June 24

Last night Samantha was a real treat. She is doing real well going to sleep, our typical routine being that we get her ready for bed, play with her a bit and then quietly lie her down. She then falls asleep with very little fuss. Last night this routine went great as usual, that is until I crawled into bed shortly after 11:00 only to find her laying there wide awake. She had a huge smile on her face and was ready to play. Needless to say daddy wasn’t, and mommy was already fast asleep on the other side of the bed. I thought if I just ignored her and went to sleep everything would be fine and she’d go back to sleep …right! Anyway, eventually got up and played a bit with her, then walked her until she seemed tired enough to go to sleep. We then both went to bed and slept the rest of the night. Can’t wait to have to get her to change her internal clock 12 hours when we get home.

Today is the day that we see the great wall. It’s slightly less than 2 hours from our hotel, but we’ll break the trip in ½ by stopping at a Jade Factory on the way. Here we were able to see how raw jade is taken through the process and how it is carved. Some of the work is absolutely incredible. What we learned is that there are basically 3 grades of jade, “A” which is the best quality and most expensive, “B” is the more common grade that many people purchase, and “C” is the grade that you buy for your friends. They brought out bracelets of each grade to show us how to tell the difference. When you strike them they have a very distinct and different tone – “C” sounded like clinking a glass, “B” sounded like fine crystal, and “A” had a very pure, crisp, high pitched ‘ting’.

They had some very beautiful pieces there, but we opted not to purchase anything at this time – not even from the “for friends” category.

Next we visited the Great Wall. Let me start by saying that we got to there at about 11:30, and the temperature was starting to creep past the 36˚ mark. Samantha was still asleep and we decided that we would hang back and let her continue to sleep, and head out once she woke up. By that time people were starting to come back, totally drenched and exhausted from the heat. Shirley decided then that she’d stay in the bus with Samantha while I ventured off far enough to take some pictures and say that I’ve climbed parts of the Great Wall. Mission accomplished, but not without getting my own shirt drenched.

We stopped on the way home for a group lunch. Our guide selected about 8 different dishes from the menu and the food was similar to what we would find in Canada – minus the sweet and sour.

The rest of the afternoon was spent quietly in the room, letting Samantha play a little longer in the bathtub to cool off. Hopefully she’ll love the pool as well as the tub. After that there was playtime, more feeding, more diapers, more bottles, then finally bed. All in all a good day.

One of the things that we have realized is that these tours in this weather take a huge toll on everyone. Samantha still naps in the morning, which is always difficult during a tour and never comes at a convenient time. We seem to be constantly waking her shortly after she’s fallen asleep, then not being able to get her back to sleep. So, along with her cold, Samantha can be a bit of a cranky baby – and understandably so. Add the fact that Samantha really doesn’t like the bus and we’ve decided that we’re done taking any more tours. We’ve seen the major things that we wanted to see anyway.