Friday, March 6, 2009

Today we had a chance to go outside and enjoy the city for the first time all week. It has been raining here for the past 20 days straight, a record for the city. This is the first day without rain so we decided to spend it out on a boat ride in West Lake. Micah slept in today so we didn’t finish breakfast until about 10. This is the day we also leave to go to Guangzhou so we don’t have very much time. I hoped to see some sights around the city, temples, tea houses, mansions but we didn’t have any good days so this boat ride was it besides shopping and eating out. We took a row boat out with a guide who did the rowing. It was so beautiful. We could finally see some mountain ranges in the distance now that some of the fog cleared. The buildings around the lake are beautiful with all the fancy roof tops and willow, and sycamore trees surrounding the edge of the water. We watched people cross a walking bridge and viewed the temple from a distance.

After the ride we went in for lunch and back to the room to do the final packing. For our last 2 hours we spent time in the indoor pool. This was Micah’s second time in a pool. He absolutely loves water. HE smiles and laughed the whole time. Hope was practicing her diving skills and enjoyed wearing her new swimsuit and goggles since we left her’s at home by accident.

We got to the airport and on the plane. We flew China Southern. It was a very nice and roomy plane. We had a lot of turbulence so I was a bit scared for most of the flight. Micah, Hope and I all sat together in one row as Steve and Leila sat in the row ahead. This flight was exhausting with Micah being without a nap and very fussy. He dumped most of our dinner on my lap and his crayons on the floor. When we arrived in Guangzhou Hope was completely asleep and Micah had just fallen asleep 15 minutes before landing. So with all the luggage and sleeping kids we were the last ones off the plane. As I stood up I almost fainted due to the hot temperature of the plane and a hot sweaty child on my hip. The attendants all helped take our luggage off the plane.

Then we finally headed off to the Victory Hotel. We arrived at about 11 pm and lay the kids down and tried to order room service which was just over 10 minutes before. So we went to bed and tried to get some sleep for the big medical appointment in the morning.