Beijing to Xi'an - February 18th Thursday

We left very eary to catch our flight from Beijing to Xi'an - we left at 6:30 for a 8:30 flight and arrived in Xi'an around 10:30ish.   We were met by our guide Penny.  It was a glorious day - sunny and much warmer than Beijing.   We headed to our hotel which is considered to be a five-star Sofitel.  The lobby was gorgeous - see later photos with rose flower arrangements.   However, the room bookings appeared to be a disaster.   We must have spent close to 1 1/2 hours trying to sort out the mess of our rooms for the two families.  David and I were put in one room but it had no crib and no bed for Indigo but a crib was brought in and we thought we would either put Indigo in one of the beds with us (they had two wide single beds) and get a crib for Isaac or have Indigo sleep on this chaise piece in the room.  However, we were then moved to another room which had the right beds, and they moved a crib in but it was so smoky.   Granddad and Grandma had a right room set up but the other family did not and so then Granddad and Grandma had to move - we needed to leave to start our touring so everyone just left bags in whatever room they had and we left but now this made us much later than we should had been.   Anyway, we went to the City Wall which is fantastic - apparently you can go 9 miles with it all intact.   We were supposed to bike ride on there (not sure what the plan would have been for Grandma and the kiddos) but we did not do that.   It was glorious up there and the wall was so decorated for new years - it was just stunning.   We walked a while but all along were different scenes reflecting different countries scenery - we just mostly saw the Chinese decorations.   After that we went to an "art gallery" showing local artwork and the history of painting in China - we saw beautiful farmer/peasant paintings that are lovely and bright, also puppets made out of cow hide that are so intricate and then the start of water color painting.    Then there was a demonstration of the calligraphy strokes - there are just eight that make up all the characters.   Folks got to practice doing calligraphy.  However, as this was a government "exhibit" of course it ended with paintings that you could purchase.  David really liked one and so he bought that with birthday money from his mom.   We went back to the hotel where we were supposed to be ready in about 30 minutes to go to the dinner show but we were still dealing with room issues - it was really a big pain.   Also, I had put our stuff in the safe and then could not open it so I was panicked about that and did not want to leave for the show without dealing with that.  After enough calls to the front desk someone came and helped.  I should have insisted at that point that we move rooms because of the smoke in our room but exhaustion prevented that.   Granddad felt so poorly that he stayed back and we went to the Tang Dynasty Dinner show which was super and we had a wonderful time.   The kids were really good considering how tired they were and the show - Isaac really seemed entranced.  The show was very much music and dance so translation not an issue.  The food was good too.    When we came back there was some more hotel issues - particularly with the other family basically sitting on the floor with sleeping kids waiting for a hotel room - just not satisfactory.   I was just dying from the smoke and it was not a great night especially since I was getting the sore throat etc. that many had been suffering from.    Also, we could see that Xi'an is just incredible and knew that we wanted more time there.   Okay - so this is all I can manage for updates before the states - hopefully these last four posts are enough to keep you reading and looking at photos until I can wrap up the Isaac China tour.  We are checking out of the hotel, the driver and guide are waiting downstairs and we're on our way to Shanghai airport, to Chicago, where Isaac will become a US citizen and onward home to Dulles - should arrive 9 pm Monday February 22 - we cross the date line so we arrive the same day we leave.  
Oh, one last thing - at the beginning you will see a lot of photos of Indigo with Drew - she was in love with him this day and he was so sweet with her.   Everything was "Drew, Drew, come with me Drew, sit with me Drew" so he sat at our table with us at lunch - so very cute.    Photos from Thursday the 18th here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7322989@N05/sets/72157623358838325/