The Great Fall --ooops! --Wall of China

There are no pictures for this blog - perhaps a good thing. I think you might enjoy it more if you imagine it all in your mind's eye.

Yesterday was the visit to the Great Wall of China -- you've got a bit of a visual from the picture on the banner of the blog. Now picture a glorious-not-a-cloud-in-the-sky day. Now picture the brilliance of white snow. Yes, snow, about 4-6 inches or so. And white-out condidtions because of the cold temperatures and the high winds -- this is the setting for our adventure.

To get up to our climbing spot, we had to take a cable care. I've never been on one before, neither had Julia. Some in our group had been on ones at ski hills. But nothing prepared any of us for this ride of a lifetime. The view was spectacular indeed - the mountains and the wall all crested in snow. And to add to the experience, there was the not-so-gentle rocking of the cable car as the wind whipped through the cracks and the vented windows. It had become a Wonderland ride that I wished I was not tall enough to be on.

Julia, on the other hand, who has conquered Mount Everest at Disney World and is waiting not-so-patiently until she's tall enough to go on the Bohemeth at Wonderland -- loved, LOVED, L-O-V-E-D! it.

We got out at the top - to high winds and more bright sunshine and lots of people of all ages, cultures and winter gear. Footwear would prove to be particularly important, and gosh,darn it, I had left our strap-on bear-teeth trekers at home.

Seven years ago I was at the Great Wall with Julia in a snuggly, and it had snowed a bit that day, and the steps were slippery. Snow removal in China consists of people with brooms made from dried hay or something and the occasional shovel that looks like the paddles used in pizza oven restaurants. I was very nervous that I was going to fall with Julia back then --a new mom, not so used to a near one yearold baby strapped on my front which threw off my balance a bit, so I only did a bit of climbing that day, while my sister, Noreen headed off up the hills to get the photo op.

Back to yesterday -- picture now steep hills covered in several inches of snow -- and you've got an Olympic winter sport that neither Janet or I had trained for. But that didn't stop Janet from trying one ramp's decline, part bob sleigh, part sit squat style. Oh my!

Then is was my turn. I thought perhaps holding on to the wall and going down side step, like you would with skis down a hill, would be the best approach. And it was--for about 2 seconds. Because then I wasn't in the winter Olympics anymore, I was competing in the gymastics and tried the split slide -- that's my new name for it. I was once upon a time in high school able to do the splits -- so there must have been some muscle memory there, otherwise I would not have been able to walk away from this event. Let's just say that there was LOTS of laughing and squealing (from me, other competitors and the spectators waiting at the bottom) as I made my way down -- No judges were present at this event -- but I'm sure I would have been awarded high marks for technical difficulty and artistic interpretation for attemping this never-before-seen move. The only thing that kept me from going all the way down in the splits pose, was my jeans. If I had been sporting something with a bit more Lycra -- no doubt I would have scored a Nadia-Commenchi (sp?) perfect 10.

See -- best that there were no pictures for this part.I know you have a great visual for this now.

After this, and then seeing the next upward climb that needed to be done -- NO steps -- just a near 90 degree incline on snow covered stones -- was enough to convince Janet and me that we would send the younger and more agile folk off to conquer this next stage. My mountain goat of a daughter had no problem. Thanks to Joe, Rose and MaRui for supervising this climb.

Janet and I remained behind, basking in the sunshine on one side of the wall that blocked the wind. We had our pictures taken with some of the Chinese climbers, who were no doubt excited to be photographed next to two very famous Canadian daredevils.

Each day we've been together I've asked the group to play the Highs, Lows and Big Hairy Toes game. You name the best thing about the day, the not-so-much thing about the day and then the absolute worst part of the day, the disgusting part of the day, the gross thing - just as you would picture a big hairy toe to be. Well, on the top of everyone's list yesterday was the visit to the Great Wall. Tales of the snow, the wind, the antics regaled us for the rest of the day. You know a story only gets better with the retelling.

And some pictures might have helped on this one -- especially since Julia told me once we had our picture taken together on the wall, that this would make a perfect picture for our Christmas card. Well said, Julia.

And due to current picture-posting difficutlies, my loyal readers will have to wait until next Christmas to see the wonderful shot.

It was a wonderful thing for us as parents to see our girls with their fresh faces and bright smiles, enjoying the Wall. It has been one of the things that Julia has been most excited about doing since we began planning this trip back in August. You couldn't help but smile and feel overwhelmed when they posed together for a group kid shot. And other visitors thought so too - I often noticed that the girls were being photographed by complete strangers. Perhaps it was the fact that they were the only kids their age on the wall, perhaps it was their Olympic red mittens, most definitely it was because it was a truly beautiful thing to see them all there together. We were so proud.

You'll have to wait to see that shot too.