Wednesday ended-up being a wild and crazy day, with a full schedule. I ended-up walking about 15 miles (at least) throughout the course of the day.

We (my friend Mickey and I) started at 4:30 a.m. (still on a weird sleep cycle) with breakfast and a cab ride over to Tianemen Square. We arrived at dawn, went through the security check (because you can't go anywhere without going through a security check) and the place was packed. As we are learning, the locals can spot a tourist for miles, so we were immediately swarmed by people selling knick knack tourist items. The funniest being the Chairman Mao watch, with his arm waving as the second hand. It keeps crappy time, btw.

Then it was off to the Forbidden City and a walk in the park to the North of the city. Since we were cabbing it back anyway, we decided to walk for a bit in to a less-touristy section of town. We ended-up in a local district with small shops and even smaller restaurants. We popped in to a small place for lunch, and were surprised when they handed us an english men. We were even more surprised what was on it: Dog. Yup...right there in red and yellow: roasted dog. Yikes. Not that we were going to order it, but we asked about it, and they said "No, we don't have." Well....at least that's what they told us. Also on the menu, were various kinds of fish, in addition to a turtle...all of which were swimming in a tank in front of us. Apparently, one fish (a catfish I believe) thought he could make a break for it, and launched himself out of the tank and on to the table of the two young girls sitting next to us. WOW.

We finally got back to the Olympic Green area and made our way the the Olympic [athletes] Village where we had gotten permission for a quick visit. We hooked up with Oz Sanchez and Matt Updike, but not before they took my camera, because it was deemed "too professional." Don't worry....you bet I got it back later! The village was everything I expected: New, clean, neat, nice, and HUGE. The only other village I've seen was Torino, Italy, and this place is like the dragon hotel comparitively!

After hanging with Matt and Oz for a bit, we decided we'd hit the birdsnest for some racing action. Of course, it took quite a while to make our way over there, and I was harassed about my monopod (which really does look like it could be a weapon), so it took *forever* to actually get in to the place. Once we were up close though, the birdsnest really is as cool as I though it would be. Beautiful, huge, and an architectural wonder. We ran in to Chris Peterson, and hung out wo watch various races, including the women's 100m wheelchair (T54 final) along with the men's 400m final. Cheri Blauwet joined us briefly after finishing 4th in her event earlier, so it was good to see some familiar faces (Btw...they will re-run the ill-fated 5000m on Friday, so check it out, Cheri will be in it).

I made my way down to the track to shoot some photos of the wheelchair races. It was awesome, and true to form, Canada's Chantal Peticlerq won the women's 100m, edging out two chinese racers. A few minutes later, China got some payback, winning the men's 400m. The energy was electric in the -- packed -- birdsnest.

Afterwards, I cruised around the plaza in between the birdsnest and watercube, grabbed a few photos of various folks and finally went back to the hotel and to bed at 11:30....what a crazy day!

I have numerous AWESOME photos that I'm still trying to get processed and posted on the website....so be patient....I'm workin' on em!

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