Friday, March 15, 2013

Day 2: The Great Wall : mark it off the list !

Day 2

We got a great night sleep last night thanks to our trusty friends Malatonin and No Jet Lag pills. We had breakfast in our hotel and then met ALL the families in our travel group. There are 8 families total and 10 children who will have forever families. (2 of the families are adopting TWO children at once). We loaded up and made the 1 hr 10 minute drive to the Wall all the while listening to our guide tell us facts about China, the city, and of course the history of the wall. The weather here today is chilly for us Floridans but not freezing. We chose the harder section of our two choices and ugh, it was hard. Jordan and I made it a fairly decent ways before we had to turn back to meet up at the bus. The stairs were extremely steep and some had even caved in from being trampled on for so many years. We climbed the section that was built by the Ming dynasty-- the section was 600 years old. The whole time Jordan was asking me ," are you alright?" Ha! I guess he thought I was struggling by my frequent rests, but it wasn't too bad. Jordan compared the steepness to a double black diamond which by the way I have never been on. I guarantee you thought that I enjoyed being on land doing this than on two skiis. We were pretty much left to go at our own pace and it was a lot of fun to do it together. After the climb, our guide told us that the Chinese believe that you aren't
A hero until you climb the wall, so I guess we are heroes now. The next stop was the jade factory- very interesting and very pretty, but we didn't buy a single piece. Then we went and had lunch and let's just say it was AMAZING. We ate family style with all 19 of us. It was so delicious and it was nice to have coversation with the other families and hear their " adoption stories". On our way home from the hotel we made a quick trip past Olympic village where we saw the water cube, birds nest, and the village where all the athletes lived during the games. It was a really fantastic first day, we got back to the hotel about 30 minutes ago. Jordan made a quick run to the Wumart for some water and diet coke. We are looking forward to our nap and then heading back out for dinner. Only 3 more wake ups until we get Rex. Thanks so much for all the prayers and comments. We really appreciate our family and friends supporting us even from 6000 miles away, love y'all














6 comments:

  1. So incredible!! You're gonna feel the burn tomorrow for sure! :) those are some steep stairs! Next time you post about food, post what you ate... Curious what actual Chinese food is... Not the fake stuff we eat here I'm sure! ;)

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  2. You two are definitely HEROES in my book! I love that we get to read all about your quest from the other side of the world.
    PS - Wumart, huh? Is that like Walmart??

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  3. Hi!! I'm so excited to be able to follow you in China! The girls are happy they can know what you are doing too:) Hugs from the neighborhood. We'll keep checking back for updates!

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  4. ps I got a gmail account just so I could comment on here!

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  5. Oh this makes me so happy! I am already crying and you haven't even gotten to the best part of your trip yet. LOVE YOU!!

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  6. That is so awesome!!! I just told Beckham you and Mr. Toad are superheroes. He was so excited: "That is so cool! China is so high!" Maybe he'll like you again :) haha. Love you! PS - I agree to with Alissa... need to know what food and see pictures!!! Ni hao!

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