Singapore Wed, March 16th

 As soon as we got here, we enjoyed the weather in the 80's!  It's always hot and humid here, but after the long winter, we didn't mind a bit!

 Sydney snacking with Estrella and Luca..her cousins!

We had dinner at an amazing Chinese seafood restaurant in Singapore.  It was packed on a Wednesday night!  We had dinner with my brother Tom, his wife Jenette, her sister Jenny and their kids Estrella and Luca. 

 



The kids all got real coconut drinks

Last Day in Beijing

These are the doorman at our hotel.  They were so nice and helpful to us each day and super nice to the kids.

The last thing I wanted to do in Beijing was to visit the historic section of the city. 

These are homes called Hutongs and there aren't many of them left here due to new development.

The gate to the Hutong neighborhood

Linda was our guide to and from the airport.  She was so nice and taught the kids as much Chinese as she could on our car rides.  We are leaving Beijing airport for Singapore to visit my brother and his family!

The kids can't get enough of this drinkable yogurt that is here!

The Temple of Heaven and The Forbidden City

On Monday we visited the Temple of Heaven.  During the Ming and Qing dynasties the emperors used to offer sacrifices to heaven and pray for a good harvest here.  It was built in 1420.  On the way into the complex, we walked through a park where many locals were playing cards, checkers and knitting. 

This is the most famous building.  It is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

This is the Circular Mound Altar. 

Our next stop was the Forbidden City.  Over a span of 560 years, 24 emperors lived here.  It was very cold while we were here!

 

Tian'anmen Square

This is the school that our hotel room faced.  If you look closely, you can see little kids in uniforms on the different levels. They are saying a very long pledge to their flag with a song.  We would see these kids come and go each day.  Their school yard was cement and had ping pong tables. 

Each morning they did exercises

We went to Pizza Hut in China.  It was much fancier inside than our Pizza Huts and the menu had rice!  After a long day of sight seeing, a cheese-stuffed pizza tasted great! 

Day 3

We decided to make Sunday a rest day. We were worn out from all the sightseeing
on Saturday! We started out the day skyping with family and friends in the
morning. After that, the kids swam in the very large hotel pool. Then we headed
to the street market where they sell various creatures on a stick! As you can
tell from the pictures, it was interesting. They had snakes, scorpions, ostrich
meat, centipedes, starfish, octopus, and other various creatures. The best part
was seeing people buy these items and munch on them! The kids did get
strawberries on a stick covered in a crunchy sugary coating.

After that, we had really good Chinese food for dinner.

It is really interesting because the back of our hotel faces a school with a big
school yard. It is all windows on the side facing us and we could see all the
classrooms filling up with cute little kids in uniforms. We got to see them do
their morning exercises outside, then they did a very long pledge. We will post
pics of the school later. Today we're finally heading to Tian'anmen square and
the Forbidden City. It's just a few blocks from our hotel.

Outdoor Market

Outdoor Market

Hotel Pool