Day 65 At Sea toward Beijing

As we left Shanghai yesterday we entered the East China Sea and started on our northerly course. Eventually this will take us into the Yellow Sea as we approach Beijing. The Yellow River flows into the sea near Beijing which I suspect is the reason it has developed . The Yangtze River flows into the China Sea near Shanghai which is why it has developed as it has.
We only have one day left on board the Diamond Princess before we begin the next leg of our journey. Cruising has been a great way to see this part of the world. It is especially good in those countries you want to visit but don't want to stay. With a cruise you know where you will be sleeping and the quality of food you will be eating. We have constantly been careful while we were off the ship about what we ate and drank. Now that our cruise is ending we will be forced to eat and drink what is available. Fortunately we have not had any problems from the food or drink and we hope this continues. It will be nice to try some of the local foods, however some of them just don't look appetizing. These are the thoughts that run thru my mind as we prepare to move into the land phase of our little escapade.
Tomorrow another sea day. Our last.

Chris -You Got To Love Family! - I mentioned yesterday how wonderful it was to see Tom, Nancy and Sara, but I didn't tell you how well they took care of us. Upon arriving they exchanged our money for us and gave us a preprogrammed cellphone with all of their numbers should we need them while we're in China. They also had packed a bag for us with the train tickets they purchased for us, as they're cheaper bought in China, and scarves and masks for our trip to Beijing. I appreciated the scarves as I didn't pack one and Beijing was in the mid 40's yesterday, we'll see how it is on Monday. As for the masks, I told them thanks but I thought we'd be OK for three days, Tom told us about the dust storm in Beijing last weekend ... so bad that nobody left the buildings. I did remember seeing pictures on CNN about it and you couldn't see anything. OK, I guess the masks are a good idea. Add dust storm to the ever growing list of potential challenges for our trip. Thanks for taking care of us Nancy, Tom and Sara!
Trivia update - another successful day at trivia. We won both sessions and we'll post a picture of us and our team. We probably have won the most of any team this cruise and our closest competitors are a team we like a lot that sit near us. We have a very friendly rivalry and it's all fun. All for now.