I am still behind in our "Olympic experience" blog so I will just continue to add things as I have time....I guess I should hurry up and finish since the Olympics are now officially over!

These are photos and our experience from our last day in Beijing....

Basketball Day

We started our day at Starbucks....again.......hey....it was air conditioned and we were "regulars" by this time

On our way to the subway again!....by this time we were getting to be really good navigating the "underground!"
Tickets please! All bags have been through the x-ray machine and we are on our way to line 10 and then to line 1..
This is a picture of the fabric in Tuckers shirt....read below to see why I have a picture of this.

Our favorite quote of the day....

While we were getting our caffeine fix Tucker said to Abi... "Why are you wearing a soccer shirt?..We aren't going to a soccer game. And Abi replied back to him....Why are your wearing a giraffe shirt?.....we aren't going to the zoo!" I think Abi wins this one!

We arrive at the Basketball Venue...it looks really cool on the outside...sort of like it is made out of bamboo.

We made it through all the security checks but they took my Fiber One bar AND my gum!!!

We are excited about another day at the Olympics!!!

The "bamboo" on the building is actually rows of metal mesh...very cool!
Inside the basketball venue...



We watched two basketball games....the first was Lithuania vs Iran
Let the games begin..
Lithuania's fans....they were really fun!




We love Basketball!!!
Go Lithuania!!!



Between games Tim and the kids explored the venue. They came back with a variety of drinks and SNACKS! Oh my gosh....the basketball venue actually had food. They had hot dogs on a stick.....you had to buy the bun (which was really a round roll)separately and they had real popcorn!!!

Abi after the games...

wearing her Olympic flag...
We stopped for a picture in front of this statue and suddenly 5 different people wanted their picture taken with Abi....too funny!



We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch....it sounds like all we did was eat...but most of the time we were starving or melting or freezing...



We went back to our apartment to pick up our suitcases. Tucker could not find his phone but thought he had left it in the charger at the apartment. When we got to the apartment the cleaning lady was already there. Tucker found the charger.....but no phone. We asked the lady if she had seen a phone anywhere while she was cleaning and she said no....but then she got really nervous and started dumping her purse out on the floor so we could see that she had not taken it.....poor thing...I think she thought she was going to get blamed for the missing phone...we tried to explain to her that we did not think she took the phone....but she emptied her purse three different times while we searched the sofa and beds. Remember....Tucker lost his phone the first day of our Olympic experience because it fell out of is pocket in the taxi. By this time we had been on two subways...in the basketball venue...in two taxis...and in a restaurant.....not much hope of finding it this time.

He decided that he could have had it at Starbucks that morning so he walked across the street to see if it might be there. He asked the barista and they said "Mai You!" He searched the chairs where we sat that morning and found nothing. Then the barista realized what he was looking for and....guess what?......they had his phone. Tucker was soooooooo lucky....again!!!



We went to the airport and.....WOW! It was beautiful and has the biggest open space in an airport that I have ever seen. The place was gigantic! This is part of the decoration....a large iron sculpture with several dragons.

We were all very tired when we got on the plane. Abi and I had seats together and Tim and Tucker had seats together. A family of....mom, grandma and grandpa, and two little boys got on the plane and sat in front of us. Grandma and grandpa sat in front of Abi and I......the mom and little boys sat in front of Tim and Tucker. The boys were really cute and really energetic. The boys tray tables were up and down about 10 times before we took off and that activity alternated with their seats going up and down into Tim and Tuckers laps. The plane was not very full so Tucker and Tim moved to a "less active" area and Abi moved a few seats forward so she could have "sleeping space".
The flight was uneventful with the exception of the active little boys. The mom moved one seat away from the boys and went to sleep...or at least pretended to be asleep. The boys played all sorts of games and made all kinds of "boy noises" making their seat belts space ships and cars and guns. After a while I feel asleep......then I woke up to a really bad smell....I was not really sure what it was but it was not pleasant. The boys were still going strong.....standing in their seats, laying on the floor, making their blankets into capes......Oh my gosh....there is that bad smell again.....I finally figured out that either Grandma or Grandpa had really bad gas.....and they were sitting right in front of me.....It was really bad....I put my blanket over my nose and tried to go back to sleep. No go on sleeping....the boys were still going strong..... The mother was still "asleep" so every few minutes Grampa pooty pants would reach across the isle and smack one of the boys on the head....at this time Tucker was awake and thought this activity was really funny......I was still suffering from the "pooty pants" and I was not very amused! Our plane landed and one of the boys yelled....Jia you China!!! (Jia You is what you say when you cheer at a sports event in China) So....the little boy...happy for the safe landing...... said GO CHINA!...which caused us all to burst out laughing. The boys never ran out of energy and the girl next to Tucker said....the performance continues!!!