The Great Wall of China

Group shot - Locke and Endres Families. Brad, Loretta, Mary Kate and Elizabeth shared this fabulous vacation with us. They live up the stairs from us, literally, 20 steps away, and have become our closest friends. The kids love each other, the dads never see each other (just kidding, sort of) and the moms need each other for this crazy tour in Korea.

This was the Juyongguan Pass section of the Great Wall, which is 40-50 miles north of Beijing. According to our travel book only 20% of the Great Wall is in "reasonable" condition, 30% lies in ruins and the rest is gone. The wall's disappearance is due to government neglect and intentional destruction during Mao's reign. By the end of the day we climbed about 400 (Jessica and I), 700 (the rest of the clan) steps up and then had to come down and that was no easy feat.

Up the wall we go...

Carson is awed by the view.

Garrett is not impressed with the view, but he's loving the rocking motion of Dad climbing the stairs while he's in the backpack. Garrett spent 80% of our trip in his backpack and he loved every second of it. I even think he was having backpack withdrawal when we returned. He would bring us the backpack and say, "Uh, uh, uh." That's "please put me in this and take me for a walk" in Garrett talk.
Views from our climb - The air quality was not the best, as you can see or not see. :)

Jessica and Mary Kate - amazed they made it so far.

Thirsty, sweaty boy and Garrett too.

Washing our hands after our dirty climbLong day at the Great Wall of China