We flew to Guangzhou today, this was Lyndsay's first flight and she seemed to enjoy it. There was a couple in front of her that was playing with her some and she thought that was great. Other then her ears popping on the landing, she did cry for just a little bit, she did well. We were relieved and pray that she will be equally as good on the LONG flight home. We had to take a bus ride to the White Swan in Guangzhou, it was about 40 minutes and we were all rather tired. I had been up late packing our bags, since we had to leave early in the morning. We ordered dinner at a place called Danny's Bagel, partly American owned, so we thought a hamburger would be rather safe there....we're not sure what they use for beef though....could have been water buffalo, but we were hungry and tired so what the heck. Lyndsay liked whatever it was, and ate and quickly crashed.
November 30, 2005
Today we had an awesome breakfast at the hotel, it was the best food yet. The hotel in incredible, beautiful artwork everywhere. There is a 40 foot waterfall near the restuarant, with Koi in the pond. Stunning. We had to go this morning and have the babies' visa photos taken and have a "medical exam" done, not what we would think of as a real exam, but if it made them happy, okay. Lyndsay did well for both, but cried a little with the exam, I imagine the stethescope was probably cold. We had to do more paperwork, only one parent again, we didn't take any chances and Bane stayed with her this time. We had a little time to do some shopping this afternoon and wanted to get Lyndsay a Chinese dress for the baby group photo. I found a red one with butterflies on it, she's so darn cute in it. The photo session was a hoot, I thought there would be a professional photographer, no such thing. We all tried to get photos, but the kids were everywhere. If I hadn't been so fried, I might have tried to coordinate and get a good shot, but fatigue is a big factor these days. People always say puppies must be hard to shoot, they haven't got a clue until you try 11 babies and toddlers, all under 2, who don't want to be there. We had dinner tonight with the group at a restuarant very close by, pretty good food. We were able to drop off film for processing and bought a few more things in the shopping area, including the "must have" squeaky shoes. Wait until the dogs get a listen to this one year old walking! December 1, 2005
We had to stay close this morning to be sure that our paperwork was fine, we got the call that everything was in order and were free to leave our rooms. We did a bit more shopping, we tried to get a number of little things for Lyndsay, to give her each birthday or gotcha day, for her these days are not far apart. This afternoon we visited a Buddhist Temple called Six Banyan's Temple, the number of beggars just outside the temple was astonishing, it reminded me of the Bible where beggars waited for handouts outside of the temples, many of these people had extreme handicaps, very sad. Begging is all they know, it's a way of life. A few families elected to have a "blessing" said over their child and bow to the Buddhas making three wishes for your child.....we declined. We know where our blessings come from, so we chose to take pictures of the grounds so Lyndsay would have an idea what goes on, it was amazing to us, what people were worshipping. They tossed money into this small pagoda looking thing, as they walked around it, rubbing it, offering incense, fruit and flowers to statues. Afterward we went to a Provincial Arts and Crafts store, there were some pretty painting with dogs that I liked, but they were really expensive. One was in process with multiple dogs in it, I think it was over $1000 US dollars, it wasn't that nice, sorry. Lastly we went to a place called the Old Chen House built in the 1800s, which was a family house originally where generations came to meet. The whole place itself was a work of art, beautiful and very ornate. They had other various types of art on display for the public to view with a gift shop for vistors. We had dinner at Lucy's near the hotel and then were treated to an awesome fireworks display over the water that night.