We're Here!!

Posting this from Yahoo (Blogger is blocked in China) so I hope it comes out okay.   We arrived in Beijing safely Thursday night.  It was a long squishy plane ride but very smooth.   We got caught up in rush hour traffic on the way to the hotel, so it took much longer to get there, and the whole ride was a lot of quick stops and goes with lots of honking.  When we finally arrived at the hotel and I stood still, it felt like my body was still moving!   We were so tired from the trip we just ate a snack and went right to bed. 

Friday morning we had a tour guide take us see the Great Wall of China.  Wow!  Very amazing.  Climbing it however, was no small feat.  The steps are very steep, and the steps are not a uniform height.  So one step might be 2 inches high, while the next might be 10!  Needless to say, our legs are a little sore, and we only climbed to the first tower.  Yes, very out of shape, ha ha. 

I'll write more later but we are off to have breakfast and then have our orientation meeting with our travel group.  Here's some pics of our flight (just for you, kids!)  and some of the Great Wall.  The first few flight pics are from Portland to Chicago and the last few are from Chicago to China.  The very last one is when we landed at the Beijing airport.  I may have to post this in a few batches so they'll post separately.