my first posting

Ok, while Lori is the queen poster, I decided to write a bit. First, we brought some very tasty nuggets of food with us, because we thought the local fare might not be worthy. You know, dried fruit, dried snack bars. I am surprised Lori didn't pack some Tang to wash it alll down. But, the food in our pov has been excellent. We ate at a noodle place last night frequented by Anthony Bourdain. While they served lots of things with "blood" in the title, we found the noodles to be excellent. Lori had a dish that was one very long noodle...about 7 feet long. And tonight we had Peking Duck. multi-course meal, very filling for a whopping $50. And that included Mumm Champaign. Alas, the dried morsels we brought over 18 hours of flight are untouched. Today, we headed to the Great Wall. Lori researched it and we ended up going to a less busy section. Shockingly beautiful. I can't imagine how a gillion people were used to create a wall 1000's of miles long with millions of bricks and so long ago. Words cannot describe. Lori will post pic's. But it was so high we had to ride a chairlift to the top. And we road a toboggan down. No lie. And oddly enough, everytime we turned a corner on these two forms of transportation, there was a sign advertising the local version of Coke. None to buy, just a sign saying, "drink me". It was as though Disney had taken hold of part of the place. Back to the wall... we climbed stairs for almost 2 hours. At the top there was a sign that said, "No public allowed beyond this point." So, Lori, Sybil, a Procter and Gamble employee who arranged for our driver and visit, and I proceeded. This do-no-enter path was actually a part of the Great Wall that hasn't been rebuilt. And it ended on top of a high peak. Very humbling to be on a worn out great wall path that was built 100's of years ago and I am walking on it with my standard Nike running shoes. I'll let Lori talk about the shopping experiences we had following the wall. But it was a day to remember. And as Lori probably mentioned already, I do not think there are nicer people on earth that the people we have met in Beijing. What a trip.