A Great Day for the Great Wall!

We had an amazing time touring yesterday! We met our guide and driver at 8:00 am and headed on the drive to the Great Wall. We try our best to have the kids use the restroom before we go anywhere, but it was a long(ish) drive and, well, if you know my son at all...this was how we ended up. Right on the side of the road. Haha!

We made it to the great wall and headed up on the chair lift. Here is a picture from the lift of the "toboggan" ride, which is how we got down.

The chair lift going up.

So excited to get there!

We made it! Here our guide, Robert, is telling our son about the history of the Great Wall.

Soaking in the incredible view!

We're on the Great Wall of China!!

Exploring the Wall.

It had rained all the night before, so it was very foggy. Not sure if it was fog or smog, but either way it didn't make for the best viewing conditions. That's okay, though! We could still see further than the camera could capture and it was breathtaking!

Commence the family Wall pictures!

The wall is very steep in places. It's quite the hike to "walk" on the Wall!

King of the Wall!

This is a cool panoramic shot Quin got on his phone!

So magnificent! Wall as far as the eye can see!

The group of kids on the left were a kindergarten class on a field trip. How amazing to take a field trip to the Great Wall of China!

We all really, really loved our time on the Wall. It was crazy humid, though, so we were sopping wet by the time we left! The toboggan ride down was an absolute blast! All four of us loved it and wished we could have done it again! It's like the Alpine Slide in Park City, but much, much longer. So fun!

 After the Great Wall, we stopped and had lunch a restaurant in the country. It was very un-touristy. This was a selling point for the guide...but not so much for us. We happen to enjoy the food more geared towards Americans! The food was okay, actually, but the 20 people chain smoking in the restaurant really put a damper on our ability to enjoy said food.

 After lunch we drove for about an hour an a half to get from the Wall to the Summer Palace. I love the Summer Palace! It's so charming!

 Our daughter poses by the Phoenix, which is a symbol of women.

Our son by the dragon, which is the symbol of the most powerful man, or the Emperor. 

 This is the longest hand-painted wooden walkway in the world! It's so beautiful!

Quin and our guide chatting it up. Our guide was an interesting fellow. He had no hesitation in asserting male superiority. Several conversations we had made me cringe, but it's just how he was taught! It, really, was quite interesting to talk to someone with such a different perspective. He is a huge American basketball fan, so he and Quin had lots to converse about.

 You can see in the above picture how these little stone pathways go throughout the Summer Palace. I absolutely love them! They are so cute!

All the Chinese children at the Summer Palace were eating ice-cream. Our kids begged for some, so we tracked it down. The flavor options were mung bean, corn, or strawberry. I'm not even kidding. Needless to say, we ended up with two strawberry flavored cones.

 I've decided to start documenting two things that are absolutely cracking me up. One is the men. When they're hot, they just pull their shirts up. It's the most absurd thing! Hilarious!! The other is the selfie stick. Thosands and thousands and thousands of selfie sticks. And the usage of them...they walk around taking pictures of themselves in front of every.single.thing. They also record themselves walking. I don't understand it. I cannot help but laugh when I see it! I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of the hoards of people taking pictures of themselves while we were in the touristy areas. Dang it! I'm sure I'll see some during our stay, though!

These awesome boats ferry you across the lake. They're the coolest!

 The famous marble boat. Not so good at floating, but good for show.

 Another "hot" guy. I've seen thousands of men with their shirts up in the last few days. It's provided me hours of laughter!

After we got back to the hotel, we walked to "Snack Street". It's just a few minutes walk from our hotel. I...don't like this place.

 Raw squid, anyone?

 Or are huge beetles more to your taste?

 Or do you prefer whole roasted baby duck?

 The maddness runs the entire length of the street! We only got a little ways up the street before Quin starting majorly dry heaving from the smell. I couldn't even laugh at his dorkiness because it was making me feel queazy as well! We turned around and practically sprinted out of there!

 There were two things that looked good. One were these glazed fruit kabobs. So pretty!

 And the fancy...dim sum maybe? Not sure, but they were cute!

 Later that night we went to the Kung Fu show. The kids really liked it. They are amazing athletes!!

 We had a great last day in Beijing! We're ready to move on in our adventure, though!