Mutanyu Great Wall

When we got up we heard "How do you turn the closet light off?" Kelly asked.  Scott told her last night to shut the door and Todd gave her the same answer this morning.  Kelly replied "But its glass". If the door is shut it turns the light off regardless if it was glass or not.  Big laughs.

Out the door at 6:45.  Our van had to be out of the 5th ring of Beijing by 7:00.  With our Beijing license plate we have one day a week our van can't be in town.  It happens to be Fridays this month.

We were greeted with a bunch of traffic right away.  We saw a tractor driving down the interstate with the guy wearing shorts and flip flops.  Luckily he had his orange vest on.  We also saw a street sweeper running on the interstate.  That helped slow down the already slow moving traffic. Oh, and a guy in the front seat of a van sitting sideways on the edge of the seat because the van he was in was loaded with stuff.  And we saw a supermanket sign on a supermarket. The funny things you can see while driving around in China.

We made it to the Mutanyu section of The Great Wall.  We loaded up on sunscreen and we were on our way.  Before we left the van we were being attacked by a GIANT bee. 

The Ronnebeck's were ready to tackle the Great Wall of China.

Applying sunscreen.

Mr. Xue couldn't wait for us to leave the van.

Would love to know what these two were discussing.  Looked serious.

Acting out Aunt Kelly at the airport.  It wasn't quite
like this but still funny.

Scott showing me his Nike Trainer.

We walked past all the little shops but decided we would shop at the end.  Hit the bathroom.  Todd went to the ticket booth to get the tickets.  We decided to take the cable car up and ride the slide down.  We were walking to the cable car when we saw poop on the ground.  We tried to figure out who or what dropped it.  We then saw a camel. As we approached it we saw water.  Scott thought it was peeing but it actually was getting a bath.  Funny.

Scott needed to buy a hat.

We bought a lot of cold water from this nice old man.  Grace
said he smelled weird.

This is the shopping section you have to walk through
to get to the Wall.

We stopped to get a picture with this crazy warrior guy.

Check out the ladder.  That does not look safe.

Peeing or a bath?

We made our way on to the cable car.  I was in one car with all the kids and the 3 other adults were behind us.  Up, up, up we went.

Too bad we couldn't read this sign.

Making our way to the cable car.

The cable car with all the cool people in it.

We're off.

It goes straight up.

We jumped off at the top.  We were on the Wall.  Sweet! We began walking.  Big steps, little steps, and hills.  We got a good workout.  It was a beautiful day to be out walking the Wall.

We didn't walk the part of the Wall behind Cameron.

Standing on the Great Wall of China.

A window in a guard house.

A whole lot of steps.

Loving this walk.

Taking a break.

Awesome picture of the Ronnebeck's on the Wall.

We never get tired of seeing this amazing Wall.

We went to take a picture but Griffin kicked his shoe off.  Grace was asked to get it for him.  Grace picked it up and said "Ok Cinderella". Lots of laughs.  We continued walking and continued to take pictures.

This family was camped out on the steps.

Steep steps.

Great picture.

Griffin looks like he was in pain but he wasn't.

Grace loves the attention people gave her.

The Wallace's and Ronnebeck's.

We wouldn't want to walk together.

Brother and Sister love.

Todd pointed out where people walk up to the Wall.  Kelly and I both looked  over.  Grace asked what we were looking at.  I said "People walking up the wall".  Kelly quickly replied "They're dumb".  More laughs.  Who would walk up when there was a cable car or a ski lift to take?  More walking and more pictures.

It looked like we were on a mission.

Cute kids.

I walked with the boys to a guard tower but we
couldn't climb up it.

Scott found a little bit of shade.

We saw a tiny frog and this gecko on the Wall.

Grace getting 3 pictures taken.  This was 1.

This was after 3.  She was running up to Scott to see how it turned out.

Neat family shot.

Weird boy.

Nice hat.

Todd told these kids to scare me with the snake.

After almost having a heart attack the girl was saying "It's a toy. 
It's a toy".  They were cute.

Continuing our walk.

Cool tower.

Another pose.

Running steps like Rocky.

One stylin' girl.

Grace and I being cool.

Cameron had to get in our picture.

What on Earth are you doing Cameron?

Double gold medal winner for eating cheese.

Do the steps ever end?

When we were almost done we took a picture of where we started.  We were talking about how far we had walked. Griffin said "And I didn't die?"  He was shocked he survived.

This was not very safe.

Such a cute picture of the 3 kids.

Close up of the boys.

Close up of Grace.

Me and my brother.

Cute picture of Scott and Kelly.

Some scenery.

We were almost done.

We kept walking. We made our way to the slide.  We loaded up on our own 'sleds' and took some pictures.  Down the tabagon slide we went.  Nice, long ride.

On our way to the slide.

Yes it is.

The kids were ready to go.

The lady felt the need to give Scott a push.

I filmed parts as I went down.

Going around a corner.

Good times.

The end is in site.

At the bottom we decided to get lunch at subway and then go back to shop.  Sat around the van and ate and cooled off.  Griffin had cold pizza but he was trying to have the sun heat it up.  Todd put it on a napkin and sat it on the roof of the van. It worked.  For the second piece the boys opened up a Goldfish Crackers bag and put the pizza on that since it had aluminum foil on the inside.  It worked but Griffin decided he was full.

Yum...whiff bbq.

Eating lunch.

Scott can eat on one foot.  Can you?

