Flight and arrival to Beijing

We arrived in Beijing last night (China time) at 6:00pm. We are 13 hours ahead of the EST in the USA. We had traveled for almost 27 hours and we were worn out. We got into our hotel, ordered room service, because Kendall wanted it, and crashed. I slept all night while Georgia and Kendall half slept and made fun of me for snoring. We got up this morning and went downstairs for an awesome western/eastern buffet breakfast. We have seen a few American families but it seems the majority of people here are Chinese.



We took Kendall downstairs and let her exchange some of her US currency for Chinese RMB, then went for a walk to try to find a department store to do a little shopping, in 20 degree weather. We must have walked 22 blocks before finding, what else, an IGA. It did have a small shopping center upstairs and it got us out of the cold for a bit. We bought some drinks and chips. The chip flavors would never sell in the US but they fit the culture here. The ones in the picture are numb and spicy hot pot flavor and my favorite, hot and sour fish soup flavor. I got in line and checked out, paid and the cashier slid my stuff to the end and went to the next customer. There I stood with about 15 items, a 12 pack of bottled water, a 2 liter drink and no bags to put everything in. Luckily, Georgia was smart enough to do a little sign language and figure out you had to bring your own or buy them. We bought 3, loaded up and made the trek back down the crowded city streets to our hotel. We did pass a Fire Department on the way back and I had to take a picture for all my Firefighters back home. Kendall is bouncing off the walls to go swimming so I know what I have to do as soon as our meeting at 3:00pm is over. We are safe and sound and enjoying being out of our element for a bit.