Beijing, Day 2

Well, after sleeping away the second half of day 1, day 2 was much more ambitious.  We started out by stopping at a jade factory on the way to the Great Wall.  It's amazing how similar our cultures can be.  There was some cool stuff here but it was mostly a short talk about jade carving and then high-pressure sales trying to get us to buy jade.  Just like being in the States.  The coolest thing here was a big ship carved from jade.  It's the big draw for slack-jawed tourists (like us).  Kristin did end up buying a "happy family" ball and a glass ball with Kaia's name painted on the inside.

From there, it was off to the Great Wall.  Kristin had been there before and had no intention of repeating her feat of climbing to the first tower on the Wall.  She hung out at the bottom with the wife of another adopting couple we were matched up with.  I decided to see how far I could get.  Surprisingly, my knees and wind held up and I made it to Beacon Tower no. 9.  What does that mean, it means that I climbed up pretty high. The following picture is of me in front of the marker with Chairman Mao's words about the higher you climb, the bigger hero you are.  I went up to the highest tower you can see in the picture.

I went to the one to the upper right of the corner of the sign.

The view from the top.

From the Wall, we went to the Summer Palace.  This is where the Emperor's family hung out in the summer. It was a nice place but chock full of tourists and kind of dirty.  Oh well, I'm sure they kept it cleaner back in the Emperor's day..

The Marble Boat

The on-site Buddhist Temple.  (Beijing is pretty hazy)

Today is the Forbidden City and then flying to Shanghai around 4:00 p.m.  Sometime tomorrow is "Gotcha Day."  And then we'll get what we really came for!

Beijing Day 1

We spent the morning at the Temple of Heaven. We will hang out and relax the rest of the day. Tomorrow we go see the Great Wall and the Summer Palace.

We're in Beijing!

The plane ride turned out to not be as touturesome as we had feared.  The only problem was that these two hay seeds from Wyoming sat across from us and, after they dimmed the lights and had everyone pull down the blinds so everyone could sleep, the husband kept pulling up his blind to look out literally every five minutes.  Every time he did it, I woke up.  I was ready to reach over and choke his scruffy, whiskered neck!  And he was the only one on the plane doing it!  But the food was OK and the flight crew was excellent.  Airlines in the US could learn something about service and courtesy from Korean Air.

We arrived in Beijing just a few minutes late.  Once we cleared Customs and got out to the Arrival Hall at the airport, our guide hadn't gotten there yet.  We were stressing just a little bit but she was there within about 5 minutes after we got out there.  She seems very nice and she showed us to the van and we loaded up and headed to the hotel.

We got to the Jianguo Hotel around 9:30 and checked in.  On the ride in I was relieved to see that there was a Pizza Hut and a McDonalds within walking distance of the hotel.  Thank goodness.  I will definitely be trying the local cuisine but it is nice knowing I'll be able to get a taste of home if I need it.

Today, it's a half day of touring Beijing.  We're going to go to the Temple of Heaven and then we might go to the Silk Market.  It's only a half a day so we'll be able to ease into this tourist thing.  I slept like a mummy last night so, right now, I feel rested and ready.  A few minutes of primping and then off to try the breakfast buffet.  Only 3 more days and we get our little "souvenir."

On the way to Seattle...

Nerd's paradise: free wifi on the flight. I need to get out more...

We'll be in Beijing in a mere 17 hours or so. It'll fly right by... Ugh...

We have our travel dates!

We are leaving on 8/31! We will have a couple of days of touring in Beijing before flying on to Shanghai on 9/4. "Gotcha day" is set for Monday, Sept 5th. We will meet and take Kaia at either our hotel or the Civil Affairs office. We aren't yet sure if we will be able to tour the orphanage or not.

8/31 Depart Las Vegas
9/1 Arrive in Beijing
9/2 Tour Beijing
9/3 Tour Beijing
9/4 Fly to Shanghai
9/5 Gotcha Day
9/6 Paperwork
9/7 Tour Shanghai
9/8 Tour Shanghai
9/9 Pick up passport and fly to Guangzhou
9/10 Kaia's medical exam and TB test
9/11 Tour Guangzhou
9/12 TB test results and touring
9/13 Visa application and oath ceremony
9/14 Pick up Kaia's Visa
9/15 (open day)
9/16 Drive to Hong Kong airport and depart

MORE Pictures!

I'm sorry but these are too dang cute not to share all of them.  Kaia looks so happy in these.  Her world is gonna get rocked in a month or so.  I just hope Kristin and I can substitute for her little buddies she's sharing the cake with in these pictures.  I mean, we both like cake too...  A LOT.

August 4 Update

We received some new pictures after we had a cake sent to Kaia. We don't know yet if she knows about us. We also received updated measurements so I hope I get the right size clothing. No info on her foot size, so it will be a guessing game on shoes. She is now 42 inches tall and weighs 35 pounds. We are expecting our approval to travel in the next 1-4 weeks