Our day started at about 3:30 a.m. (for David) and 5:00 (for me). Even though we were exhausted when we went to sleep after midnight last night, our bodies were still telling our brains that is was the middle of day – not night. At any rate, we got an early start on the breakfast buffet!!

At 9:30 a.m. we met our guide and the rest of our group in the lobby. The sights on the agenda for today were as follows:

9:30  Tiananmen Square (including Forbidden City and Imperial Gardens)

1:00 Lunch in Hutong area of Beijing

2:30 Tour of Pearl Market/Store with opportunities to purchase (natch!)

4:00 Temple of Heaven

6:30 Dinner at Traditional Chinese Restaurant

8:15 Acrobat Show

9:45 Back to Hotel!

Needless to say, we are tired!!! It has been a full, interesting day.

Couple of notes:

• The weather was unseasonably warm today (66 degrees!) Tomorrow will be a little cooler.
• We climb the great wall tomorrow (thought it was today – I was wrong – surprising, but it happens).
• We are making a lot of new friends. It’s amazing to be surrounded by so many people “in the same boat”.
• Carrigan and I got to see “squatty potties” today for the first time. That was fun. I’ll spare everyone the details.
• I think we may all come home with our clothes a little looser. The kids are digging the food about as much as I thought and we are walking A LOT!
• The contrasts here are amazing. Brand new construction (and a lot of it – getting ready for the 2008 Olympics) right next to 600 year old buildings.
• It is interesting to see how the locals react to us. We didn’t expect too many stares hear in Beijing because it’s more westernized. But in Tiananmen Square (I’m sure I’m spelling that wrong everywhere by the way – I’m just too tired and lazy to look it up) anyway . . . we would just be walking along and people would jump in front of Carrigan and take her picture – like paparazzi. Carrigan pretended to be annoyed but I think she secretly dug it!
• The bummer of the day is that we found out today that our flight to Nanchang doesn’t leave until tomorrow NIGHT at 9 p.m., so we definitely won’t get the girls until Monday!

That’s it for now!!! We will report more tomorrow – but it may be later as we won’t have access to the laptop from 9:30 a.m. (bags must be in lobby) and approximately 11:00 p.m. when we check into hotel in Nanchang!

It won’t be long now!!!