Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an

Well, Pete and I were able to make his project extension into a vacation after all! I left on July 9th and we returned yesterday night at 2 AM, after a 36 hour day. China is 12 hours ahead of the Eastern time zone, and we are both experiencing jet lag. It was a wonderful vacation and we were able to make it to Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an--people are super friendly, and never once did we feel unsafe. That being said, it is really nice to be home! Here are some photos (in random order as blogger was not loading images properly) of highlights of our vacation:
The army of 7,000 Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi'an. These served to protect the first emporer of China in his afterlife.

Pete eating a meal with Chopsticks - menus at non-American Fast Food restaurants are all in characters (the Chinese are accomodating to tourists and have a special picture/English menu that can be brought out for people like us)!
The Winter Palace in Xi'an located at the base of Black Horse Mountain.
The Forbidden City in Beijing... A guilded prison for the royal family.


Due to our hair color, we became a tourist attraction for the Chinese! We were stopped often by students wishing to practice their English, had many stare at us, and a few requests to have our picture taken (although we suspect a number of cell phone shots were taken without being approached...)!

The Olympic stadium...
The top of the Great Wall of China - one of many sections! It was rainy and we are both soaking wet! The top photo of the Great Wall shows what you can expect to see if you watch the Olympics. When we were there, seats were being built for the biking? competition being held in the mountainous area around this section of the wall. Notice: The wall is very steep. In some areas, 4 stairs would be the same height as me (Heidi).
An amazing acrobatic preformance in Shanghai-- This was one of the many acts, during this one the acrobats were being flipped on people's feet!

China

I am feeling a touch more confident that... I'm going to China! I am just waiting on having the China visa (in addition to the passport) in hand before I start celebrating and doing cartwheels... Tonight, I need to pack and put away dishes! I can not wait to see Pete! (I'm pretty sure that this photo was taken in Tokyo on his last trip to the Orient...)

Time with my sisters

This past week, I have had my sisters to keep me occupied in Pete's absence... Kristen and Courtney arrived last Saturday, & Jessica arrived late Wednesday night. All 3 of them went back to Minnesota this morning at 1 AM, as traffic is likely to be horrible through Chicago due to the extended 4th of July holiday weekend. It was such a treat to have them downstate, and be able to hang out with them every day! Among our other plans, we went shopping and out for coffee every day that they were down here. It was a lot of fun to spend time with my sisters--I am so happy this last minute plan worked out so well for all!