Substitute Blog, Installment 1

Hello, internet readers! Today's blog post is brought to you by Tyler, son of the fabulous photographer. Mom is in China on her GRAND ADVENTURE, and China is a little stricter about which sites you can and can't visit, so I'll be filling in indefinitely (best case, until she finds a way around the restrictions; worst case, until she returns and recovers from jet lag).

Beginning transmission:

We made it to China! Maggie slept through a good part of the flight... as usual I did well just to catch a few naps. The Lesh Girls have a full itinerary planned for us, so we jumped right in today and headed to the Great Wall. Did you know that it runs along a mountain range? I didn't! We had to walk pretty well straight uphill just to get to the Wall, which then led to more climbing and vertical walking. By the time we got to steps heading down, our knees had turned to jelly and we had to hang on to the stone walls for dear life to keep from rolling down.

Three of Diane's co-workers joined us for the day. Here's a collection of group shots (minus me). In the top photo you'll see Shawna, Donica, Sri, Maggie, Emily, Diane and Abby:

I did jump into this shot with Maggie...

...and this one inside a tower along the Wall:

Just a few more of our gang:

And even a few shots of innocent passersby:

We rode tobaggans to come back down from the Wall:

We were greeted by Gengis Khan, who was eager to have his photo taken but then stuck out his hand and demanded payment. Good thing he didn't see the rabbit ears or he might have charged extra.

The marketplace between the Wall and parking lot was bustling with merchants and potential customers. "Lady, lady! Looky, looky! One dollar! You come and buy!" We stopped to purchase dried fruit and handcarved marble name stamps:

Emily got talked into trying on funny hats. We thought she looked adorable but she refused to buy one:

Just like Abby, we were all exhausted by the time we got back to our van:

I'd better get to bed now. We're supposed to leave at 7:00 am for a visit to the Dirt Market (??? I'll have to explain that one to you after I see it for myself) followed by church, a pedicure and dinner at Beijing's best Mexican restaurant.