First place Seed!

USA's 4X50 Medley Relay - 20 point was this morning. The four men who swam it were awesome and they will be the same 4 tonight. Lantz Lamback S7 swam the lead leg of backstroke, Dave SB4 swam the Breaststroke leg, Roy Perkins - S5 swam the butterfly and Joe McCartney S4 swam the last freestyle leg. Those fans in the stands who are in the know told us that our team could go faster tonight. Also there are a couple of teams that will have faster swimmers in the relay tonight. Our team's time was 2.46:40. Whoohoo - we were rocking the stands with that one.

We also have a 4X100 - 34 point relay tonight. I think we are seeded 4th for that one. We have several swimmers going to finals so it will be an exciting way to end 9 days of swimming.

Jerrica and I didn't eat bugs but we saw them. About the time I was ready to dare her to do so the stands closed down. Good timing on my part, eh? Zack and Jerrica have hoofed all over this town seeing more than you can imagine. We have seen enough to feel like we have been in China. We have haggled at flea markets with a bazaar type feel. We have haggled in the "discount" markets. After a while that gets annoying - if you make eye contact with any of them, they grab your arm and drag you in. They will not let go until you buy something - unless you are Zack. He got blocked into one spot - I'm not sure how long but he refused to buy, they finally let him go. I usually cave because I do want something and the more I look the more tired I became. I think I got some deals but after awhile, I just wished they'd give me a fair price and let me go on my way.

We tried to find a street fair yesterday. These next few days are "happy mid-autumn" Festival. We got lost and turned around. Finally grabbed a cab that would drop me off to finish up shopping and then take Tom back to the apartment. As I was leaving the market to go home, I looked for my paper that tells the driver where to go. I couldn't find it. There are volunteer stands all over Beijing. Most of these folks speak enough English to confuse things. However, they very much want to help. My new best friends did finally figure out where I wanted to go and wrote down the directions. It was a piece of cake after that.

We all went out to try Peking Duck last night. Probably the swankiest restaurant I've been in since we've been here. The duck is served family style and the duck is 198 RMB then with all the condiments - we threw a couple more beers on top of that. I think the bill came to 425 RMB with tip. that's about $65. It was a lovely meal. Zack did a terrific job ordering it for us. He had it when he was in Beijing before so he was the expert among us.

Our plane leaves here at 3:45 on the 16th. We arrive in Denver the 17th. By the time you wake up, you should know how our men did with their Relay. It should be very very exciting.