Our least favorite day

 

I'm not even sure where we went this day all I know is it was cold and miserable. So cold that the second stop we stayed in the bus and skipped whatever site the rest of the group was seeing. While sitting in the bus we spied a McDonald's which was good because in addition to being bone numbing cold the food we had for lunch was bad. humorously bad, they just kept bringing us plate after plate of dumplings. We were all laughing so hard. It was a memorable lunch. Our tour guide said it was a famous dumpling house and dumpings are part of the New Year festival. No one in the group will ever look at a Chinese dumpling without thinking about that lunch. They even had a dumpling stuffed with tomato's and eggs.  There is a Pizza Hut, KFC and 7-11 every other block in this town. McDonald's had fried chicken and fried rice other than that it was the same. The McDonald's did have a squatty potty. That made me laugh. They call New Years, the spring festival. I thinks it's a premature spring festvial cause dang it is COLD! The air was good while we there so the mask are purely for warmth. We were worried about the air and came prepared but it was not a problem. The air was about the same as it is in Utah. That's not a complement to China's air.

Sean, running for the arches!! "Do they have happy meals?"

We visited a market where you had to argue over prices. I don't like shopping so shopping and having to haggle for prices is really not my idea of a good time. I did get some cute baby clothes.

I think this place was called the Temple to Heaven.  This is where we froze. Everyone on the tour said this was a miserable day.

We were very happy to get back to our room and go to bed and get a warm nights sleep.

Hotel breakfast

The Beijing Trader hotel is a very nice hotel. In the information it said breakfast was included in our stay. I was expecting a continental breakfast like you get at a Best Western in the U.S. This breakfast was like no other breakfast I've ever had.

Sean can't wait to get up in the morning and go to his favorite restaurant. He tried lots of different foods. He said he didn't like seaweed until he heard Ella (another little girl there) say she loved it.
It was interesting Sean realizing our relationship with all the people in our tour group was short lived. When we said goodbye to Ella and Jim (our tour guide) Sean said "I will never see them again." We told him he was probably right but who knows. When he is older he can exchange email addresses with friends but five is a little young for that.

The walls in the restaurant. I thought it would make a great food storage decorative wall. Don said "that food is not for eating" I said "that's beside the point, it looks good and it's useful."

Steamed bread, some plain some stuffed with meat, bean paste or vegetables. So yummy.

A miso soup bar. Who knew such a thing existed.

Row after row of western and Chinese food.

Spreading the bean paste on to the dough.
I will miss these breakfast!!!  I will probably dream about them.

Yes, I am smiling. No, I won't be smiling when I look at the scale.

China Spree world traveler

The Hutongs

We took a rickshaw through Beijing 's old Hutongs (narrow ancient ally ways). These neighborhoods are over 600 years old. The emperors of China used to live in them. Until the 1980's when China became open to the rest of the world Beijing was made up of these type of neighborhoods. Now most of Beijing is high rises. We shopped on "Lotus Lane." We ate dinner in the court yard of a local family. Well, we didn't actually eat in the court yard we ate in their dining room. Four families share the courtyard, kitchen, dining room and bathroom.

Rickshaw

This is the street we shopped on. I bought a couple of souvenirs. I liked this street because the prices were fixed. I am not a fan of shopping (unless it's coupon shopping at Walmart) so shopping and arguing over prices is not fun for me. Other's in the group really enjoyed haggling over prices. Speaking of Walmart. I would have liked to visit one in China. We drove past one and part of the signage on the building says "Walmart: A pretty store."

The post office. I loved all the red doors. It reminded me of a history book. Hm, maybe because I've seen them in history books.

A market we passed on our rickshaw ride.

One of the alley ways.

Part of our tour group. This is the home we ate lunch at. The grandfather is a famous artist. He painted all the pictures on the wall.

Hey chicken get out of my way.

Happy Chinese New Year

There were red lanterns everywhere. Jim said the Chinese New Year is also called the Spring Festival even though it didn't feel very springy. On Sunday a bunch of our group went to a festival in the city. We were too tired and didn't go. If I had it to do over I would have gone. Don and Sean went swimming and I went to the grocery store in the mall and started packing.

Sean and his dragon ornament.

As we were leaving the hotel they had a New Years celebration.

There were tables of food for the dragon. Gotta keep that dragon happy!

Seeing this picture reminded me that we went to a fabulous Peking duck dinner, so yummy.

Dragon Ceremony

I made a video though it doesn't do justice to the volume. There were thousands of fire crackers going of and drummers drumming. It was awesome. I seem to use the word awesome a lot to describe our vacation.

Funny signs

I think everyone who goes to China enjoys the signs. My favorite is "urinating in the pool, you are the best."

And that's a vacation wrap

 
Not once during our whole trip did Sean say he wanted to go home. When we told him on Sunday night we were leaving he said "OK, I'm ready to go to Centerville." Good enough. He did mention several times that he wants to go to England. He wanted to know if we could go home, spend one night and the leave for England. I told him we could go to the England's as in my nieces house but he said that wouldn't be the same.

The only hiccup in our trip (besides the day we froze our butts off) was the trip home. Air China had a problem with the plane. There was liquid in one of the windows. They changed the window out. At one point they had us get off the plane telling us we were going on a different plane. We stood in a hall for five minutes then they told us to get back on the plane.

There was a lady on the plane who was so obnoxious I wanted to smack her. I was so glad she wasn't on our tour group. We had a fabulous group. There were no annoying people, unless of course we were they annoying people and didn't know it. This lady kept complaining the entire time they were fixing the plane. Really lady, you want to fly across the pacific and Alaska in a plane that they didn't take the time to fix. Not me, I'll wait for the repairs. The delay leaving Beijing caused us to miss our connection in LA. The lady at the Delta counter was so rude and no help at all. By the time we had gotten through customs, recovered our luggage and found out we had missed our plane the Air China counter was empty. Delta told us we had to buy new tickets. I called Air China's 1-800 number and they had someone meet us at the counter. She was very helpful and called Delta. We got on the 4:30 stand by and all made it on the plane. We were only about four hours late getting home.

One last rest on Sean's King throne.

Happy traveler

We were so tired we were silly.

This is how Sean handled the delay.