CHINA!

Jason and I had the amazing opportunity to go visit my parents in China and see just a few of the amazing sites that country has to offer. First of all, a huge thanks to my sister-in-law Lianna and brother JD and their girls Korrali and Claire who came out from Colorado to watch our kids for us. None of this would have been possible without them, and we are so grateful.

So it's hard to know where to start documenting this trip. A quick overview is that we flew out on a direct flight to Beijing on Saturday March 23 which got us there Sunday night. Monday we went to the Summer Palace, Tuesday we toured the Great Wall of China, and Wednesday The Forbidden City. Each of these days we also did little things around our hotel. Thursday we took a high speed train to Jinan (250 miles in about 2 hours!) and met my Mom at her hotel (Dad was still teaching. We saw him later that night). That day she showed us her favorite place in Jinan 10,000 Buddha Mountain. Friday we went to Baotu Springs, Daming Lake, and a great food street. Saturday we went to a local shopping area and toured one of the two College Campuses they teach at and then took the train back to Beijing. We flew home the next day, Sunday. All in all, we walked about 48 miles over those seven days!

I was so glad we went to more than Beijing while we were there! Aside from seeing my parents (obviously), the difference in the people we met was huge. In Beijing it was very much a big city feel (think New York City) with everyone busy and focused on what they were doing. In Jinan everyone was friendly, smiled, wanted to try and talk with us and take pictures with us (think small town feel, even though Jinan has millions of people)! I think I got asked to be in pictures with people about 10 times, and some of those were groups of people with multiple cameras.

Jason did tons of research in the months before we left, and so I felt like I had my own personal tour guide. We made our way around Beijing almost entirely by ourselves (we hired a driver to drive us to the Great Wall and he also got our tickets for us once we got there) using taxis, the subway, and walking. We took the train to and from Jinan and lots of buses while we were there. We had no tour guides, except for my parents in Jinan, and we had a great time!

We ate lots of great foods, my favorites of which were all in Jinan where my parents could take us to their favorite places. We used chopsticks (Jason better than me, but I held my own) and were grateful most menus had pictures of the items offered.

Ok, so there you have it. Now on to the part we all like best: the pictures!