Back to Beijing

I took Cameron to school. As I was walking away his art teacher stopped me. She told me what a great boy Cameron is. She then told me some story about something that happened in her class yesterday but I couldn't understand all of it (her English isn't the best). She then said "I just like to tell parents when they have a good kid and you definitely do".  I thanked her and told her we try. I thought that was so nice of her. I then headed to a meeting for the parent liaisons. I know, sounds important. Luckily the meeting was only about 20 minutes long. I'm still confused as to what it was about but oh well. Grabbed a taxi and went home. Mr. Xue had to take the car in for maintenance.

I packed for our weekend in Beijing and at 10:00 Mom and I met Michelle at the nail salon for manicures. Michelle is having all kinds of problems with her new apartment and was wound up. I think she felt better after talking about things. My Mom got her first French manicure. She usually has her nails pointed but she let them do a mix of round and square. She was very happy with her nails when she was done. We didn't get out of there until 11:50 so it took forever.

We were suppose to go to lunch with Ileana at 11:30 but we had to send her a message to change it to noon. She ran up to tell my dad. Then at 12 she got my Dad and walked over to Wai Ha with him. Dad was a little shocked when she showed up at the door. Too funny.

We had a good lunch. We celebrated Ileana's birthday again. This might be the 4th time. I think we are done now. Between her and I and then throw in my Mom there were a lot of laughs. Dad thought we were a bunch of loons I think. He probably wanted to eat and run but he was a trooper and hung in there.

We walked back home. We finished gathering everything for Beijing. At 2:30 we ran to Nick's Mart to get some snacks. We were in there maybe 3 minutes and spent about $25 on licorice, gummy bears, and peanut M&M's. Nice!

Grabbed Cameron from school, picked Todd up at work, and then we were on the highway to Beijing. We got a little lost going to the restaurant because Mr. Xue got off too early and it took us about 15 minutes to get turned back around. Back on the right road and we got to Schindlers Filling Station. Mom thought it was funny that this also had Filling Station in the word. This was a German Restaurant. We had steak, pork knuckle, pork kabob, sausage, bacon wrapped asparagus, and some pickle things. We topped it off with an apple crisp which was pretty good. Everything was really good except for my steak. It was good except for parts that were too hard to chew. I wouldn't order it again but there were other things on the menu that I would try.

The restaurants advertisement.

Mom and Dad entering the restaurant.

Cheers!

A duck bill out of a pretzel roll.

Cameron's pork knuckle was a ton of food.

Todd's giant plate of meat.  Yum!

Some apple crisp for dessert.

Back in the van and off to our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott City Wall. We have never stayed there before and we do not know anyone who has.  Todd wasn't sure how it would be either.  We walked in and were sent to the 16th floor to check in...The Executive Lounge.  We got our two rooms and went down to the 7th floor to check them out.  They were very nice.  Mom and Dad's was not a suite but it was big.  Mom, Dad, and Cameron started watching Problem Child while Todd and I went to the lounge for a little bit. 

Outside the hotel.

Back in the room and we finished watching the movie with the rest.  When it was over it was bed time.