Peanut and PopTart: Safe and Sound, Aiden Bound

Good morning or Good evening depending on when you get to read this! We are finally in Beijing having arrived last night around midnight local time. The airport was very empty, which seems odd for China, but then again I am sure we will get to experience the full effect on our trip back home which is an early departure on New Years Day. The flight was uneventful and the seats in business class were very accommodating. There was a great selection of movies to watch and the food was phenomenal and plentiful although over 13 hours on a plane will take its toll! After landing and getting our bags, we were ferried to the Novotel Hotel in downtown Beijing by our driver and finally got to the room around 12:45 am local time. The room we are in is a top floor, double decker with a spiral staircase which for me is an oddity in a hotel, but Savannah thinks its pretty cool! By managing our sleep on the plane I think our transition has been very good as we all slept until about 6:00 am this morning and do not feel exhausted at all! We have just returned from a fabulous breakfast here in the hotel and leave on a trip to the Great Wall in about an hour. There is so much to do here in Beijing that I know we will not even come close to getting the full experience, but this will not be our last trip to China so we will pace ourselves accordingly! We will post details of our day here in Beijing sometime later tonight, but for now I want to pass along a note of thanks to our friends the Walkers who will be moderating our BLOG from the United States. Due to restrictions in China with BLOGGER, we cannot post to the BLOG, but in my eyes we are visitors in a country that has rules and laws that must be obeyed and as I expect the same for visitors to my home country. So with that we will bid everyone zài jiàn for now and post again soon! Till then......

Mike (can I get another wine please?), Ann Marie (when can I take a shower?), and Savannah (what time do we get Aiden?) Kennedy