Yesterday we went to visit the Beijing Zoo and Panda Garden. This is a huge zoo located in the middle of this major city. We took a taxi to the zoo, and let me just say you have never ridden on a roller costar that is more scary than this taxi ride. They don’t wear seat belts and the cars seem to fly. The traffic pattern is hard to figure out and cars just cut in front of you and blow the horn. The zoo itself was amazing. There are lots of animals that you could see at any zoo at home. What makes this zoo special is the Panda Garden. They have around 15 pandas in different observatories. They have also brought the pandas from that were affected in the earthquake zone here, and have built areas to care for them. We also got to tour the Zoo with a celebrity, the all famous Elisabeth!! Here in China it is very rare to see a child with blonde hair and blue eyes. They think that she is good luck and will bring good fortune. So as we are walking through the zoo, people curiously look at us and then focus on her. We had several groups of people approach us, and want to have their picture made with Elisabeth. They always asked Aaron and were very friendly. At one point we are standing in front of this huge aquarium and a family with a young boy came up to Aaron and wanted their son’s picture made with Issy. As you can tell from the picture below neither child was thrilled. We also got to experience public toilets in China. Aaron included a picture for your viewing pleasure; I will leave the rest to your imagination. I also included a picture below of the split pants that we were told they put on the potty training children. Today we will visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, we will also take a Hutong Tour (no clue yet what this means) and go to an Acrobatics show. Our guide Helen is fabulous. I am posting this at 5:30 am our time. My body hasn’t adjusted yet the time change so I am only sleeping about 3 hours at night. They told us the 3rd Day your body begins to readjust so maybe tonight will be better.

We are there.. We arrived safely in Beijing at 9:25 p.m. last night. Keep in mind we are 12 hours ahead of you guys. We also made it with all our our stuff. I can't believe no suitcases were lost. I'll try to post more later.

Well the first flight is behind us. We are currently at Detroit Airport waiting on our long flight to Tokyo. It will leave at 3:40 if all goes well. Elisabeth loved her first flight even though it was a little bumpy. She was very excited and ready to get on the plane. The next plane we will be on is huge.

It so hard to believe but the day is finally here. We are just now at 12:40 am packed and ready. We leave for the airport at 5:30 a.m. I am not feeling well tonight. I think I am trying to get sick. I had a last minute trip to the doctors today for a shot in the rump to make me feel better. Pray it does cause right now I feel yucky. Elisabeth was so excited and scared. We finally got her to sleep around 11:30 even though she was in the bed by 9:15. I guess the next time we post we will be in China, or an airport: ) Only 6 more days till we get Emma Grace...