Pura Vida

Sadly, The Forbidden City is closed on Mondays, something we were not aware of until we were ready to go visit. The kids were okay with that because it meant going to the water park at the Olympic cube a bit early. When we got to the cube, it was closed, too.  Then, while trying to flag down a taxi, Jodi fell into a manhole. Jodi wouldn't let me take a picture of her leg but her bruise looks like she was kicked by an elephant. I did take a picture of the manhole, though (below).  We ended the day, and trip, going to a Chinese acrobatics show -- it was pretty awesome.  The Nest (from the Olympics) is right next to the Cube.   Fun, little game the kids played during taxi trips.   The Cube -- so excited to go to the water park!  ...searching, searching, where is the dang water park?!?  ...Sadie getting sick of walking everywhere.   We thought we found it. Nope. Oh, well.   Our least favorite manhole on the planet.  Downtown Beij

Our stay in Xi'an was short, which is sad as it turned out being our favorite city. We headed back to Beijing on a bullet train (no more sleeper trains for us).  Early arrival at the Xi'an train station on our way back to Beijing. Notice how little English there is. In this moment we are waiting for Jodi as she acts like her rockstar-self and is outside at the ticket window getting the train tickets we purchased through an app.  We succumbed to a McDonalds breakfast it was in the train station... and safe. :)  "For more delicious to share with you." Snack on the train. We loved reading the English translations throughout the country.  Taxi line in Beijing. Yay.   There's Jodi in the taxi next to us. Finding a taxi to fit all 6 of us was a bit of joke so this is how we typically traveled w/in city limits.  The best food we ate was in this mall (the restaurant behind the artistic shark in the above picture). We were so fo

We arrived in Xi'an in the morning, took a bus to the wrong hotel, then a shuttle to the right hotel, checked-in, arranged a small van for an hour later, showered, changed, left our bags in our rooms, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and left to see the Terracotta Warriors! Busy morning.  Bus to our hotel  (a very nice Chinese woman figured out we were basically helpless and walked us to our hotel) Xi'an Bell Tower Terracotta Warriors     Statue of a Chinese emperor We were planning to go to a garden at the top of the small mountain in the background (you can barely make out the gondolas). Once we got there our kids asked us if we could just go back to the hotel. So tired.  So, back to the hotel we go!  The massive city wall was impressive. We had planned to bike along it but settled for looking at it from our car. We were told that Xi'an was the biggest city in the world during the days of the Silk Road.