Beijing Day 1 Continued...

Our day is staring a little earlier today than yesterday, so while Deanne is getting ready, I'm gonna finish this post for you die hard blog readers.  :)

After Tienamen Square and the Forbidden City, which was a LOT of walking, we went to lunch.  We went to a little local restaurant and they served us several dishes.

We had duck, sweet n sour pork, cooked cabbage and chicken.  Of course there was rice as well.  It was pretty good.  Jenna didn't eat much but she was so tense from Tianemen Square that I think she just wasn't hungry.

After we left lunch, we headed for the Temple of Heaven.

The place where we are standing is supposed to be the sacred place where the Emperor stood when he prayed to the god of heaven.  Not sure if that's our God or not, but we thought it was pretty good.

After the Temple of Heaven, it was off to the Silk Factory which we all probably enjoyed more than anything.

From a single cocoon, they can get a solid strand of silk.  It was an amazing process to see.  We ended up buying Jenna an outfit from there, but that was it.  There's so much more to see that I didn't want to spend too much here in Beijing.

After that, we stopped by a convenience store to grab some bottled water and coke (hello Diet Coke!) and headed back to the hotel to rest.

For dinner, we took a taxi (that was an adventure in itself!) down to another hotel to meet my online friend Christine and her family for dinner.  That was pretty much the highlight of my day!  We've been chatting online for some time and it was the best to be able to meet her in real life.  We have so much in common!  She's a working mom, has two sons, one of which is Jenna's age, is adopting a girl Kylie's age and who has cleft lip/palate (lip repaired).  It's just amazing how God can bring folks together.  I was a dork and took my camera but didn't get a picture.  :(

I did meet a couple other adoptive families from Rumor Queen....and one couple who is getting a son from Kylie's orphanage and who lives in Chicago.  So we are literally going with them all the way through China together.

OK, time to get ready for the great wall!  I can't wait!  Be sure and check Jenna's blog shortly...she's about to do one too!