China Trip Day 16: Beijing

Today was our last day in Beijing! As much as we enjoyed our trip, we were all anxiously waiting to go home!  And Pau Pau was ready to go back to Guangzhou and relax! She was spending 3 more weeks in China to travel on her own.

We started off at the silk factory and we were finally prepared with Maddie. We set her up far away from everyone else with her headphones and Daniel Tiger downloaded on the ipad and snacks!  She did really well during this shopping visit.

We then went to the Summer Palace which was really beautiful.  I believe we had 2 more shopping trips this day, and the last was at a jewelry shop that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.  Maddie had fallen asleep on the bus so Joseph stayed with her. When she had woken up, he tried to find us but we were nowhere to be found!  I snuck away during a short break in the presentation and found them outside. When we all went inside to look for them, we couldn't find anyone! Turns out they were upstairs. Long story short, it ended up being the longest shopping trip by far as we were waiting for just 1 couple to finish up. We all complained and finally left for a much needed dinner!

That evening was the Peking Duck dinner!  We were underwhelmed by the dish but luckily had had a delicious Peking Duck while in Hong Kong.  We then drove over to the Olympic Village and were able to see the Bird's Nest and Water Cube from the outside from a pedestrian bridge. We tried to get a closer look but could not get too close before we had to catch the tour bus again. After we made our way back to the bus, all of the lights turned off!  Looks like we made it in the nick of time!

We headed back to the hotel and packed up all our luggage, gearing up for a full day of travel the next day.

Starting the day off with silly selfies on the tour bus.

Maddie's entertainment set up while the rest of us had to buy silk.

Summer Palace

Vickie and Nancy at the Summer Palace

I had to take this picture, it's of 2 old ladies who were taking pictures of themselves in front of a picture of trees.
But there were real life beautiful trees all around us!!!

Olympic Tower

Water Cube

Water Cube

Water Cube on the left and the Bird's Nest on the right