Great Wall

The second half of our touring day was the true reason I decided to venture away from the foster home on Saturday.

There is something breathtaking about the Great Wall no matter how many times you've seen it.

Douglas and Pandy enjoyed the view

Visiting the Great Wall is on my nephew's bucket list, so I brought he and his sister, along with my crew of course, with me the best I could.

While this made my fourth trip to the wall, and my second to Mutianyu section, it was still a new experience. When our family visited this section in the summer of 2011 the trees were green and it was melty hot. This time there were traces of snow from a recent snowfall on the mountains and the air was brisk.

When we visited last we had the kids with us so the safest way to get up was to take the gondola cars. This time we took the ski lift, a familiar seat for me, just with the Great Wall instead of skis and abundant snow.

Not sure I've ever told the story of how Dawn added to our travel party in January.  So glad she's here!

And when we were here that last time, because of the kids and the extreme heat, we chose to go the more flat, easy way. This time we chose to go the steeper, more exhausting route.

We got to "the end of the wall" for this area ~ the end of the restored section. Just behind this gateway,

I got a glimpse of what the wall looks like in unrestored areas. Still there, just not as formidable.

After we admired the stunning views from as far as we could go, it was time to begin our descent.

The way we exited provided a spot to see what the wall looked like from the "outside."

I suppose it would have been difficult for the mongols to scale from this side, from the inside of the wall it seems not very high, but it is easy to forget how high off the mountain it is.

And the most exhilarating part of the visit to the Great Wall? Well that has to be tobogganing down…

Oh I love this land…but I'm missing the crew at home too...