Day 5 – Rest & Naked-Tushy Boy

Rest & Naked-Tushy Boy (short version)
~Breakfast
~Nap
~Practice letters and numbers
~Swim
~Cab ride
~Bar Street???
~Dinner
~People watching
~Naked-tushy boy

Rest & Naked-Tushy Boy (long version)
With the heat exhaustion from yesterday and the various upcoming tours… and of course the exhaustion that will come when we finally get the baby Butterfly, we opted to take it easy today and stay at the hotel during the day. After breakfast we went back to our rooms. I worked on photos from yesterday and updated the blog while the Ladybug practiced her letters and numbers with a nice book that Nana gave her. The Bug loves writing and is so excited that she can write her letters now.


Eventually, the rest of the family napped (truth be told, I did put my head down for about 10 minutes, but then the Bug came in the room and wanted to go swimming). What I find a bit funny is that while at home, my husband never, ever naps during the day. He would rather be tired than take a nap. However, here that is totally not the case. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out cold. As a matter of fact, he ended up napping about twice as long as the Ladybug and Nana F. That should give you an idea about how tired he was. Unfortunately, he now feels like he wasted a precious day, but I do not share that same sentiment. I feel that if your body is exhausted, it will tell you and you should listen. I am just happy that he actually napped.

As I mentioned, the Ladybug came in the room and woke me up from my tiny ten minute nap. She and Nana wanted to go swimming in the hotel pool. With the extremely hot weather outside, a nice cool dip in the pool sounded great! The three of us made our way down to the beautiful, serene, indoor pool and got in. It was so refreshing. Just what we all needed to reenergize ourselves after the jet lag and exhaustion from yesterday. We played and swam for over an hour, and then headed back to our rooms to get ready for dinner.



When we arrived in Beijing our guide told us about a nice place to visit called “Bar Street.” We heard from some fellow travelers that at night with all of the lights over the river that it was a beautiful site to see. So, we decided that we would make our way there, enjoy some dinner, and stroll around enjoying the scenery. We hailed a taxi who took us to a place called “San Li Tun Bar Street” and dropped us off. We started strolling the area and, to be honest, we are still not sure that this was the same place that we wanted to visit (we could not see a river anywhere). But, we wandered around the area anyway and enjoyed the sites. We eventually found a nice place to eat dinner, enjoying some Chinese-prepared American food. It was delicious.


The restaurant was situated in a huge outdoor, 5 story-tall mall. When we arrived at the mall, there seemed to be very few people in the area. But by dusk, the place was a-hopping with people of all ages. The mall seems to be the place where locals go in the evenings to cool off and enjoy the company of others. It was fascinating to see the children running around riding bikes, young adults playing a hacky-sack type of game, and people of all ages doing tai chi. It was so neat to see the people thoroughly enjoying themselves. I gather that the Chinese people love to be outdoors, but with the extreme heat during the day, they prefer to go out and “play” in the evenings.


After our meal and a bit of people watching, we decided to stop at McDonald’s for a nice cool ice cream sundae. Just what we needed at the end of a hot day in China. As we were at the counter getting ready to order our desserts, a little boy ran by us, and we all just stopped and starred (not intentionally mind you, but we were just so shocked). Apparently the heat was really getting to this little boy because all that he was wearing was a red apron that hung in front, thus his tiny, little, naked-tushy was quite visible from the back. I scanned the room quickly at this point and noticed that nobody was even paying attention to the little naked-tushy boy… nobody but us. He was so carefree and just seemed to love the fact that he could let it all hang out. Ohhhh, the innocence of children. That little boy made it so that our mistake-of-an-evening in the wrong place was absolutely perfect. What a site to see, but one that even now brings a smile to our faces. Another great day.



~~Aloha!