08-08-08 and a few words from me about China

The Olympics have started!!!!!!!!!!! I love the Olympics. I woke up this morning and this was my first thought. I knew the Opening Ceremonies were already underway because of the time difference.

I think this one is so exciting for me because it is bringing up so many fond memories of my trip to Beijing 5 years ago with my daughter D and son-in-law S. I started looking at pics we took on the trip and thought I would share a few. It really was hard to narrow down which ones to show, between the 3 of us we took nearly a thousand. As you can see here, we got a lot of the same shots. S thought it was funny that we were both looking so much like tourist. We had bought these great little cameras that were only about 2 inches square and worked very well.

It was the trip of a lifetime for me. It was my first trip out of the country and set a traveling fire in me that I hope burns the rest of my life.

I had talked about going to China since I was just a small child ( I had been told they eat rice there and I could eat all I wanted. Not true.) and never imagined that I would really do it but here I am on our first day standing in Tiananmen Square with a young man who walked up and asked if he could take a picture of me. My first thought was absolutely not. I am not a have your picture taken kind of person. I usually hid any time there was a camera around or made some really ugly face that now comes back to haunt me at the delight of others. When the kids told me it was a good thing to do, I told him he could take one of me if he would take one with me. His alone when I said that was worth a thousand words.

Welcome to China! This is going to be awesome!! I didn't understand that I was as different to them as they were to me. I just assumed they were used to tourists.

I've not been shy around cameras since. Especially when it comes to my grandbabies! I wish I had thought about that when my babies were little but I didn't. Live and learn.

They snapped this one of me about 3 steps from me deciding I had traveled as far up that Great Wall as I possible could go. What a wonderful experience!

I got one of the 2 of them right before D and I headed back down and S went all the way to the end, or at least to the end of the area on this section. I have never been so tired in my life as I was at the end of that day but I wouldn't have traded it for anything!

Thanks again guys! I loved every minute of it. Even the high rise shopping mall. :)

I hope you sit back and watch all of the Olympics you can and if you dream of going to China, do it. You won't regret it. It is beautiful and inspiring.