Dinner Cruise on the Pearl

Guest writer Larry here again. Last night we went on a dinner cruise up and down the Pearl River here in Guangzhou. The Pearl River cuts right through the center of Guangzhou and is one of the major points of pride in this city. Guangzhou recently hosted the Asian Games where they had guests from 45 countries competing in all Olympic events. In an effort to welcome the guests the city of Guangzhou spent an inordinate amount of money lighting buildings and bridges all along the Pearl River. The beautiful lights were the main attraction of the dinner cruise, but we were also looking forward to the Chinese cuisine that was to be served buffet style. The weather was not very cooperative for this cruise as it was windy, rainy, and cold. Most of our pictures were taken from inside the boat. Erin was left hungry after the dinner because most of the food was very spicy and had to resort to eating Abigail's cookies. I on the other hand was most pleased with the meal. As you can see from the picture I tried just about everything that was available (when in Rome...) I went and found our agency reps and asked them about eating chicken feet. They asked what my experience was and I told them that I thought it was a lot of effort for a small amount of food. They laughed and told me that in Guangzhou most people only enjoy eating chicken feet when they are drinking hard liquor! I still found it interesting and it reminded me of when Jim (Erin's brother) and I polished off a plate of fried chicken knees in Japan. Good times. The buildings and the bridges were really beautiful despite the cold rain. Erin managed to get a great picture of one of the bridges with its lights reflecting off of the water. I got a decent picture of the Guangzhou Tower, which our guides claim is the 2nd highest building in the world (see reference here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Tower). Just as I thought the trip was complete, I was reminded of a famous saying: "What dinner cruise isn't complete without a clown?" The clown came out to a Russian polka that was only about 30 seconds long and repeated over and over for about 10 minutes. It was fun (sarcasm intended.) Our tour group got back on the bus humming and whistling the polka tune.

The White Swan, Guangzhou

We LOVE LOVE LOVE Guangzhou. The 3rd largest city in China, it is warm, clean, you can walk everywhere, there is a variety of food and the Pearl River runs through here. Right by our hotel looks like The Point at Three Rivers in Pittsburgh. It is just beautiful and warm here. If anyone is interested in a south-east Asian vacation, I would suggest this as a city you see.

Our hotel is super nice. Again, we had to remind Abigail that our home isn't as fancy- we don't have a 3-story Christmas tree, a 3-story waterfall, ancient bonsai trees, a koi pond or an aviary in our lobby (nor do we have a lobby!), and our house is not made of marble. But it will do for now! (Jim, Steph, and Dad- it really reminds me of the Budget Inn we stayed in on night 3 (in Hancock) of our bike trip from Pittsburgh to DC last summer!)

There are also lots of places to buy things, both real quality things and cheap imitation things and also places to get laundry done (which we really need at this point in the trip).

See the attached pics of the White Swan and Guangzhou.

Baby Bird's First Flight

Above: When we thought baby bird would sleep the whole time.

Below Right: Abigail and Larry waiting to go through security

Below Left: We put the baby in charge of carrying the passports for the three of us. She did a great job. We should have given her more responsibility because on the plane we lost that darling little red hat from Norma K that she has been wearing in all of the pictures!!

In addition to calling Abigail "little monkey" we sometimes call her "baby bird" because of the way she tilts her head back and opens and closes her mouth for you to put food into it. (And btw Jim, what is Big Bird's real name?) Anyhow, last night was her first ride on an airplane. The first 20 minutes were good- she had a bottle and fell asleep. We patted ourselves on the back for being such great parents and thought the rest of the flight would be no problem. Then she woke up and we played "try to entertain an exhausted 14 month old for 70 minutes on a plane". How are we ever going to make it 17.5 hours in the air from Hong Kong to Detroit?!?!?!

Christmas time in China

Though not a Christian nation, China has been recently embracing the secular side of the Christmas holiday. There is Christmas music playing in stores and hotels and lobbys. There are trees and lights and decorations everywhere. One thing Lar and I both particularly liked was that all of the decorations didn't disappear on December 26th, like they do in America. We both wish that in America the Christmas music and decorations would start a little later (after Thanksgiving) but go until New Year's Day. But in China, everything is still decorated nicely.

One of our favorite decorations is a mounted deer head, as you would see proudly displayed on the wall of a hunter in America. But if you look closely, the deer is actually Rudolph!! As Jim and Steph know, some things don't translate well into Asian culture and I guess this is one of them.

Pictures are of poor Rudolph, Abigail examining some lobby decorations, and of Lar and Abigail in front of the hotel lobby tree. Abigail LOVES the hotel lobby. We hang out there and she looks at all the marble staircases and floors and the 3 story ceilings and the grand piano and the lights and the snow flakes and chandeliers and just stares at it all. We had to explain to her that our house in America is not so fancy!!

We have arrived in Beijing. As we flew in to land, we were on the window side that got to see the whole city. It looked very flat and sprawling at night.
Flight pros: Great "Chinese" food, we slept most of it (Larry thanks Dr. Lenes for that), we met a couple from our home town that are also adopting a kid with us

Flight cons: It took forever to land and get to the gate. We taxied around for so long (28 minutes) that I thought Jim was driving the plane and trying to find a spot to park at Home Depot.

Beijing thoughts: It is decorated for Christmas. More on this later after we spend tomorrow touring.

Tips for other adopting families: Our wonderful agency, CCAI, said a million times to "pack light". They also said this is an "Adoption Trip" not a "Vacation Trip." If you have other kids, please leave them with relatives. We are, very unfortunately, traveling with Family von Trapp who have 4 kids, 9 suitcases, uncountable backpacks and duffle bags, fights with each other, tantrums, etc. We and the other couples are there for the business of adopting our child and do not like the traveling circus we are with. It is unfair to those of us who (A) did pack light and (B) are trying to focus on the adoption of a new child into our families.