Two of Tuckers friends from work joined us in our excursions around the city today. We went to the fake market, the fabric market and then to the restaurant supply store. The kids found a newly opened Nike store and fun was had by all there!!!

I actually cooked dinner two nights in a row....I know you are all falling off your chairs!!! We have been missing all those fresh blackberries that should be ready for picking about now in Washington. So....I was lucky to find some frozen berries at the import store today and made blackberry dumplings for dessert tonight. Ah......the simple pleasures of life...!

I still have more pictures and stories from the Olympics. I had to take a break from writing after narrating the first two days of our Olympic Adventures. It takes a while to upload photos here so that is also a little challenging. AND.... we have many more photos from the diving, fencing, and basketball events. We were very fortunate to see the women's fencing medal matches. What an interesting sport! Abi said that was her favorite event.

We were a bit disappointed in the overall Olympic experience in Beijing. The "big" items that were shown on television were done very well... The big buildings are beautiful and look very impressive. However.....they forgot "spectator experience". We felt we had been invited to a dance but there was no music. The ball room looked spectacular but there was no band, excitement, or fun. Of course this is just my opinion. This was my first Olympic experience and I expected something very different than what we experienced.