Friday, October 31, 2008

Forbidden City & Tianamin Square














We started with a pancake breakfast at the Alley Cafe which should be called the Alley Cat Cafe. The food was GREAT the company quite hairy! (ha ha) Let me explain. As the mother cat laid next to my mom her kittens frolicked about, EVERYWHERE! It was quite the experience. Now we're off to the Forbidden City. WAIT, I forgot the bartering for Alissa's new camera. That was quite the experience as it was difficult to understand the broken English, but finally was able to make a pretty good deal. And now were off! OK so, on the way there, we encountered many interesting sights and smells. People riding bikes down busy streets, cars parked on sidewalks, guards everywhere, and I almost forgot the lovely smell of bakery (as my dad would call it) ha ha. No it was actually the fresh smell of sewage! (yummy) After hitching a couple taxis we arrived at the Forbidden City. Wow, I have never seen so many beautiful buildings and to think they were all made by hand! Words cannot describe the BEAUTY of the endless emperor dynasty of the ages. And to think it was built in the 1420's is enough to blow your mind. After exploring for a couple hours we were off to our next destination... Tianamin Square! ( the largest public square in the world!) This is known for the famous picture of Chairman Mow, and is the current place for morning exercises and meditation for thousands. A long walk back, a little resting, and now off to dinner with Amanda Infield! The restaurant we ate at was known for their Peking duck. It was delicious. Kind of like the Christmas story though. It was brought to the table head and all. It was very nice to see Amanda shes doing very well. She ordered all of our food. As you can see in some of the pictures we are quite jet-lagged, especially Me.

We're Finally Here!

Milwaukee to Minneapolis & a 7hour layover found us at Mall of America visiting Rich's lifelong friend, Doug Shilts. We also did a little shopping & bought Faith her first baby doll. She's Asian & adorable. On to Japan, the longest flight, almost 15 hrs. Alissa lost her camera at the airport & we thought she had lost her passport too. Thank God she was sitting on it! Then 4 hrs. on to Bejing airport followed by a taxi ride that tested our communication skills & Yes we made it to the Shntan Hotel almost 30 hrs. from the time we left home. It's now midnight on 10/30/08. Upon our arrival we found a little surprise, two twin beds! If you can believe it I shared a bed a bed a little larger than a twin with Alissa. Hey, when you're exhausted you can sleep anywhere, at anytime, with anyone.

Finding Faith

I'll tell you her amazing story later, but here are the pictures we got of her throughout the process. I organized them in order from the first pictures we received to the last ones that were sent.