Day 2: Exploring Beijing...

On our second day in Beijing, we were ready to explore a little bit more.

We had breakfast at the breakfast buffet at our restaurant.  We realized that they have plastic plates and cutlery if you request it.  This is better because yesterday Gabriel was carrying around the ceramic dishes over the tiled floor with one hand.

Eliana discovered that she liked you-tiao, which is a long, deep fried doughy thing that the Chinese eat for breakfast.  It's kind of like a donut except chewier.

The kids woke up super early that morning, so after breakfast, we hung out a little bit in the room and then had everyone take a morning nap.  Karina ended sleeping for 3 hours and would have slept for more if we hadn't woken her up.  Mommy and Daddy took a short nap as well.

Then we headed off to lunch. We were thinking of going to a Western restaurant such as Pizza Hut or KFC, but the kids requested to have the steamed buns again.  So off we went...  We were surprised the kids liked this so much and that they were not craving Western food yet.  A bonus to eating here is that it is much cheaper than the Western restaurants--you can get 3 buns for a little over 50 cents.  The whole meal costs us only $10, for all six of us.  During lunchtime, this place has a massive line of people ordering food.

Then we were off to the Silk Market where you can look at silk products and also buy souvenirs and trinkets.  We walked to the closest subway station.  Along the way, we passed by a lion statue and the girls stopped to rub its paws. They read in a book that this is good luck.

 The subway in Beijing is clean, fast, and cheap.

It took a little effort to figure out how to buy tickets, but we made it on.

At the market, there was a store filled with Hello Kitty stuff...the girls were in heaven.  However, the prices were outrageous so no, we did not buy a Hello Kitty knit cap for $30 and we didn't feel like bargaining with the store lady.

 We also saw toy guitars, which made Gabe very excited.  He asked if we could buy one.

By now it was late afternoon and we decided to head back by taxi.  We had to wait about 20 minutes for a taxi that was available.  Either we were not at the right spot or Beijing has a shortage of taxis during rush hour?

After regrouping in the hotel for a bit, we headed back out...  You can see our hotel in the background of the picture below.

We stopped by a touristy spot called the Food Market.  It is all these street vendors selling snacks and other things but one is not sure if it's safe to eat from these stalls.  It has the "weird" food that you see on TV, but also had some really tasty looking things.

 Here are some caterpillar pupae to eat...

Eliana got excited every time she saw one of these...they are fruit on a stick that are candied.  She read about these in a book and wanted to try them...

 These were little steamed buns that were in the shapes of various things.  They looked really life like.

Would sea stars be a little too crunchy?

 And we ate dinner at another local restaurant.  Karina gorged on the soup noodles we got for her.

We put the kids to bed at around 8pm, so they be well rested for the next day...when we visit the Great Wall!

The forbidden city...

The kids woke up at 4am local time.  This wasn't too bad considering...  So we just got an early start and went down to breakfast at 6:30 am.

The hotel has a breakfast buffet with lots of different stations.  This particular one is a made-to-order scrambled eggs or omelet station.  Of course, Gabey enjoyed watching the guy cook.

The kids ate a healthy amount.  Today is Eliana's half-birthday and we usually celebrate half-birthdays in our family with candles on a cupcake.

But since we're in China, candles on a Belgian waffle had to do.  We brought the candles from home but Elvin had to ask the waitress for matches.  We didn't know the Chinese word for matches and the waitress didn't know the word in English.  We had to call the manager over for translation help.

 After breakfast, we went out to walk around.  We bought a SIM card for our cell phone.

 Then we visited a Catholic church close by.  The girls bought a couple trinkets as souvenirs.

After I took the picture above, Eliana pointed out that the flowers in the planters are made out of PLASTIC!  I guess that makes them very low maintenance.

We then checked out a 7-Eleven that was close by.  Unfortunately, they did not carry Slurpees, which the kids adore.  But this doesn't surprise us...generally, Chinese people are not used to drinking cold drinks with ice in it--which is the very definition of a Slurpee.

