Greetings from Beijing!

Bad news... I can't get on to blogger even through our VPN. We are trying to work that out but for now I'm sending my posts to my fabulous sister and she'll post them. Also no pics from yesterday. They are all on the ipad and we can't get them back off quite yet... A few techinical difficulties!!

But we are having a fabulous time. The ride over was LONG but Scarlett was completely the AMAZING girl we know her to be. She is a great travelor and really didn't have any problems. She slept the whole flight from Tokyo to Beijing and then through most of the night in the hotel. When we landed in Beijing she said, wahooo China. NOW let's go get my brother!! She is so awesome!!

Yesterday we went to the summer palace in the morning. It was beyond beautiful. A huge huge huge man made lake surrounded by trees. They said not many 'western' tourist visit there, but I don't understand why. It was so peaceful. The weather was great, sunny and pretty warm.

After that we had lunch at a 'real' Chinese restaurant, where locals go! Our guide and driver ate with us and it was wonderful. Really good food. Scarlett ate some, I know this will surprise you, NOODLES! Silly girl.

After lunch we drove by the olympic village. All the tours want to go by these venues, but you can't get up close and yawn... they are kind of boring from the road. Oh well. Saw the birds nest again, it'd be cool if we could walk through it.

Then we went to the 798 art district. LOVED it!! I had read it was like Soho, but since I haven't been to Soho I can't tell. But it does remind me of the Pearl in PDX. Lots of galleries and shops. Even saw a Mini Cooper LOL!!

We're up early... it's almost 6am here. Today we're seeing the Forbidden City, then the Temple of Heaven and having a 'real' Peking duck dinner. Should be fun. I'm considering skipping the FC and just going back to the big supermarket near us. It is so interesting. I'll let you know tomorrow. We're leaving for tomorrow for Zhengzhou (pronounced jang-joe) and then we'll get Liam the next day.

We already miss you all so much! It's hard being away and Scarlett asked us 3 or 4 times when we were going home. She also asked with Auntie Joanne was coming over for a visit. She misses you all too!

She's still excited about seeing Papa and Grandma next week and of course Mickey Mouse in Hong Kong.

Love,

M