Saturday morning around 5:30 am...

It's 5:30 am now and we've been up for a while. The alarm clock in the room runs on batteries and they are dead. I could call for a wake up time but I've tried that before and it's harder than you may think. We usually bring a travel clock with us so I tried to do reminders on the iPad (yeah, I have an alarm clock app but it's in the phone and I'm afraid to turn it on at $20 per meg of data if I didn't turn off the roaming.) In the end we knew we wouldn't sleep that long. We went to sleep at 1:30 and I jumped at 3:30 thinking it was time. This is going to be fun for the next couple of days adjusting.

Hotel is nice enough although I could hear a guy snoring in the room next door through the wall. I would hate to know what it sounds like inside that room. The bed "feels like" a piece of plywood with sheets. Very good if you like a firm mattress. Definitely not a pillow top.

We were able to meet Grace, our guide here in Beijing, last night in the hotel lobby. Apparently she is staying here with us. She seems nice enough. We will only have today and Sunday morning with her and then someone else will take over in Hefei. She is going to take us on the tours today. Yep, 6 times in the Forbidden City. Doesn't really seem that forbidden any more. Maybe we will be lucky and go to a different part of the Great Wall. We are going to have lunch at a jade factory. It should be fun if it doesn't get too hot.

Oh, did I mention anything about business first? Worth every penny and then some. Debbie was already asking how we could get up there for the ride home. I think I slept 10 hours of the 13 hour flight. Stinks too because they had some good new movies. They 11 hours in Chicago kind of wore us out. I'm not sure how much Debbie slept but I'm betting it was at least half the flight. Anyone how can do that upgrade should do it. I feel better physically after that flight than I have any of the others.

We got to Skype the kids last night. Only wifi in the lobby of this hotel. They have cable jacks in the room but of course I didn't think about the MacBook having the new connector. Either have to convince them to take me to an Apple store here in China (dream) or wait until next city before I can use it. Wouldn't it be terrible if they had to take me to Apple??? Hahaha

Everyone seemed to be doing good at home. We already miss them so much. No crying though so that was good. They are having a blast with Miss Diedra and Mr Brian. They have all kinds of cool stuff - dippin dot maker, popcorn machine, snow cone maker.... I guess I will have a wish list of stuff from them when we get home. We are really glad that they are having so much fun and so grateful to these friends for opening their home. Thank you!!!

Well, I have to get in the shower now and then check out the food they have for us here. Crossing my fingers for western style breakfast. We will get a Chinese lunch this afternoon.

Thanks again everyone!

- Posted from my iPad :: Bill out.

Location:Beijing China