 They did carry unique flavors of chips though.

 Also also had Jack and Coke pre-mixed in a bottle.  Absolute genius!

Gabey was tired and went down for a nap.  So Elvin, Erica, and the girls headed off to the indoor pool at the hotel.  There is this rule where everyone absolutely has to wear a swimming cap.  If you don't have one, you can buy one on the spot for about $5 a piece.  So there you go...

After Gabey woke up, we met up with our local guide to drop off some laundry.  Here, they do the laundry for you and also fold it up for you--for a price.  Our guide's name is George and he has been very helpful already with all sorts of advice.

Then we had lunch at a restaurant that specializes in bao-zi which are steamed buns with meat or vegetable filling.  The kids loved them.

And then we were off to the Forbidden City...or as the girls know it--the place where Mulan rescued the emperor from the Mongols.

The place is hundreds of years old, but this fact was lost on the kids.  They just enjoyed walking on the middle bridge that the emperor of China used to walk on.

 Here we are posing in front of a bronze lion statue guarding the palace.

We appreciated all the intricate stonework.  There were sections of the city that was actively being renovated and you could tell that in those sections, the carvings and decorations were brighter and cleaner.

This is huge bronze cauldron that used to be used to store water in case there was ever a fire.  Now they sit empty unless rowdy Americans pass by and decide to jump in.  Erica visited China for the first time about 15 years ago and has a similar picture with her siblings inside one of these vats.  Maybe this will become a tradition...

After we exited the palace, we saw that the crowds were all taking picture of the sign above the gate.    Elvin doesn't know what it says or why it's so important but took a picture anyways.

We then hopped onto a taxi to go to McDonalds for some comfort food.  Emily had to run to the restroom and so Elvin ordered and happened to botch things a little bit.  The girls like their cheeseburgers without pickles or onions or any sauce.  So Elvin with his superb Chinese said, among other things, "please no yellow stuff", referring to mustard (or so he thought).  The McDonald's lady taking the order thought Elvin meant no cheese, so Elvin ended up ordering 3 cheeseburgers with no cheese.  The girls were not too happy about that and so Emily went to order more cheeseburgers, this time getting things right.

 We walked back to the hotel and by this time everyone was pretty tired...

The kids put on jammies, brushed their teeth, and they were out by 7 pm.  Hopefully they will get a full night's rest and also be changed over to the new time zone.

We made it to China!

This morning we got up and left for the airport at 9am.  Two of Emily's brothers, Charles and Hugh, came over to drive a second car, so that one of them could drive our van home.  Thanks Charles and Hugh!

We needed a driver to come in a different car because we no longer have room for any passengers...Xiao Yu's car seat takes up our last extra seat!

Here is a family picture in PDX before checking in...

Here is our mess of luggage and carry-ons before checking in.  The two black bags are coming along for the ride.  There are many organizations in the U.S. that run orphanages in China.  One U.S. agency gets a huge amount of donations and given that it costs a lot to ship packages to China, they are asking for volunteers who can take luggage there.  The orphanage representative met us at the airport and picked up his black suitcases.

After we weighed all the duffel bags, Gabriel also wanted to weigh his carry-on bag and dumped it onto the scale.  It weighed one pound.  We explained to him that we are not checking in his stuffed animal and toys.

 At PDX, it was Gabey's first time on the rolling walkways.  He thought it was fun.

And how did we pass time at the gate?  Reading books and stuffing goldfish into one's face.

The airline stewardess had Elvin put Gabey on his own seat during take off, which he did NOT like.  In unfamiliar situations, he wants Daddy to hold him.  After the 10 minutes of screaming during take off, Gabey felt especially clingy.

 In SeaTac, we had the kids burn off energy in the airport playground.

In Seattle, we boarded a 4pm flight to Beijing.  It was about an 11 hour flight, one hour less than we had thought!

