Much overdue: Our Trip to China!

Before we actually left for China, we drove to MS and dropped off Liza. Then, we flew from Jackson to San Francisco where we had a day layover. We spent the afternoon seeing as much of San Francisco as we could......it was so pretty and so much fun! I would love to go back and spend more time! :)

We spent most of our time at Pier 39. Standing here you can see Alcatraz (in the background of this picture) and the Golden Gate Bridge.


Eating some YUMMY crab legs!


Riding a Trolley.....we were on the oldest trolley in San Francisco!


Finally, after a 13 hour flight.....we get to China! This is the girl that welcomed us at the Welcome Banquet!


Here we are in the Forbidden City. (Just behind Tianenmen Square).

One of the best parts of the trip.....the SHOPPING! They had something called the "silk market." It was 7 floors filled with anything you could ever want......clothes, jewelry, shoes, bags, etc., etc...... And the best part was the bargaining.....the stuff was probably all fake so you could talk them down to getting something that could cost hundreds for nothing! Someone told us to take an empty suitcase because the shopping was so great...we wished we had listened.

Here is Lee bargaining....

Our "shopping crew." Worn out but with smiles because of all our good deals! (And some of them actually bought another suitcase for all their goodies!)

Traditional Chinese Architecture...

Enjoying some Chinese Tea! If you ever see Chinese Cherry tea, get it....it was so good!

This was one of our favorite days.....we rode through the local streets of China and saw where they lived. Yes, a guy pulled us on a bike.....I felt sorry for him! He was so nice...but I couldn't help but wonder if they hate driving big Americans.....we were all giants compared to them.....espcially me all prego.

A typical meal...in fact, all our meals looked like this. Mmmmm....

This was definitely a highlight of the trip....we got to walk on the Great Wall.

Finally, we walked around downtown and found the famous strip where they fry all kinds of bugs and have dog and other awful, awful stuff to eat. Lee actually tried a fried scorpian......said it tasted like a Lay's potato chip......ugh!

It was definitely a trip we will always remember! And, it was not so bad being away from our sweet Liza......I missed her like crazy....but it was so good to have some "us" time! :) Thanks MeMe and Nonnie for taking care of her!