Beijing - On Their Own

Lane and mom only slept about 2-3 hrs on the flight over. They were happy to be very good and tired upon arrival to get their bodies in sync with clock there.
They promptly crashed after we talked to them and had let us know they made it just fine.

They decided to forgo the optional touring today. Partly because they didn't want to spend the money and secondly, they wanted to do things at their own pace and on their own schedule.
They had breakfast which they said was really good. Lane didn't try the congee but he said he's going to give it a try tomorrow. He did have what he said were these little buns with sesame filling that were pretty good. Slightly sweet but not like donuts, cinnamon rolls or the like here in the US. At breakfast they did meet the family traveling to Hunan with them. They're from KC but the mom-to-be is originally from just outside of Indy. I'm from the northside of town and she's from the westside. Still pretty cool though.

After breakfast they headed out to do their thing. They headed to the Temple.of.Heaven as you see in the photos above. You can also see the horrible smog as well. Even with the smog they thought the temple was beautiful. Beijing was hot today (I think the Weather.Channel forecast was either 102 or 103. Tomorrow it's supposed to be just as hot). Lane said that the temple was really neat but because of the smog it was very difficult to get good photos of the detailing, etc. The few photos he sent me I don't think were all so bad considering...

After the Temple.of.Heaven they went to the market across the street to buy pearls. Lane got beautiful pearls pretty darn cheap. He showed them to us this morning via Sky.pe because we all wanted to see what they bought today. Might try and get him to buy some more pearls in GZ even though they might be a little more expensive. I'm thinking I want some smaller sized pearls (insert grin). They said there were some really cool things in the other stalls of the market. Because of the heat, my mom was drenched in sweat. Every single stall sold fans and each person said to her, "You hot!!! Must buy fan!" She did end up buying a couple that were in cool colors and had some cool designs.

When we travel the globe our family has this love affair with Hard.Rock.Cafe and buying t-shirts. So Lane and mom headed there and bought some really awesome shirts. I saw them so briefly that I can't remember what was on them. Either that or I was just so excited it wasn't important to remember.

That's it for today. Can't wait to hear about their adventures tomorrow (today for them).

Oh, and traffic lanes in China are there for decoration only. Not one person uses them and my mom says the honking there is worse than in NYC. She says you hear it constantly during your ride from point A to point B. Thus far cabbing it hasn't been that scary for them. No life flashing before your eyes moments yet.