Guangzhou Wednesday February 10th

Wednesday was a nice relaxing and quiet day.   We were told that from 10 a.m. at least one parent needed to be available in the room to ensure that all US consulate paperwork was in good order.   We had a great night and we let the children sleep until htey woke up which was nice.   We bathed them in the morning and Isaac loved the bath - did not get photos but we had a not a single tear and he seemed reluctant to come out.  He really enjoyed it.   After breakfast, because it was a nice day, Grandma, David, Isaac, Indigo and me all took a walk around the hotel garden which is very pretty so you see the photos out there.  We went back to the room and basically the children just played.   We put Isaac down for a nap and he crashed for two hours but Indigo, although she laid down for a long time, was unable to sleep - at least she rested.   While the kids were down, I stayed in the room and David, Granddad and Grandma just went out walking to see the shops etc.   They walked poor Grandma off her feet.   She bought a small digital camera as she has been fussing at me for not taking every photo that she thinks I ought to take so now she can snap away.   When David came back he and I took the kids out to the "playground" on the fourth floor - but outside.  It's one tiny slide set but the kids had fun and Indigo climbed the climbing thing on the side - be still my heart...  We found the squash courts and so we set them free to run in that enclosed space which was fun and then back to the room.   I was able to talk to Laura Beth on the phone for a bit which was a treat - you forget how nice it is to just be able to talk on the phone with a friend in English.   Laura Beth and family decided that they would join us for our Pearl River cruise so our guide Rebecca made arrrangements with them to do that.   you can see some cute photos of Indigo playing in her dad's shoes and in her ladybug t-shirt - thanks Shelli, she loves it and I am so glad I popped it in because we have had a major shortage of short sleeves here in Guangzhou and they have been pretty impossible to find for children.   You can also see some cute photos of Indigo and Isaac sharing a snack of cheetos (more spicy here) and some Lays potato chips.  Our group met at 5:30 and our bus took us to the boat.   We had a very enjoyable evening cruising down the Pearl River.   Everything is lit up beautifully, even though it is probably an environmental nightmare.  We passed the White Swan where we stayed before.   There was a small magic show which Indigo enjoyed and she wanted to get right up front to see it.    It was wonderful to see Laura Beth, Adam and their family and Indigo and Eliana enjoyed jumping around.   Their daughter Maya Mei, who they have just adopted from Wuhan, Hubei, did very well on the cruise.  Adopting an eight year old has been challenging and we think they are doing the most incredible job.   Thanks to Laura Beth, Granddad also got to have his first red wine of the entire trip!   We had to take a photo of the label.   Dad pronounced that he already really likes Laura Beth :-).   We saw their family off in the taxi to their hotel and we all boarded our bus - it was hot and we could not wait for the engine to go and the air conditioning to start - well, we waited and waited.   The engine would not turn over.   Everyone started to get off the bus and just as most people were off, the driver got the bus to start, but it did not sound good and we were grateful that it made it to the hotel.   We were off to bed shortly after returning home.   One aside, the past two days Indigo has had 3 little hive outbreaks which we can't connect to anything.  The first one was at the zoo and little bumps appeared on the side of her face, then again later that afternoon and then again yesterday afternoon.   I am very grateful for the big bottle of Benedryl I have with me - we just wish we could figure out the source - it could even be heat as our furnace girl is burning up here and her whole head just gets wet.   Photos from Wednesday here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7322989@N05/sets/72157623274726999/