Greetings From Beijing!

We are here! We are tired and worn out but HERE! We've been in our room at the Wangfujing Grand Hotel for less than an hour. The flight was long!!!! I tried to sleep as much as possible but it was difficult. Sleep just gave in to pure exhaustion when it did happen. We were lucky to have an extra seat in our row of three so I used my heavy coat to help with seatbelt "humps" and was able to lay my head in Geoff's lap and sleep once. I watched three chick flicks on the way there. Geoff pretty much channel surfed. It was great to have our own screen in front of us. The meals they served were decent and we did our very best to drink water all day. It's weird though, we both feel swollen with fluid. Geoff even took off his wedding ring because his hands were swelling. I thought drinking plenty of water would eliminate that but I guess not.

We arrived here with my allergies in high gear! I've taken meds on and off all day and even doubled up on them and still am stuffy with really red irritated eyes. Our guide made sure we had a non-smoking room to help. I know it sounds awful but with my sinus' bothering me so bad, we opted to skip dinner tonight. We really are fine. We have water and a few snacks and if we need food we can get something from room service. I just feel a bit guilty for not soaking up everything I can about China. Geoff was fine with that as he has not had more than 4 hours of sleep any night since about Tuesday.

We are looking forward to touring tomorrow. We have a complete day! We begin with the Forbidden City and throughout the day will go to a Jade factory, bird's nest, and Great Wall. It should be exciting. It's cold here but not too bad. The room is so warm, we asked them to open the window to get some cool air in. That helps my sinus' a lot.

All day, we have just almost had to pinch ourselves to believe we were actually on our way.