We finally made it. Not that we had any difficulties in our travel, but from door to door it was 23 hours in transit. Add a 12 hour time change and very little sleep on the plane you can imagine that we were pretty well wiped out by the time we got here, which was about 9:30pm Thursday. Our guide met us a the airport. Her name is Ma Rei, but she said we can call her Mary, she answers to both. She said that she was going to plan an outing for us for Saturday - the Summer Palace in the morning, perhaps the Silk Factory after that if we feel up to it, and the an evening Acrobatic show. The Summer Palace was something we were hoping to get a chance to visit, so this is perfect. Once we got to the hotel we did a quick unpack and toured the hotel, then called it a night.
Considering we've hardly had any sleep, neither one of us slept in. Shirley was awake around 3:30, tossed and turned for a couple of hours then finally got up around 5:30. Ron on the other hand, the normally early riser, slept until almost 6:30 before getting up. We then walked over to a local grocery store to pick up a few supplies before meeting some of the other families for breakfast at 9:00.
After breakfast we walked to Tiannamen Square, about 1.5km from our hotel, took a few pictures, bought a couple of bottles of water, then walked back to the hotel. Considering it's about 30 degrees and humid, there was a nice breeze that kept it feeling somewhat comfortable.
So right now it's about 2:00 pm on Friday and we're thinking it's time for a nap - only fitting since most of you are sleeping right now. Don't really have much else planned until 7:00 when we're getting together with the rest of the group for dinner. Most of the other families that came in yesterday have had about the same amount of sleep as us so it's probably going to be another early night tonight, but then again, if we get together and start talking about our children we could be up all night.
We'll post more later, and probably some pictures, but for right now the bed is calling.
"When a child is born, invisible red threads reach out from the child's spirit and connect to all important people who will enter the child's life. As the child grows, the threads shorten, bringing them closer to those people who are destined to be together"..... This is our journey to find the other end of the red thread.