Johnson Family Journeys: China: Day 2, Part 1...

I have family members threatening to disown me if I don't update this blog (you know who you are Arizona!), so I better get with it!

Bekah decided to be in charge of wake up, and she was raring to get the day going. She woke up at 5a.m., and Daddy was kind enough to walk her around the hotel until a somewhat reasonable hour. After the incredibly early awakening, we started the first full day of our China adventure at the hotel breakfast. Yum-o. It was an interesting combination of American & Chinese cuisine. I loved it because you could have a beautiful salad made with fresh greens & loads of fruit...right along side your made to order omelet! Oh, the girls loved it because they had bread of every kind (even bread pudding!), so our little carb addicts were supremely happy. Fun times.

After we had our fill, we were picked up by Fernando & the driver...who does have a name, but we couldn't understand him & we just smiled and gave a lot of sign language while communicating with him!! We headed out to the Forbidden City. Let me tell you, that place was ENORMOUS! We spent just a small amount of time there--it would have taken an entire day to visit all the different portions, so we just hit the highlights!

For some reason, I fell in love with the doors in China.
They were so cool!

The rooftops were very intricate, and colors were vibrant.

It didn't hurt that the Olympics were held here last year &
the country spent the last 4 years painting every inch of all the historic places!

Abby loves to cooperate for pictures.
Thank goodness Boz likes to have his picture taken!

Here they are...the paparazzi.
The girls were very popular.

Blue eyes aren't exactly common there!
They also have light brown hair, so they could draw quite a crowd!
This is the one time Daddy physically removed the girls from the crowd...he had had enough!

We actually had pretty small crowds at most of the attractions. This was the one place that we encountered a large number of tour groups.

So, I skipped going to look at some of the more crowded places.
Fernando kept wanting us to go check things out, so I attempted to look/take pictures over the heads of some Chinese tourists. The people there are similar to the people here in Korea, but even pushier...especially in the crowds.

I came back from taking this dismal picture & told Fernando I'm not a fan of the pushing.
He said that the secret is to start a coughing fit right behind them & watch them all scatter. HA. Did I mention that I really enjoyed Fernando & all his words of wisdom.

Just so you know, it really works!

Funny.

This guy had a little singles ad on the back of his shirt & it read:
SINGLE, MALE, (thanks for that...I wasn't sure!), 23, GSOH,
N.S. WLTM SIMF, 18-30, FOR F-SHIP-FUN, ENTERTAINMENT,
CALL ME 0123923

Good thing I didn't want to call him...I have no idea what most of that means!

Walking up the ramp to Tiananmen Square

Here it is...definitely not as crowded as I pictured it would be.

Looking back across the road at the Chinese flag & the first gate into the Forbidden City.

Had to sneak this photo...I'm so 007. HA.

Our super cool van...literally! It was HOT while we were in China, so it was wonderful to have our very own van that picked us up wherever we told the driver to meet us!

Yum. Did I mention that I LOVED the food while we were in China?

I guess I just like food, but it really was good. We had duck here, along with some other tasty goodies. The funny thing is that we always got at least 4 entrees because we paid almost as much for Abby's trip as ours. It worked out in our favor as far as the food went! :)