Wallace's Wonderful Adventure: Longqing Gorge

Up and getting ready by 6:30. We headed to breakfast at 7:15. We were enjoying our omelets and Alicia and her family came in. They are headed back to Spain. We had some small talk and then we went back to the room. Packed up, checked out, and waited a couple minutes for Mr. Xue. Loaded up and headed out to Longqing. We were meeting Carrasco's. We started out fine but quickly hit a huge back up of traffic. Todd was looking ahead and said "I hope we aren't going that way". Just as he got that out Mr. Xue turned that way. I heard "oh no". And we stopped. It was inching along for about 25 minutes. We just started cruising along and then all of a sudden we were back in a ton of traffic again. This time only for a minute. The traffic in Beijing drives me crazy. Good thing we have a driver because I could never drive here.

Just as we suspected Carrasco's ended up in front of us. Their driver called ours and they decided they would pull over and wait for us. We found them at a service station. Alfredo jumped in our van and we were off again. The boys both had huge smiles when they saw each other like it has been forever. It's been 18 hours. Funny boys. They shared the DS and talked and laughed the whole way.

The boys took turns playing the DS.

We drove for about 5 minutes and then we stopped along side of the road. Mr. Xue was looking at the map. A couple minutes later Leo was at the window and they were trying to figure out where to go. Ileana and I told them and showed them both on Wednesday where we were going. I would have thought they would know how to get there. More traffic. I was thinking "I hope this trip is worth it" while sitting in yet another traffic jam.

The blind leading the blind.

Two hours of basically wall to wall cars. Finally open road. We passed a cool section of the Great Wall I want to visit. Todd says if we go it will be about 4:00 a.m. We will see.

FINALLY we have arrived at Longqing Gorge. We pulled into the parking lot and women started chasing our vans. We aren't sure what they wanted but our drivers seemed to ignore them. We parked and got out. We were all so happy to finally be there. We grabbed some food before heading out.

A little Subway and Kro pizza hit the spot before our big outing.

We went to the bathroom and then bought tickets for the golf cart looking thing to take us up to the Gorge. We all got in and the nice person drove us up there. Walked in and had to buy an entrance ticket. The guys got the all inclusive ticket. We walked next to the river and took a few pictures. We then started walking up steps. At the top was a metal mountain slide. Of course we all wanted to do that. We handed them our all inclusive ticket and it was no good. We had to buy tickets. We all rode it down and it was pretty fun.

Here is where we are.

All on and ready for our ride.

The kids were ready.

Todd and Fredy look frightened.

This was the view when we got off the golf cart.

Trying to figure out who needed a ticket.
It's always based on height.

My guys.

Checking out the map...of course.

The boys talking while looking at the river.

A good looking group.

Making our way up to the slide.

Cameron is starting down.

I caught up with the boys.

At the bottom again we walked a different direction. We found the dragon with the worlds longest chain of escalators. It is also where the dam is and a waterfall. We took a couple pictures and started our way up the escalators. At the top there were a few different activities.

Checking out the dam.

Great photo.

The dragon is about to grab Cameron.

The boys making their way into the dragon's mouth.

Riding the escalators.

Alejandro really took a liking to Todd. I had to ask if I was still
his best friend. Luckily he said yes.

The view of the waterfall off the dam from a window in the dragon.

We hit the boat ride first. It drove on the river and there was some neat scenery. There was a guide on the boat but of course she was speaking Chinese. We just followed the way the Chinese were looking to figure out what we should be looking at. It was a nice ride. While we were on the boat we saw people bungee jumping and a guy on a bicycle riding on a tight rope way up in the air.

Walking through the cave/tunnel to get to the other side.

My favorite and I on the boat.

The cool side of the boat.

The not so cool side.

Some of the awesome views we saw.

The cable car ride.

This is what our boat looked like but full of Chinese, 3 Americans, and 5 Mexicans.

Awesome scenery.

One of the crazy bungee jumpers we watched.

The boat let us off in a different area so we could explore what was over there. Everyone was excited when we saw people selling Popsicles and beer. Everyone was able to get a treat. We then went to the wooden boat area. We had to buy another ticket because our all inclusive ticket didn't work. Todd took Alfredo and Cameron and Fredy took Alejandro and Marcela. Ileana and I sat on a bench waiting for them to return. They were gone at least 20 minutes. They went around a corner and we couldn't find them. All of a sudden we saw them and could hear Alejandro and Marcela yelling. Come to find out the two boats were racing. But the dad's were doing all the rowing. They were sweating pretty bad when they were done.

On the dock. The black dot is a HUGE spider that was eating
another bug. ICK!

Cameron taking pictures of himself.

Ileana trying to figure out which beer was the coldest.

Love these people.

Cameron spotted this...we don't know what...but it looked
like a giant turd.

Snack break for all the kids.

These guys will be in one boat.

Huh????

Everybody has a life jacket and they are ready to go on the water.

The dad's were doing all the work.

Looks like fun.

We got back on the big boat and headed to our starting point. When we got off we could have road the cable car but everyone wanted to ride the slide again instead. We walked through a big tunnel to get to the slide. Bought another ticket and rode it again. At the bottom it was treat and beer time again. And bathroom break time.

Just another sign that made me laugh.

I took this as I was going down the slide.

This picture sums up the ride...FUN!

The boys making ice cream lip stick kissy faces.

Man, Fredy was thirsty.

Isn't this cute?

After our break we bought a return ticket on the golf cart so we could go back to our vans. We realized the all inclusive ticket only included the entrance and boat ride. We all agreed that this place was well worth the horrible traffic and drive. Thank goodness. Out to the parking lot.

This is how you know it is hot in China. The men roll their
shirts up like this and let it all hang out.

Yep, he caught me taking his picture so he covered up.

Back in the vans headed towards the hotel. We had smooth sailing for about the first half hour and then we hit traffic. The good news is we were always moving just at a slower pace. A shorter trip too by almost an hour. We arrived at the Marriott Sandalwoods Apartments at 5:40. We were all happy to be out of the van.

Checked in and up to our room. We opened the door and the kids went running through the place checking it all out. They could not believe how big it was. They also couldn't believe there were three bathrooms and three bedrooms. Everyone was digging this hotel. I told Ileana there were 8 phones. We went and found them and actually there were 9. Why on Earth would this place need 9 phones?

I pretended to go to the bathroom but secretly I was writing Happy Anniversary on a big chocolate chip cookie I had made for Ileana and Fredy. Marcela helped by holding the pan so it didn't spin. I had Alfredo, Marcela, and Alejandro carry it out and give it to their parents. They yelled Happy Anniversary. Ileana and Fredy looked surprised. Every dove right in and started eating the cookie. It was pretty yummy.

Surprise!

Don't they look happy?

The Lovebirds.

The kids played and the adults had some beverages and decided what to order for dinner. We knew we were getting Annie's delivered. The kids got in the goodie bag of stuff I brought and they found the balloons. They had so much fun with those and it kept them busy for hours.

Whoa! Marcela and Alejandro changed a little bit.

We ate dinner and then we all played Guesstures. Cameron, Alfredo, and Alejandro were a team. Todd and Fredy were a team. Ileana, Marcela, and I were a team. It was a lot of fun. After the game was done...and everyone were winners...the kids got ready for bed and then watched The Lorax. The adults chatted and had cocktails while the kids were movie watching. After that it was bed time for everyone. Cameron and Alfredo slept on the couches. Everyone else were in bedrooms.