Another update from Beijing...

Hi Everyone,

Today Malinda and I went back to Beijing for a day. It actually rained today. Tomorrow we plan to go to the Great Wall. We met up with Tower's family again and we talked on the phone with Monica today and made plans for next week. I think Frank is leaving within hours, so soon our Pamakid Family will be over here!

Right now we are at the Bank of America Hometown Hopefuls Family Center - where we got a goodie bag, 2 Olympic tickets for volleyball semi-finals, free laptop checkout, and free food! Everyone is real friendly and it's fun to feel a part of something big and special. We ate dinner with family members of a top US boxer.

Attached are a couple photos. One is from Dalian when we saw Shannon yesterday (I sent this to the Pamkids already) and one Shannon's dad, Gary, sent out...Shannon with a certain President (picture above).



There is a rumor that Shannon's Aug 19 quarterfinal might be cancelled and all the athletes advance to the semi-final on Aug 21. So pay attention to listings. The USATF site (www.usatf.org) and Let's Run (www.letsrun.com) are two good resources.

We think we've successfully picked up some more Olympic tickets. In addition to the volleyball we got just now as a "family member" of an Olympian, we think we've made arrangements to buy tickets from a high school coach from LA who I talked to on a message board and has some tickets....including for the 1500 final (Tower and Frank may have hit the jackpot!).

It's been a lot of travelling the past week. We have 3 more days of it and then we settle down in Beijing at one hotel for the rest of the trip. At that point we'll be in full Olympic mode.

That's all for now,
-Andy & Malinda