Tuesday, Nov  13

Hello everyone!

Sunday came and went.  Rain never showed just a cloudy and wonderfully cool day for the park.  Due to Joshua being on sensory overload and being cranky and Mikayla just being herself and knowing how service at church would have went we opted to decline.  Greg and Mikayla did head to Sha Mian Island and shopped really good.  They bought Marble stamps one for Joshua and one for Mikayla that has their names in English and Chinese on them that has a little animal craved on top, it came with an ink pad in a ceramic case and is kept in a Chinese decorative box.  While Joshua napped for 3 hours and became a happy boy again he got from Daddy and Mikayla what he loves the most…shoes.  We now have 4 pairs of the cutest leather squeaky shoes for Joshua.  I got something I will love sporting in the states which is a Guangzhou Starbucks Tee.  Does Hubby know me or what?  Later that day we did do our Visa paperwork so Joshua can get home with us. 

Yesterday we ventured to Yue Xiu Park where there was a very large statue of 5 goats which was made of 30 marble bricks all 29 are original bricks except one which was one of the Largest Goats Horns which broke during the Tsunami.  The Goat represents Guangzhou and I can’t remember much else about it but I do know there is also a new lightening rod in the park you can see behind the goat statue in the pic that was put there after the Lightening from the Tsunami broke the goats horn.  After going up the 99 (yes a multiple of 9) stairs to see this statue and then walk down to see some other fascinating carvings and such at the park we headed to the Local Pedestrian street and the Pearl and Jade Market.  This time I got to not only stay the entire day of adventures I also got to shop for some cool Jade.  Mikayla and I got us a matching Jade heart.  The hearts are identical to the naked untrained eye but mine of course is almost 3x the quality and unfortunately price.   Still on the run we had a wonderfully colorful Pearl River Cruise with dinner.  The food was good, trying to get to it (buffet) was a fun adventure in it self but most important was the cruise and the views…I have included a few for you.  The views we saw were many and most had LED lights that changed colors constantly that pictures just can’t show you. 

Today we did the documents and took the oath in the ACS, we took also took our group pictures.  We did have an option for a dumpling lunch, once again due to tired children we opted out.  We walked around our wonderful Garden Hotel and took some pictures that does not do this place justice.  We are currently relaxing until we decide where we might eat dinner for our last night here.  Tomorrow afternoon we get our sons visa and passport and take the express train to Hong Kong. This will be the beginning of our journey home.  So I probably won’t post again until we are home and settled back in so check back often.  For anyone who might be interested in a sneak peak of Joshua before we get home and hibernate for a while we arrive on November 15th United 4:13pm from Chicago flight #3650.