DON’T WORRY. We did not skin a cat–nor did we eat one. But we DID “climb” the Great Wall today. Kind of. Today was a national holiday in China and every body and their mother was out of work today and spending time with their child. Most moms work in China–while the grandparents care for the kids–so all the mommas took off today for this special holiday. WHO KNEW that the Great Wall would be such a special to place today–oh my it was CRAZY.
Soooo…the Great Wall is at least an hour north of down town Beijing–and all the taxis and drivers AND our hotel said the only way to get out there was a cab. We got several quotes–and all were for round trip transit any where from $100 to $150. Momma not likey:). So–we jumped on old faithful (aka Beijing Subway). The blue line–to the red line–to the yellow line…3 switch-a-roos and rode it out as far as it would go north. The views were spectacular–and we made it pretty far north for just 25 cents each:). From there we got a cab to take us the rest of the distance for $20–and later found someone to take us back to the subway for less than that–so we made our transit go from sky high $100 to $150…to just around $40. YAY. That’s a really good deal folks. And we had quite a time. We also liked our new friend Mr. Cab driver who nearly took our lives in that time frame more than 100 times—I kid you not.
I did manage to take one picture from the cab on our little journey up…
Jet lag has OFFICIALLY hit us all today. So we decided there is more than one way to skin a cat–and instead of climbing up the Great Wall–we rode a cable care UP and walked down instead…or so we thought we were going to walk down:)
Here are a few pictures of our view today…
We were all so tired–and even with the help of Mr. Cable Car up–we needed help on our way down. We spotted a little ride down–and we took it:)
Here’s some action for you:
Randomly at the bottom of the Great Wall at this exit there were some bears there doing tricks.
THEN we made it home despite a few more near death experiences in the taxi. We rested–then went to an underground shop to buy an extra suitcase because ours weighed too much for tomorrow’s inter country flights so we have to spread some things out in another bag. Thankfully Parker and Laney packed all their things in carry ons so it’s not a big deal coming up with an extra bag.
Later we met up with one of my old college and China friends who now lives here in China–just north of Beijing!
Notice only Parker made it with us to dinner! Rico Suave and Loo bear were OUT with their jet lag by 7pm!! BUT it was nice to have some special time with my friend and my first little Parker-T!
Alright! That’s a wrap folks! Gotta crash myself now! We have to leave the hotel at 5:30am so we can be at the airport at 6:15am for our 8am flight to our son’s province! We should arrive at 10:45. Not sure yet if we will get to meet Zeke tomorrow or Monday!!! But we are officially SO close and we will post pictures as soon as we meet him!
Much love!!! xoxoxo!
Andrea
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