Now Entering the Forbidden City

Our last day in Beijing was all sorts of interesting and fun. We were already exhausted from early mornings, long days, and late nights but we charged ahead with what may have been our longest day of the trip.

It turns out that the Forbidden City closes at noon on Mondays so we had to be sure to get there right when it opened so we didn't miss out on anything. Honestly, I think my favorite thing about the Forbidden City was just being together and taking funny pictures. But I had seen a lot of Chinese architecture at that point, and after a while it all starts to look the same.

I may or may not have puked on the metro tracks just a few
minutes prior to this picture being taken. Little sleep, dehydration,
ect...it was bound to catch up to me.

My handsome man.

They decided to surprise Krystal by
grabbing her and pretending to throw her in.

We were VERY popular. I think we stood in this spot for a
full 5 minutes while people switched around taking pictures
with us.

Thithters.

Family picture! Can you find us all?

Chan Lee, our "Flat Stanley"

It was a really beautiful, warm day and Spencer and I loved experiencing the culture and sights with his family.

Love

We stayed until the last minute possible, and then were literally herded out the gates. We decided to make a quick lunch stop to try some local cuisine and to rest our aching tootsies.

And then it was on to the Temple of Heaven...

Mommies are Awesome

We were in Beijing for Mother's Day this year, and it was fun to be with Spencer's family for the holiday for the second year in a row. Last year we were in Turkey so we decided to try the other side of Asia this year :)

It was a low-key, fun day to spend together. And we got together with our Flagship friends for dinner that night, a delicious meal of sweet and sour chicken. Unfortunately Spencer had to take a language proficiency test for the Flagship program that afternoon, but it was short and he was back with us in no time.

Spencer thought it would be funny to throw a wad of cash in the air.
And then he had to use Brigette as a stool to retrieve said cash from the light fixture.

Look alike much?

Best Mother's Day gift ever, an ipad!

Brigette brought Krystal's favorite from the States.

So Chinese...

Dinner with friends!

I missed my mommy that day, but I am so glad I could be with friends and family to make up for it. Happy Mommy's Day!

Do Not Try This At Home

We knew that we would spend most of the day at the Great Wall, so we needed an evening activity that wasn't too far from our hotel. Good thing there is an awesome show by the Beijing Acrobats every night, lucky us!

This show really is amazing. We took a lot of pictures and videos, but I wouldn't want to spoil all the tricks for anyone who might see it some day, so I'll only show a teaser. But if the traveling troupe ever comes to town, GO SEE IT!

A cool souvenir for the parentals.

Look Mom! I'm On The Great Wall!

There are no words.

It is just that cool.

Behold.

The Wall.

Seriously guys, everyone needs to go here. It is so amazing, and a huge highlight of our trip. We traveled out to the Mutianyu section of the wall, which is further away from the city than the more popular Badaling section but is significantly less crowded. The weather was beautiful and the sky was amazingly clear and blue, definitely not smoggy and polluted like we were expecting. It was warm but breezy, and we loved it. You can hike up and down to the wall, but why hike when you can take a ski lift?!

First order of business was to take family pictures. The last family pics were taken at our wedding, but since I was less than thrilled with our photographer's work, we opted for a destination shoot.

And our photographers? Our Flagship friends who had moved to Beijing for the internship portion. We love these guys and it was so fun to spend the day with them and catch up.

After family pictures most of Spencer's family decided to explore the less renovated, much steeper direction while the rest of us decided to take the gentler path.

We met back up to rehydrate, snack, and make a plan and then Spencer and I and the sisters decided to explore just a little more while the parents headed back to where we started. We hiked quickly to get a few more guard towers in and take a few more pictures...

And then it was time to head back. We should have been sad, but we weren't. Because we knew that we weren't hiking to the bottom. We weren't even taking the ski lift.

We took a SLIDE! The best part of this section of the wall. If you go to the Wall, go here, and take the slide. So much fun. I have a video taken by Papa Bowen of the ride, but it's such a large file that it isn't downloading. If I can get it to load I'll post it later.

On the way home we slept. Honestly, I think we slept every time we stopped moving on this trip. But it was a great, exhausting, beautifully wonderful day.