Today we traveled to Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden City. Tienanmen Square is absolutely enormous and was made famous by the protest and subsequent government crackdown in 1989. It is an open plaza with a large picture of Mao on the opposite road. The Forbidden City is a long (seemingly endless sometimes) series of plazas surrounded by various palaces and work areas of Chinese royalty. All of the plazas, to a great extent, resemble one another. At times you feel like you are walking through a series of those Russian nesting dolls. When you walk from Tienanmen Square through the full length of the Forbidden City, you have walked a total of over 3 miles. Zach got excited when his stroller was rolled over the bumpy areas of the older bricks, some of which were over 600 years old. Also, during a strong breeze, Glen's Citadel hat was blown off his head, landing in a moat. Our guide, Michael, remarked that the Emperor must have liked and wanted the hat. Maybe we can find him a Communist Party hat to replace it. ;-)

We came back from the trip, ate lunch, and are relaxing in our hotel room. Matt took his afternoon walkabout in the neighborhood around the hotel, going back down to the Wu Mart to get these sweet tea drinks we have grown fond of. Not sure what dinner and this evening will bring yet.

Zach continues to dazzle us. He is very unsure about the Squeaky Shoes we bought him yesterday. He is not interested in wearing them on a regular basis. We had a lot of fun at bathtime last night. He continues to have great sleeping habits (he has slept through the night every night we have had him) and his vocabulary continues to expand rapidly. We are both really looking forward to returning to the United States so we can settle into normal life with our son. That will come soon enough, though, we guess. Tomorrow we go to Behai Park in the morning and then say "Sayonara!" (yes, we know it is Japanese) to Glen and Lynda as they go on a side trip to Xi'an. They will meet up with us in Guangzhou for the final leg of our journey.