Waiting in Beijing

Our agency advised us to arrive in Beijing a few days early to sightsee, rest up, get ride of jet lag, and get to know other adoptive families. So while we are waiting for our Gotcha Day we have enjoyed exploring Beijing.  While we lived in Japan, we never visited China. We wanted to save it for our adoption trip. We have been looking forward to this trip for awhile. :)

We arrived a day before the other families, so we had a day to explore on our own. Chris assigned me the job of finding something to do, and the first thing I saw was the water park. I love water parks! After breakfast, we headed out in a taxi with our swimsuits in our bag. The water park is in the water cube from the Beijing Olympics. It was quite an experience! After we walked around the Olympic park and also saw the Bird's Nest (where the opening ceremonies were).

The water cube from the Olympics

On the next morning, we met our travel group in the lobby while we waited for our bus and travel guide. We are with five other families. It's been fun to share each others stories and pictures. 

Our morning started off on a rickshaw ride through an old Chinese village where we had tea and snacks at a sweet lady's house.

Also, on our second day we toured The Forbidden City,  Tiananmen Square, a silk factory and saw a Chinese Acrobatic show. We had a fun, busy, and long day. For dinner, Chris and I set out on the subway to find our favorite place to eat while we lived in Sasebo... CoCo Curry! It was about 45 minutes away, but it was so worth it! We were in heaven!