Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City

Hi, everyone! Just a quick update today. We have a VERY long day today. Heading to the Great Wall first, then the Summer Palace, Olympic Venues, dinner and the Peking Acrobats. All this in 100 degree heat!

Yesterday we visited the Temple of Heaven. We had tried to find the Temple of Heaven ten years ago when we were here with Fred's parents, but we didn't have a guide and we got hopelessly lost. I'm so glad we were finally able to see it. There were a lot of locals out in the park at the Temple of Heaven doing various activities: playing cards, mahjongg or some other tile game,

Then we came back to the hotel for lunch on our own. We went with the Roenschs to try to find a noodle restaurant that is supposedly close to the hotel, but we couldn't find it, and the kids were getting cranky, so we just went to McDonald's. We loaded back onto the bus and headed to the Forbidden City. LOTS of walking, but we saw a lot more of it than we did last time.

The peking duck dinner was fabulous! So much good food. My favorite was a pork dish that had peanuts and green onions in it and you make a sandwich out of it with some round bread. The duck was good, too. You wrap it up in a tortilla-type thing with onions, cucumber and a sauce.

Funny story....Fred is quite the stud here! Several women today wanted their picture taken with him! He's actually being a good sport about it. Pretty funny.

I've been taking lots of daily life pictures out the window of the bus. A lot of people, mostly women, wear long gloves or detachable sleeves to keep the sun off their arms. I also see people wearing full face shields when riding their bikes. Then they flip up and act as visors. I saw a little boy with split pants on and got a picture of him, but he was bending over, so it was a little obscene. I'll edit it and include it in my Kodak gallery after we are home.

One last thing....my neighbor/friend Dave is doing my updates for me. I can't access blogger from here, so that's why I'm not replying to any comments. Thank you, Dave!

That's it for today!