September 10th - The Great Wall - Again!

We returned to Beijing and Helen! We were all very happy to be with Helen again. Helen is an extraordinary guide and interpreter. She always anticipates what we will need and what will be the most fun for everyone involved. She is also very handy and a great problem solver. Most of all she is a lot of fun and has become a good friend. She has been very understanding of our problems with Skylar and gone out of her way to help soothe Skylar's adjustments issues.

On September 10th Helen took us back to the Great Wall. This time she took us to a different section that was about a 1-1/2 hours from Beijing. The drive was very nice and scenic and we had a good time visiting with Helen.

This section of the Great Wall had a cable car that went about halfway up to the top. However, to get to the cable car we had to walk up a VERY STEEP slope. This slope was lined with booth after booth of tourist items. The shop keepers of these booths were all doing the hard sell, trying to stop us, stand in front of us in our way so that we had to walk around them. Helen had warned us not to touch anything or to take anything handed to us because if we did - it meant we had just purchased that item.

We had an absolutely fabulous time at the Great Wall. I would have liked to have explored more of it, but it was VERY STEEP, and I had great concerns about Faith and Skylar falling. This was the first day since Skylar came to be with us that we had the feeling of being a family on vacation. What a wonderful feeling that was!  :)