Last year, after a grueling 24-hours of traveling from Hong Kong to San Diego - in which Steven cried for probably half of it, we were exhausted. Eleanor sat down on the floor of the airport baggage claim and wouldn't budge. Steven howled. Adelaide couldn't walk in a straight line. But, in the midst of that, as we hustled them into the minivan and packed away the bags, Adelaide announced in an urgent, though sleepy voice, "Mom, I just counted. We have room for another car seat. We need to go back to China!"
We are about a year and a half later than Miss Adelaide would have liked, but we're back! Operation fill-up the minivan is in full swing.
The flight across the Pacific was long, and long, and really, really long. But, fortunately, we had a great flight crew.
Captain Eleanor is ready to fly!
It was a long flight (did we mention that?), and a long bus ride to the hotel, and a long check in process, and a long, long, long time for the bellhops to bring us our luggage so we could get some pajamas (Steven just gave up and crawled under the covers in his diapers - he's smart like that).
This morning, all we really wanted to do was catch up on sleep, but when in Beijing... you take advantage of the fact that you are in Beijing! So, we zombie-walked out of bed and onto a tour bus to see the city.
Sunworld Dynasty Hotel - home of an awesome
glass elevator, or "alligator" in Steven speak, that the kids found
more entertaining than any of the historic wonders of the city.
Statue on the street corner?
Let's snap a picture.
Our imperial princesses, hanging out in the Forbidden City.
So tired, but such champs, walking
all of Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.
In the afternoon, we were able to repeat one of our favorite adventures from our last trip to China - a rickshaw ride and lunch in Beijing's "Old Town", the Hutong District. The guides handed out ice cream before the ride started. Hurtling through the narrow streets of the Hutong District, dodging mopeds, and licking taro-root ice cream - this was definitely the kids' favorite event of the day (except for the elevator, nothing beats a glass elevator).
Girl's Team!
Boy's Team!
After lunch, we all took looong naps, woke up for dinner, and curled back up for more of that wonderful sleep stuff. So, mark our first day in China a success!
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