photos from day 1 summer palace and olympic venue

first morning in bejing: puffy pink clouds at sunrise and a cool morning breeze. kids played volleyball and jumprope while waiting for our group to gather. our bus and guide arrived to take us to the summer palace and off we went. seems that most of bejing decided to visit the summer home of the empress as well.

a rave has nothing on a chinese tourist destination on a summer weekend. our visit to the summer palace was timed with the end of the chinese work week so navigating this lovely place was like swimming in a school of fish. a tight grip was needed to make sure that the girls did not disappear in a sea of people. beautiful paintings, boats on the lake, sounds very romantic, and it is lovely but the sheer number of people was staggering.

we saw hawkers selling all kinds of tourist stuff. my favorite of the day: the battery operated chinese infantry man with gun in hand who crawls while shooting. a close second: the freckled blond doll laying on her stomach reading a book and kicking her feet. sadly i was not astute enough to take any photos of these must have items. perhaps today when i venture to the hongquiao market i'll be see them again and i won't miss the photo opportunity.

we ended our morning there with a boat ride across the lake in a dragon boat.
the girls are having a great time.they love piling in the back of the bus with all the other girls and the ten of them are pretty sweet together. the kids table at each meal is a hoot-yesterday claire ( who is 13) braved the eating of the fish eye! the rest of them are eating pounds of rice and dumplings at each meal.