray for you every day! Feel free to give us a call if you'd like. We can't call you, but you can call us.

Kathi Gilmore, Happy Birthday my friend!

Bess, I miss you!

KS, if you are following, I am doing okay moving around at the pace of an "s." I haven't poked anyone's eyes out with chopsticks…..yet!


Tomorrow we are headed to The Summer Palace and the Beijing Zoo.


(Pictures: You should be able to make out what was taken where. Get a kick out of Lily at one point in the climb of the wall!)