Sunday, August 20, 2006: 2nd Day Beijing Tour

For those of you out there in the blogosphere wondering how we could be such awful parents as to be away from Casey for three whole days (remember we just completely skipped the 17th) without even mentioning him, don't let the absence of his name lead you to the wrong conclusion. We did call Casey and chat with him as soon as we arrived in Beijing, and we were pretty dogged about getting in touch with him yesterday/today. I tried calling last night. I waited up until 10:15 pm here in China, figuring Casey would be awake at 7:15am. I think I woke up Jason's dad- but Casey was still asleep. I went to bed and then we tried calling again at 7:00 am Beijing time (4:00pm in California). As luck would have it, Casey was still asleep. Well, not still-- we caught him at the end of his nap time. Anyway, they called back after he woke up and chatted. He told us about school and about swimming and that he wanted to go watch Chocolate Percy (a Thomas DVD). He passed his swim lessons and is ready to go on to the next level (he's swimming under water now with his eyes open!). And then he told me, "I love you, Bye Bye," but it sounds like: "I wuv woo-- bye bye," and that cracks me up.

We probably won't talk to Casey again until after we have Marcie because he'll be in school all day tomorrow. So that's the scoop on Casey. . .

After our conversation with Casey, we headed out to the bus, which we boarded to ride to the jade-making factory. Of course, they don't really make the jade there; they carve it. We spent too much money buying gifts for some of you lucky people, and then boarded the bus again to go to the Great Wall of China. You can see Jason here in front of one of the jade pieces we bought and are having shipped to the U.S. Just kidding! But it is a pretty impressive piece, isn't it?

Also, Jason wanted to give a special shout-out to his sisters Jessie and Tiff-- he saw this mushroom-looking thing outside the jade factory, and he insisted I take a photo of him posing as if he were in a Super Mario Brothers video game. He seemed to think you two would know exactly what that meant. So here it is, to the right.

So, after we went to the jade factory, our bus driver drove us to the Great Wall of China. Wow. What an impressive structure. It's pretty incredible. We saw the locks (which we remembered from The Amazing Race, but we couldn't remember their significance. In case you're wondering, couples got married on the Great Wall and had their names engraved on the locks, then locked them and threw away the key to symbolize their eternal love). And we noticed how one side of the wall is much higher than the other side. I joked with some of you about falling off the wall while here, and though I was kidding at the time, I can see how easy that would be!

We climbed quite a distance-- Larry's watch, which is pretty accurate, indicated we climbed 980 feet up in the 30 minutes we climbed. Of course, because the wall is so old, all the steps are different heights (though they are all around the same depth). My legs are pretty jello-y, and I may regret it when we meet Marcie tomorrow, especially after the 2 1/2 hour flight to Chongqing, but I'm still glad I did it. It was certainly less strenuous than running a half marathon, which is what I would have been doing if I'd been back in the U.S. today. To the left you can see a photo with the three of us at the bottom of our climb up the Great Wall. Fortunately for us, the weather was actually pretty cool today. That didn't stop us from sweating, of course, but I'm glad we did this in today's weather and not yesterday's!

After the Great Wall, we went to Ming's Tomb. There was very soothing music, and it was pretty serene. We were amused by the signs in English, like: "Please keep the grounds clean, do not litter up," and "Please keep the sacred place clean and do not scribble." We also took a photo under the elephant's trunk, which is supposed to be for good luck. No idea why. We could tell they were statues of Asian elephants because the ears were small (thanks to the San Diego Wild Animal Park for teaching us that tidbit!). We were surprised not to see any of the 13 emporers' tombs. We also thought our nephew Joey would enjoy this photo. He really likes elephants. And he makes the best elephant sound I have ever heard. It's pretty impressive.

Tomorrow we leave the lobby at (gasp!) 5:45am for the airport. We all board a flight to Chongqing (where it's ten degrees warmer). Tomorrow is also Gotcha Day. I am not a big fan of this title. I don't have a reason for disliking it-- it just seems so odd to me. What am I gotcha-ing? Marcie? Why can't it be Placement Day? Is it because I traveled halfway around the world to "get her"? Regardless, it seems to be the prevailing term, so I couldn't very well ignore its existence, and here it is in my blog even. We don't yet know what time we'll get Marcie, but I promise we will post again tomorrow night (which will be the early morning hours for you Californians following along), as long as we have Internet access at the Golden Resource Hotel, where we are staying. My best guess is that we will be getting her some time around 2 pm here in China, which is 11 pm on the 20th in California. I'm guessing I won't be sleeping particularly well tonight!