June 25 ~ Off the Beaten Path in Beijing!

First off {before I even get started telling you all about our exciting day} I must give a HUGE shout out to my wonderful & amazing sister Lisa for it is her BIRTHDAY today!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISA!!!! We here in China all love you & miss you so much! Keith and I did a little celebration on behalf of your birthday& had a few afternoon cocktails at this amazing outdoor lounge here in Beijing! Needless to say, we are all now back in the hotel room ~ resting...Hope you too have a very HAPPY day! LOVE YOU!

Well as you can see, we did have a few cocktails some time this afternoon which if you are traveling with us ~ afternoon cocktails are a must! As I stated yesterday, we decided not to do the group's tour today. Seeing how this is our third time here in less than 5 years and it is blazing HOT outside, we knew we wanted to do something more at our leisurely pace and enjoy some "off-the-beaten" path exploring ~ which we so did!

Our day started off by just walking the streets of Beijing which lead us to this amazing tea shop (where I was able to purchase some fresh Jasmine tea) than from there we found a crazy Hot Dumpling Spot where I was the only one brave enough to try them (seeing how we really could not verbally communicate with the vendors and their "menu" was completely in Chinese ~ it was all "look than point and shake your head YES" when you found the dumpling you wanted to try). Each steamed dumpling I tried was so good that I am actually headed back there for a late afternoon snack. We also stumbled upon an incredible indoor vendors market where we found some beautiful pieces at some amazing prices. We did a lot of walking this morning and in this heat ~ it makes you very tired. It was than that we found the outdoor lounge, sat down under this huge umbrella and enjoyed some refreshing cocktails. I do have a few photos to share with you all today. Many of them are of the crazy traffic here in Beijing while there is also one of Keith & Francesca and another one of Francesca and me.

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Once we returned to the hotel I did work on getting all of the US money that is needed for Benjamin's adoption exchanged into RMBs before arriving in Zhengzhou on the 27th. In my opinion, it is just one less "detail" I need to worry about during those few short hours before being united with him. {and if you know anything about me you know that I have already placed all the bills in it's proper sealed and labeled envelope} I figured I better do this now while we are having relaxing day than trying to do it that first night when we arrive in Zhengzhou (which will be sometime around 8PM) or even the next morning before we take that walk to the civil affairs office to finally meet our little boy.

As for tonight, we again have nothing planned but for us this is how we wanted it! We did meet many of our travel group during breakfast this morning and they all seem to be a great bunch of people. We will learn more about them as our days move along during this adoption journey.

Tomorrow we are headed to the Great Wall which we are really excited to see once more.

That's about it here on our end! Only three more days until we are finally united with our little boy! I still can't believe it is really going to happen...

Love to you all & Miss everyone so very much!