Beijing Memories!

What an unbelievable experience we had this past September when Kerry and I were able to travel to Beijing for the Paralympic Games. Unfortunately Marlon was seriously injured while running in the 100 meter finals, but we still had the trip of a lifetime.  Beijing is a huge city which is occupied by 14 million people. We were so impressed with how friendly  everyone was. Everything was so clean and the landscaping was beautiful.  The entire time we were there we kept asking ourselves if we were really in Beijing!

I have never seen so many bicycles in my life.  Only 30% of the people in Beijing have cars. Now I know one reasons why there are no overweight people in China.  Rain or shine this is the typical mode of transportation.   The most interesting thing to me was how they ignore traffic lights.  We would stand in awe and watch as those on foot and on bikes would just head right out into the traffic without any apparent concern for getting hit.   

While waiting to get inside of the Bird's Nest to watch Marlon compete, we had the pleasure of meeting Yifan.  She and I have been emailing.  It's so fun to have a friend in Beijing!  As you can see Kerry's brother Val, and Marlon's friend Sam were with us on our trip.  We so much enjoyed having them along.

Outside of the Birds Nest at night was like being at Disneyland, it just had such a magically feeling.   It was an incredible feeling to be half way around the world seeing something that just days before we had seen on TV in the comfort of our family room.

Seeing the Great Wall of China in person, who would have ever dreamed!

What a hike!  We only went up as far as the first guard house that you see at the top behind us. I'm glad we didn't go any father as our legs felt like rubber by the time we got down.  It was so hot and so STEEP.  I thought for sure one of us was going to die of a heart attack.   As you can see however, we both survived.

One of our favorite places we visited was the Summer Palace.  We actually walked up several flights of stairs to get to the top of that big building in the background where we were able to overlook the city.

This picture was taken on the grounds of the Beijing Zoo on our last full day in Beijing.  We were truly blessed to take such an amazing trip and a piece of my heart will always be with the wonderful people there!