History and Mystery

One of the many beauties of working at an international school is getting a random assortment of holidays off from school. We happened to get a long weekend for American Thanksgiving that I used to check off a major player on my bucket list - THE GREAT WALL!! 

Dawn, the friend I do morning workout time with approached me with an awesome offer much like this conversation...

Dawn: "Hey Meg, I know we don't really know each other that well yet and it is really early into the year for making plans, but Chris, Ashley, and I have a trip to China planned for Thanksgiving break. It is really a four person trip, but all the returning staff have other plans. Would you want to go with us."

Meg: "China!?! Chincha!?!" (look that one up in Korean)

Dawn: "Chincha!" 

Meg: "I need to look at costs etc. What are your plans"

Dawn: "Its all planned, we have a driver and we will go a bunch of places like the Great Wall..." 

She kept talking but I ignored everything else and kept thinking "Great Wall....Great Wall....YAY!!"

Meg: "YES!!"

Okay, it probably wasn't really that smooth and I didn't actually use the word chincha so often back then, but basically I jumped into a pre-planned, already organized, affordable vacation to China! I was basically in when the words "Great Wall" became part of the conversation. We were blessed with unseasonably warm weather and clear skies - what a treat!

Here is a picture tour of our trip!

Stop #1: Great Wall!

[Jump for Joy with Ashley and Dawn- Great Wall]

[Touching a piece of history!]

[They do a marathon on this thing?!]

[Peaceful, beautiful morning]

[Look at that wall!]

[More stairs...more and more and more!]

[Okay - we had this part of the wall to ourselves so we took a load of pictures]

[More Jumping! That is Dawn!]

Summer Palace

[Summer Palace - what a lake!]

[Ladies at the summer palace!]

[I would live there for the summer if I was in charge, too!]

[Stairs here too? Glad we workout!]

[The afternoon sun was shining - what a blessing!]

Kung Fu Show

[No pictures inside the show but it was AMAZING!]

 Olympic Park & Bird's Nest

[Just holding the torch...no big deal]

[In awe of the bird's nest - any place that felt the strength of Olympians is pretty awesome]

[The design is so cool!]

 Duck Dinner

[Let's eat duck - a whole duck!]

 Temple Exploring

[Lovely morning walk around an ancient temple]

Tienanmen square & The Forbidden City

[History...]

[Beauty]

[Culture]

[Bye Bye China! I'll be back!]