Griffin's roof top pizza warmer.

Chillin' out.

The second piece of pizza warming up.

Griffin tasting Tsingdao.

Cameron tasting Tsingdao.

Kelly tasting Tsingdao.  Not sure where Grace's picture is.

Off to shop.  We walked back to the top so we could look at everything on the way up.  On our way back down we started shopping.  Prices started way out of the ballpark.  Ridiculous.  For 7 t-shirts the lady wanted 1600 rmb (about $260).  Seriously?  But she told us they were very good quality.  Yeah, right. We were able to get everything we wanted for the prices we wanted.  The boys got matching robes and Grace and I got matching dresses.  Griffin got an Obama shirt and I got a quilt sort of thing too.  We all got matching "I climbed the Great Wall" t-shirts too (except Todd).

This group of kids had to be hot.

Shopping.

Deep in thought.

We hit the bathroom then back to the van.  Todd went to get Baskin Robins.  We got to the van at 12:15and the hood was up.  Rut roh.  We sat around watching and listening to Mr. Xue trying to figure out what to do.  When Todd got to the van he tried to get details and give advice.  He's such a gear head...not!

This was not a good sign.

Waiting patiently.

This says it all.

Luckily we had shade.

I asked if there was an AutoZone down the road and if it was next to Walgreen's.  Kelly said "I think it's on the corner of McDonald's and Dairy Queen."  That was how I described where something was the day before (which is true).  Funny. Obviously this was not the case for AutoZone or Walgreen's.

Mr. Xue got in a car and left with some random Chinese man to go get a new battery.  He said it would take about an hour.  We sat around having snacks and drinks in the shade.

Cameron said he blamed Grandpa Tom for this.  We asked why.  He said "If Grandpa Tom never had dad we wouldn't be in this mess."  But then we said none of us would be in China if Todd wasn't born. His response..."Oh yeah, true".

More sitting around waiting.  Cameron said "I can't wait to get back to take a shower and put on my new robe".  Griffin added "kick back, relax, and watch TV too".  What a bunch of goofballs.  These kids sure say the funniest things...all the time.

25 minutes later Mr. Xue and his friends were back.  They had jumper cables and a battery.  They jumped our van and it purred like a kitten.  We had no idea where they got this used battery or why they didn't just use a vehicle around us.  Oh well.  The van was running and that was all that mattered.  We finished our drinks, hit the bathroom, and started back.  It was only 1:15.

Hooking up the jumper cables.

One of the random Chinese guys that helped Mr.Xue.

We made it to the airport.  Since our van  couldn't go in town we rode the airport shuttle Train/Subway thing to the Northeast Hotel area.  We waited for about 5 minutes.  It arrived and we quickly found seats.  Scott fell asleep within 10 seconds of sitting down.  We made a stop at terminal 2 (we got on at terminal 3) and then continued on.  A man sat next to Scott and he didn't even know it.  So funny.

Waiting to board.

Scott, Kelly, and Grace founds seats.

Cameron, Griffin, and I found seats too.  Todd stood.

At the next stop we got off.  We got in a mini bus looking vehicle.  It took us a couple blocks to the Northeast Hotel.  It cost 2 rmb per person (33cents).  We rode all kinds of new forms of transportation today.  I love new adventures.

In the funny van.

The little van.

We walked to Home Plate for dinner.  It was a BBQ restaurant.  We started with chips and salsa and drinks.  Everyone must have loved the chips because they were gone instantly and we ordered another basket of them.  Griffin's mouth was on fire from the salsa.  He downed 4 glasses of water.

Griffin thought about going to the restaurant that served
Donkey Flesh Hamburg.  Gross. 

Chowing down on chips and salsa.

They claim to have the best burger.  They obviously didn't
ask Griffin.

The rest of our food came.  Everyone was happy and liked the food except Griffin.  His burger was a little too juicy.  He ate other things instead.  We tried to get his burger cooked longer but they said since he had already taken a bite they couldn't put it back on the grill.  The owner came over and said he would make him a new one.  We said it wasn't a big deal.  As it turned out they took the burger off the bill.  That was nice of them.  Todd ended up eating half the burger. 

Good eats.

After dinner we walked to the main road and tried to get taxis.  One stopped but he wouldn't take us to our hotel.  We walked across the street to the Renaissance.  We got one taxi.  Me, Kelly,  and the kids piled in and were off.  Traffic was HORRIBLE.  We got a message from our husbands that they were in a cab and on their way too.  We finally got to the hotel.  The guys arrived about 5 minutes later.

Squished in the back of a cab.

Up to the room.  All kids showered and put robes on.  All adults showered but only Kelly and I put robes on.  We called it Family Robe Night.  We were guessing no one else we know has ever had this night before. Pretty comfy.  The boys were chasing each other.  When they ended up in the kitchen their robes were both open.  Cameron looked down, looked at Griffin and said "Hey, we have the same underwear on".  With that they both started laughing and then running through the room with their robes around their wastes and their undies hanging out.  So weird.

Bought a robe.

Also bought a robe.

Bowing.

Showing off the back of the robes.

Three goofballs on a couch.

Lounging in the hotel robes.

The cool people wore robes.

They look like little men.

Has anyone seen Cameron?

We watched some of Karate Kid and played LRC. Everyone was tired so most went to bed.  Griffin, Cameron and I watched Happy Feet 2 and then went to bed...I actually watched about a quarter of it.