China - Day 1

Well, last night(?) was interesting. Davis slept about 3 hours. Faith did a little better. No matter! We were all up before 6 (a few of us way before 6.) We had breakfast at the buffet downstairs and left with our group to tour Tiananmen Square.

Everything we saw today was immense. And crowded with people. I wish I could show you our pictures right now, but in a move that is kind of typical for us, we neglected to get a laptop which will read our SD card. Cripes. We will try to upload some at another computer sometime so we can post some later.

After we toured the square we saw the massive Forbidden City. And when I say "toured" I mean walked very briskly through with periodic stops for our guide to count heads and tell us a little information about what we were looking at. It was a challenge for us to get Davis through these crowds in his stroller. We also got a great deal of attention today for both the kids. I knew this would happen, but it is a very odd experience. People stop and point and stare at the kids - particularly Davis. They want to get pictures of their kids and themselves with him. One lady moved me out of the way today so she could see him better. It has made me a little nervous at times, but there is nothing but fascination in the attitudes of these folks. They are super friendly and just curious. Davis has done really well and even hammed it up at times. Faith has her limits. It was very odd at one point today when I was taking a picture of Faith and there was a man next to me with his camera taking pictures of her, too.

After the brisk walks we went to lunch, toured the beautiful summer palace garden, and shopped at government run pearl and silk factories, got pictures of the Bird's nest and swimming facilities of the Beijing Olympics and were on our way to a tea ceremony when Faith got sick on the bus so we got a taxi and came back to our room. Game over for today, but there are big plans for tomorrow, too, so hopefully some rest will help everyone get some energy back.