Beijing Baby!!!

We made it! Our travels went smoothly and were nearly uneventful. Our day started early and for one member of our family (who will remain nameless) that meant exactly zero sleep. Oh well...we had a 12 hour flight to catch up a bit, right? Thankfully Camden is a great traveler and we were able to do just that along with watching some movies, doing a little reading and listening to some Mandarin. We arrived in Beijing around 2pm and once we arrived to the gate quarantine officials outfitted in mask and goggles boarded the plane. They proceeded to take everyone's temperature and we are happy to report that no one had a fever so we were able to disembark from the plane pretty quickly. One hurdle cleared! :) The rest of the process getting through the airport was surprising easy and we were met by a guide from our agency who brought us to our hotel. Unfortunately, once we were settled in our room we realized that we left our atm card in the atm machine at the airport. Yep, unbelievable screw up! Sheer panic enshewed followed by a stress filled taxi ride (for me) back to the airport while Camden & Doug found food and wandered the Carrefour (China's Walmart like store). Even though the bank had already closed when I got there I "pulled a Camden" and gave them a pleading look through the glass and they opened the bank for me. Fortunately, they had the card as the atm had sucked it back in after we didn't take it and we were able to get it back. I can't tell you how relieved I was. I truly believe God protected us. Someone could have snagged it before the machine sucked it in or if I would have arrived any later the people at the bank could have already left for the day or they could have decided not to open the door for me. They were reluctant but did eventually open the bank. I returned to the hotel and went looking for food as Doug and Camden were out and about. I found a street vendor that was making these little pancake things that had egg, green onions, cilantro (I think) as well some other things that I am not sure what they were. It was a little spicy but boy was it good and it cost all of about $.60. Hopefully I won't regret that purchase later if you know what I mean. :)

Here's a few pics from our travel day:

At our local airport ready for an adventure.

Oops overweight...can't take him.

In SFO getting ready for our flight to Beijing.

Doug getting his temperature checked.

Yeah...arrival in Beijing!

Also, for those getting ready to travel...facebook and blogger are currently blocked in Beijing so you will need to make other arrangements to connect to these sites. Doug is a techie wizard and has set up a VPN which allows us to connect to our home network and access the Internet. He is so smart!