Inner Mongolia Bound

Today we didn't have anything scheduled until our flight out of town at 4:20pm. We had the whole morning to ourselves. We got up a little later - I think we're starting to get more used to the time - about 7:00am. We hung around the room and took our time getting ready and headed for our last breakfast in Beijing. Lydia had at least 7 or 8 dumplings plus some wanton soup, rice, and other of her favorite Chinese breakfast dishes. We met another American family in the breakfast buffet. They were on vacation there in Beijing because the dad was stationed in Korea with the army. They ate breakfast with us and we talked about what we had seen and what they were going to be seeing. They had just arrived the night before and they were really excited to go see the Great Wall. It was fun talking to some other people who can converse easily with you. :)
Since we didn't have anything planned for the morning, we decided to pack everything up, so we would know exactly how much time we had. We finished packing around 9:00am and decided to head to the Temple of Heaven. It was about 1.5 km away from our hotel. It took us about 30 minutes to walk there. Lydia did not enjoy the walk there. She wanted to just be there. Once we got there, we enjoyed walking all around the park and going into some of the buildings that are a part of the Temple of Heaven.
The Temple of Heaven was built around the same time as the Forbidden City - in the early 1400's. It is so amazing to think that the places we went today were around before Columbus! Anyway, the Temple of Heaven is a huge garden that is walled in along with many buildings for different prayers and sacrifices that the emperor would have made on a yearly basis. One of the times the emperor would come to this location was in the spring to ask the ancestors/gods to bless their crops. There were other parts where the emperor would give thanks for the good things that happened throughout the year. There were different buildings for each prayer and for each sacrifice. There was also a palace where the emperor would stay for at least three days before the ceremonies. The entire place was HUGE. We went to a few of the places, but there were many more things would could have seen. I remembered something of this place from when I was in China in college.
Since we needed to be ready for our pickup for the airport, we only were able to spend about 2 hours there. At the end we were on the northeast side of the gardens, but we needed to be on either the south or the east. We high tailed it to the East exit and practically ran home. We had to be ready for our 1/1:30pm pick up. We were back, brought our suitcases down, and ate our lunch of specialty breads from the bakery next door, with time to spare.
Our guide took us to the airport and got us checked in. Since we had a child with us, they let us go in a special shorter line! We were able to check 4 of our suitcases which made for an easier time getting to our gate. We got to our gate and sat there for about an hour and a half before it was time for our flight to board. Lydia and I were in a different place than Brian. We knew the flight was super short, so we didn't bother asking someone to move. Lydia was excited because we were in zone 1 for boarding. Little did we know that the zones in China are really not important. As soon as they announced that they were going to start boarding for Hohhot, everyone on the plane ran to form a line. We were toward the last people to get on. I guess now that we know what will happen, we will have to try it out again in China!
The flight to Hohhot (which by the way is spelled differently each time I see it) was uneventful and short. It seemed like we were on the runway waiting for our turn for as long as it took us to fly there. I was surprised that we weren't taking the bullet train, but we found out there aren't any bullet trains to from Beijing to Hohhot. And with our over abundance of luggage, I was glad not to have to lug that on and off the train.
We arrived in Hohhot and were greeted at the airport by our guide Aggie. She's the same guide my cousins had and she remembered them when I showed her their picture. She's been great so far in getting us set up. She pointed out some restaurants on the way to the hotel so we would know where to eat and made sure we were settled before leaving.
We were all tired and hungry, so we decided to go to the closest restaurant to the hotel. We had, you guessed it, noodles. I told Brian tonight that I have had way too many carbs. I'm dying for a salad, but since we can't eat raw veggies here in China, noodles it is.
Tomorrow is the day we get MeiMei. We're still waiting to hear the time. They are taking the train here, so we have to find out tomorrow when the train will arrive. We know it won't be too early in the morning. I'm hoping we will all be able to sleep in and rest up because I know that tomorrow will be exciting, but probably tiring too.
Lydia really wanted to blog tonight, but she fell asleep again. Hopefully tomorrow. since we don't have anything set for the morning, she can write a blog post. She's been taking pictures and she want to show those to you all too. By the way, Gracie...she thinks she might be getting almost as good as you at taking pictures!!! :)

Everything is so ornate and beautiful. 

Lydia trying to kiss the dragon!

This juniper tree is over 500 years old. When the pilgrims were landing, this tree was already old. It's so crazy to think about that!

The attention to detail is amazing.