Beijing weekend

We made it to Beijing for the weekend... barely. We live really close to the train station, so we just walked over when it was time to catch our train. There are always people coming and going at the train station, and today was nothing different. Only I guess there weren't as many people (but it's China--there were still tons of people!). Some guys standing around got our attention: "Hey, I recognize you. You come here sometimes with these two kids. I remember you." (I guess he had to give a reason for his reaching out to us. General kindness wouldn't have been reason enough.) "They're remodeling the train station, and you can't catch a train from this side. Hurry and catch a cab, and you'll have to catch your train from the west doors."
Um... I didn't know there even were west doors! And the train station has been under construction for so long it wasn't anything strange to have long closed-off sections and weird detours. But thank you, thank you, thank you, random guy!!
We RAN to catch a cab. Then we PANICKED as we sat in traffic for 10 minutes. We got to the train station 5 minutes before our train left. Never having been there before, we didn't know exactly where to go. But thankfully, there was another guy jumping out of a cab at the same time we were, so we just ran after him. He led us straight through security and up to the train platforms. Thank you, pink-shirted guy! We made our train as the giant throng was just going through the gate onto the train. So we were late, but not late enough to be left in the dust. We ran along the train platform and found our seats. It took us a while to stop panting and sweating-- but the girls thought it was fun.
Naomi boycotted her two daily naps, settling instead for a brief, 30 minute catnap. This made the rest of the day so much fun! Once we were in Beijing, there was a cool Xinjiang restaurant we wanted to visit. Kevin had gone with my mom and our former exchange student while I was in the hospital having Naomi last year, and I really wanted to go this time. I forgot which subway station we should have gone to, and while we were on our way to the Beijing Zoo stop, I saw that we were going through the Olympic Park station. "I think this is the station I was actually looking for but I couldn't find. Let's get off here."
You know when you take a multiple choice test, and you guess the answer is A? But then you carefully reread the question and then talk yourself into changing your answer to C? At the last minute? And then it turns out that you were wrong, the answer was A, and you should have just gone with your first instinct, which was A in the first place? Yes. This was the case with the subway stops. Had we gone to the Beijing Zoo stop, we would have been a 15-minute walk from our restaurant. Stopping at the Olympic Park meant that we didn't get to our restaurant for another 2 1/2 hours, and didn't start eating for 3 1/2. The food was.... pretty bad. I ordered what I thought was traditional Uyghur noodles, but it turned out to be mediocre noodles with mushrooms, tofu, and pickles. It was pretty much disgusting. We got some lamb buns, which were good, but they were out of my favorite pilaf, shou zhua fan.
So the restaurant idea was a complete flop. But the Olympic Park was pretty cool. And Penny loved seeing everyone flying their kites.