Happy Mother's Day from Guangzhou

Sorry that it's been a few days since I updated. We've been busy and travelling and there just hasn't been time to get on the computer.

For our last day in Tianjin Helen brought us Owen's passport! Yay! That was the last thing that we needed before we could leave Tianjin! Most of the morning we just spent in our room playing and starting to get our bags packed. For lunch Helen took us to a hotpot restaurant. It was soo good! We had never tried hotpot before, but we definitely want to do it again, Yummy!
On the way back to the hotel after our lunch we stopped in at a cross stitch shop and I got 3 great kits to make. Two of them are emperor and empress designs that I can give the kids when they get married and one is a beautiful flower design for me to hang in the house. Once I get done knitting Owen's blanket I hope to get started on that one.

After our nice long nap we met Helen and took a taxi to the Tianjin Cultural Street. It was full of little shops that sold all sorts of trinkets, most of them were little souvenirs but some were traditional crafts or foods native to Tianjin. We bought a couple of little things and Helen treated us to some candy and a twisted baked snack that is a local favorite. It sort of reminded me of a chinese pretzel with sesame seeds, very yummy! After wandering around there and playing in a park area a bit we decided to walk back to our hotel. It wasn't very far, but it was rush hour so that was a little nerve wracking. From there we went to dinner at a dumpling restaurant because eating dumplings is a lucky way to begin a new journey (this is why it is tradition to eat dumplings at Chinese New Year).

There are many things that I love and try to understand about the Chinese culture, but one that I will never get used to is the squatty potty. In my opinion they are just GROSS! Why women put up with this is beyond me! It doesn't help that Cackie has a potty fetish either! At the dumpling restaurant Cackie of course had to use the bathroom and it was the nastiest, dirtiest squatty potty that I had ever seen. It is not easy trying to teach Cackie to use it and the end result was wet pants and a sick mommy, yuck! Good thing I had enjoyed some dinner up to that point, cause there was no more enjoying after that!

After that we headed back to the hotel to finish packing and for the second night in a row the "hotel police" called to tell us to close our door (our rooms were not connecting, so we had to flip the latch to keep the doors open slightly to go between the two rooms). When that started we were REALLY starting to get ready to get out of Tianjin!

So, on Saturday we woke up early to get ready, pack the last minute items and have breakfast. We were ready a little early, but were anxious to get to Guangzhou so that was probably why. We headed to the airport and got there too early to check in. After waiting a little bit we got in line just a few minutes before the check in counter opened. Good thing we were there early... we had a number of luggage issues because they have changed their carry-on policies recently and ended up needing to check some bags that we had not intended to check. Then, they had Cackie's last name spelled "Wills" which was going to cause problems going through security and it took a while to wait for that issue to be fixed.

Once we got all the tickets straighted out we entered the security mess. They kept scanning our bags, making us take out certain items and insisted that we had lighters in our backpack (they were matchbox cars!). It wasn't as crazy as the train station (thank God!), but it was still crazy! Owen is very attached to his backpack and we couldn't get it off him to go through security without a whole lot of screaming so that didn't help matters.

We made it through security just in time to board the plane and get situated. There was a little delay leaving the gate and we finally left around 1:00. I was sitting between Cackie & Owen and Caryn & Michael were in the row behind us on the other side of the isle. Thankfully just before takeoff Owen crashed and Cackie was just a few minutes behind him. They both missed the meal service, but I think they really needed the nap more. Owen woke up about an hour later and Cackie was about 45 minutes behind him. We didn't arrive in Guangzhou until 3:30, so there was still quite a bit of time to keep the two of them occupied. Owen became facinated with the safety instruction card and Cackie liked the airsickness bag (we're so glad we didn't need either of them!).

When we arrived we gathered our multitude of luggage pretty easily and found our guide Jocelyn waiting for us. We loaded everything up into the waiting van and headed to the wonderful White Swan hotel. On the way Jocelyn went over our entire schedule with us and uttered some of the best words we'd heard in days... Papa Johns! (any guesses on what we had for dinner?) The ride was about 40 minutes, but the time passed pretty quick.

We were soo happy to arrive at the comfortable White Swan. Jocelyn was able to arrange connecting rooms for us and they are a lot larger and more comfortable than the room we had on our last trip. We immediately gathered all our dirty laundry and headed out to drop it off. On the way we stopped by the indoor waterfall and pond and ran into our friends from Beijing... Kris, Jim, Austin & Owen! We were soo excited to see them and catch up with them. They could totally relate to our train station frustration which made us all feel better. We were soo excited to see them we almost forgot about our laundry.

We finally gathered everyone together and headed to take our laundry and get a few things from the 7 Eleven. When we got back to our room we called Papa John's and ordered pizza and cheese sticks for dinner. It arrived via bicycle messenger and Michael went to the lobby to pick it up. When he came back to the room he was laughing hysterically because he had a bit of a language mix up when ordering the cheese sticks... they had asked him how many pieces he wanted and they told him there were 8 pieces, so he ordered 8 pieces of cheese sticks. As it turned out he actually ordered 8 orders of cheese sticks! Needless to say we got our fill of Papa John's! The kids ate at least two orders of cheese sticks each! Owen loved it!

With our bellies filled we fell asleep easily!

Today we woke up a little late and after getting ready went to enjoy the wonderful breakfast buffet. We really enjoyed it and the kids were pleased with the variety. After breakfast Caryn, Owen & I met Jocelyn and took a taxi to the local arts & crafts center. We did some good shopping, especially for items we wish we had bought last time and were back to the hotel just a little over an hour later. Owen was soo sweet the whole time, he rally wanted to be held and Jocelyn was nice enough to keep him busy while we were busy shopping.

After we got back to the hotel we gathered up Michael & Cackie and went out to explore the island a little. We stopped at Starbucks to get a little comfort fix and the kids enjoyed some hot chocolate. By then it was time to head back for a nap. It didn't take too long for the kids to fall asleep and we enjoyed the opportunity to do a little work in the other room.

When they woke up we got ready and headed down to the pool. Cackie of course dove right in and really enjoyed the little kiddie pool. Owen was very scared and timid at first, but we worked with him and after a short time he was splashing everyone and even walking by himself across the kiddie pool. It was fairly cool and overcast today and it didn't take long for both kids to have blue lips and start shivering. When we got out we enjoyed playing with some bubbles and we found out that Owen can blow! That's a good sign for a cleft kiddo and it was good practice for him to blow the bubbles.

After we were done at the pool we got dressed and headed back out to take the kids to the outdoor play area on the island. They both loved it, especially the slide. All that playing and we started to get really hungry so we headed back to the hotel to clean up a little and pick up our clean laundry. I had wanted to go to the great Thai restaurant here, but they were full so we ended up eating dinner at Lucy's. Owen cleaned his plate... the grilled ham and cheese was a huge hit. We had made a number of friends in the time that we've been here and they all seemed to show up at Lucy's just after we did.

We then decided to head back to the hotel and made a side trip to the playroom downstairs. The kids had a lot of fun, Cackie was wild and crazy and Owen was more reserved and paid attention to details. I think they are going to be a good fit for each other. When we had finally worn them out we headed back to the room to get ready for bed. They are now both sleeping in the other room like little angels. What a happy Mother's Day this has been!

I'll work on posting links to our photo albums. It's taking a little longer than I had hoped. Stay posted for those! We've loved hearing from everyone and send everyone our love!