This morning, it finally happened. It was fairly quick (lasted about two hours) and not nearly as bad as many of my friends have experienced it. I got a touch of food poisoning. I’m not sure what I ate, because everything at dinner last night was great. My friends Amy and Gretchen and I had dinner at a restaurant on Ho Hai lake and then met a group of friends for drinks at the London 2012 house. All in all, a great evening. Not such a great morning.

THE LADIES AT LONDON HOUSE …

By the afternoon, I was feeling much better. Just in time for a bike tour. Lisa is writing for the NY Post while she’s here, covering parties, sponsor houses and the general scene around the city, and did a travel piece on Beijing that mentioned the Ritz Carlton’s stay-and-bike packages. Through her contacts, she arranged for a group of us to test out their one-hour bike tour through a hutong (shanty town), the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Our guides were RC General Manager Derek Flint, Deputy General Manager Ruby Wang and Director of Sales and Marketing Jennifer Yong. Seriously. And they were both fantastic tour guides and gracious hosts. We even had afternoon tea after our ride. What a fun afternoon.

OUR BIKE GANG …

Afterwards, Lindsay and I headed back to the Olympic Green. I attended a charity auction for the Right to Play organization and chatted with several athletes who work at ambassadors for the program. I always arrive at auctions thinking there is a chance I will be able to bid on something. But once the bidding opened and the first item, a USA basketball jersey signed by every member of the team, went for $15,000+, I realized I was going to have to sit back and observe.