Daddy's China Birthday-Monday April 11

This year Daddy received the greatest gift ever, his baby girl Ariana.  The hotel delivered a delicious cake to the room.  It was very different from any cake we've eaten in The States. Ariana was delighted with the big box it came in as she loves to play with boxes.

Our little family of three ventured off the island to the heart of Guangzhou all by ourselves.  There is definitely a very different feel to the city than the island.  It is more authentically Chinese I suppose. We got lots of stares and inquisitive looks.  Although "Walking Street", the area we ventured to, is supposedly only a 30-minute walk we took a taxi because it was 90 degrees and we didn't know how long we would be there.  Ariana seems to handle the heat and humidity quite well.

Walking Street is a massive stretch of shops ranging from high-end department stores to vendors crammed in between buildings selling t-shirts.  We walked up and down the streets and took it all in.  We went into one of the department stores to cool off and ended up buying a toy we didn't necessarily want because Mommy forgot the stores work differently here and carried it to the next department!  Lucky for me the prices are so reasonable.

Hailing a taxi for the ride home proved a little more challenging.  I suppose it would be comparable to finding one in Times Square except the people compete and jump right in front of you and run alongside the cabs to make sure they get one.  Since Daddy was "wearing" the baby the job fell to Mommy. After watching for about 15 minutes with a hot and tired baby and realizing there were many more patrons than taxis, I shoved and elbowed my way to the front like a true local.

We ended our day with another meal at Lucy's Restaurant.  Most of the adoptive families who stay at the White Swan Hotel eat at Lucy's pretty often because they offer Western-style food.  It is almost American but everything tastes just a little different. Mommy and Daddy really like it because we can eat outside and are enjoying the summertime weather here.

There is a Cantonese restaurant down the street we may try one night.  Many people in southern China speak Cantonese.  It is close to Mandarin, just a different dialect.  We understand that Yangjiang, where the girls are from, has it's own dialect as well.

Maybe just a taste....

I don't really mind it...

Yes, that is meat hanging in the background.

This was a movie theater.

Food Court

Something with tentacles on a stick





This was taken at the Minghui Jade Plaza, a huge store with store after store selling every kind of jade imaginable.  It was alot like the Pearl Market except with jade.  I could've spent the whole day just walking through there.

Eating at Lucy's again.

More later.