All the seats has television screens in the back, with tons of kid's programming, so that the kids could watch what they wanted.  This augmented the toys and iPads we brought and definitely helped.  Here are the kids occupying themselves with videos plus toys and books.

Two hours later...more of the same.  You'll see in the far seat next to Eliana was Erica.  She is our 20-something niece that we invited along to help out with corralling all the kids.  She flew out of Boise and met up with us in Seattle.

The hours slowly rolled along...

By that time Gabriel dozed off, sitting straight up in his chair (a first for him!)... and slept for only one hour.  It turned out that this was his "nap" since he missed the one he usually takes at around noon.

By this time, it was about 11pm Pacific Time.  This is the latest Karina has ever stayed up...she fell asleep soon after that.  And then Gabriel feel asleep too.

We were getting really close to Beijing.

Gabey and Karina were dead asleep.

Eliana, on the other hand, had a hard time on the flight.  With about 3 hours to go, she started feeling airsick and started throwing up.  It was a really tough time for her and we all felt very bad.  She threw up more on the van ride to the hotel and more at the hotel.  She collapsed exhausted in bed.  If you can remember to pray for her, especially for the plane ride back home, we would be grateful.  She is really apprehensive about that.

We were able to get two rooms that are connected.  We are designating one room at the "sleeping room" (picture above) and one for the kids that are awake (picture below).  You can see the various "beds" on the ground for the kids in the sleeping room.  

As of right now, it's 11pm local time and 7am Pacific Time (China is 16 hours ahead of Pacific Time). Gabe and Karina are still awake and watching a video since they got a good chunk of sleep on the plane.  Elvin is staying up with them until it seems like they are tired...hopefully soon!

The day before liftoff...

We are all packed!  It is 10pm the night before we board our flights and the three duffel bags are in the minivan trunk.  We have snacks ready and packed, and many videos loaded onto our iPads.

Perhaps the most highly anticipated part of the flight is the movie Frozen.  We have not let our girls (or Gabriel) watch it except for snippets while we shop at Costco and they pass by the big screen TV section.   We bought it and told them they could watch it during the trans-Pacific flight.  They are sure looking forward to this--both the girls and Gabriel (who calls it "Let it go".)

As the girls have watched us pack our carry-ons, they too wanted to pack theirs.  After Elvin inspected what they were taking and cajoled Eliana out of taking some of the heavier stuff, this is what remains...

Eliana is taking a digital camera, a tin can full of candy that she bought at Winco with her own money, a sippy/straw cup for water on the airplane, a hair brush, a pad and pen as her journal, swimming goggles, toothbrush and toothpaste, and some other trinkets.  Not pictured is her stuffed animal cat, which she is sleeping with right now.  And...she PROMISES that she will carry her backpack the whole time instead of making the family pack horse (a.k.a. Daddy) carry it.

Karina, in contrast, is bringing the bare essentials.  Two stuffed animals including her most important kitty, her two taggie blankets that she sleep with every night, and a sippy cup for water on the plane.  That's it!  Sometimes we think our two girls have personalities that are as opposite as they come.

We are heading off to bed soon, to rest before the big day tomorrow!

Update on packing...

We are almost all done packing for our 3 week trip to China!

All last week and this past weekend, we packed furiously, and ran errands to more stores that we can count to buy sippy cups for Xiao Yu, water bottles for the girls, travel sized hand sanitizers, snacks (we're taking 4 boxes of granola bars, 2 jars of peanut butter, among other things...), and presents for the officials there.

Everything fits into three rolling duffel bags and all are under the 44lb weight limit.  This is a weight limit for China, which we are trying to be mindful of since we are taking one in-country flight.

Gabriel packed his backpack tonight -- a toy banana, some toy ice cream, and all his spatulas.  We might adjust his packing a little!  He is confused and excited, all at the same time.  Every time we get in the car, he asks, "Are we going to China to get Xiao Yu now?"  Soon, buddy, soon.