Terrible Planners but Terrific Tourists

Saturday was officially an adventure day for us - love those!

Early morning Skype dates confirmed that I will be having a visitor in a few weeks - Andrew is making an appearance in Beijing! We have a week-long break at the end of September/early October, so he is coming to keep us company. I think we'll go down to Xi'an and maybe to Shanghai. So excited!

After chats with home, we got ready and headed out to the Temple of Heaven. Despite leaving later than anticipated and almost drowning myself with a bottle of water - I learned that I can't multi-task enough to walk and drink at the same time on the way home from Tims with Megan in high school, but sometimes I forget - we made it there without issues.. in fact, we chatted all the way from the apartment to our destination without any concerns… we're getting good at this!

Once to the Temple of Heaven, we took our time and explored the whole area. The research I read suggested that it would take somewhere around 2 hours to see everything - well, we were there from 11:30AM to 4PM - and we didn't see everything!

The Temple of Heaven is a UNESCO world heritage site. Much of it was built in the 1400s or the years following, but has since been renovated and added to. There are many sections, but the main temple is the "Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests" - the oldest building on site.

There was a ton to see, but the highlights were two of the more obscure things. We found a group of people ribbon dancing - there was a lady selling the ribbons - and we tried them out. It's a LOT harder than it looks! Becca was getting the hang of it by the end, but only because she was focused (all the pictures have her "focused" face on). Alicia was good too - I'm pretty uncoordinated so I had my moments of gracefulness.. but I spent most of the time untangling the ribbon!

Another amazing part of the day were the trees. I appreciate nature, but I'm not like Dadder (ex on our trip to Newfoudland in Grade 6: "Look at that tree!" "Look at that rock!"). These trees were amazing, though. There are hundreds of different types, and the cyprus trees are some of the oldest in the world. We spent a lot of time admiring the shapes in the bark, and of the trees themselves - this is likely why it took us so long to see everything!

On the way out, there were a group of ladies doing a dance/exercise class, so we watched them for a little bit and tried out a few moves. We got distracted by a group that was singing (what we assume were) traditional songs. There was a lady with a flute-like instrument and a man with an accordion, and several people singing.. and more just kept joining in! It was incredible. Check it out right here! Gotta love the power of technology.

After our excursions at the Temple of Heaven, we crossed the street into "familiar" territory - SHOPPING. The Pearl Market is across the street, so we went in there for a little look - not intending to buy anything. Well, a dress, a bag, a magnet (Temple of Heaven!), 2 pearl necklaces, and 2 gifts later (Lauren and Carly, you will be getting Christmas presents!) later.. it was time to go home.

Total travel time? 9 hours. 10-7 is a long day, but it was well worth it!