Wednesday,
December 31, 2008
We decided to slow the pace a bit today, and focus less on
seeing and doing and more on enjoying time with Cole. We had
been wanting to check out the hotel pool and decided that today
was the perfect day. We wondered how Cole would react to the
water and at first he was a bit unsure, and he sat on the side
for a few minutes playing with his stacking cups with his feet
in the water. But as soon as Andrea reached out to him, he
plunged right into her arms. They spent the next hour and a half
kicking, paddling, and playing, until Cole's little hands were
so prune-y that Andrea knew it was time to head back to the
room. After a bath, and a cup-o-noodles (and a variety of other
Wal-Mart snacks), Cole went down for the count. In fact, he
slept so well that we had to wake him in order to be on time for
our afternoon visit to the People's Park.
Cole loved the park. As soon as we arrived, he wanted to get
down and was off, in the front of our little pack, with a big
bounce in his little step. We were amazed at how many people
were enjoying the park, at 3:00 on a Wednesday afternoon, Mary
said that the park is even busier in the mornings. We made our
way around the path, people were exercising, a group was
preparing for a play, children were practicing their Chinese
yo-yo skills, men were engrossed in mah jong. The weather was
much more agreeable and the sun was peeking out, it was a lovely
day. Cole was entralled with all the sites. And we were taken
with the kindness of many of the people... especially the
children who wanted to practice their English with us. We met a
little group of girls that giggled in unison when we replied,
"hello" to their greeting and when I asked if I could take a
picture, they were more than happy to oblige.
When we rounded the corner to the mini amusement park area,
Cole's little trot turned into a full out run. He would run from
ride to ride and stand, wide eyed, as serious as he could be.
When we got to the carousel, the first one that seemed even
remotely appropriate for a small child, Andrea leaned down and
asked him if he wanted to ride. His little head bobbed so fast
and furiously, he couldn't wait to pick out his horse to ride.
Next we headed to a mini-rollercoaster, which Cole took quite
seriously. He chose his car (an army-esque jeep with big guns on
the side) and steered the entire time the ride was in motion. It
was too cute. After following Cole's lead around the rest of the
park, we headed toward the car. Our guide, Mary, left us at the
entrance to the park to look for the driver and before she even
disappeared from sight, a group of students approached us. When
we nodded in agreement that we would be happy to take pictures
with them, the photo session began. One smaller set of people
would run up and have a different pose taken, alternating for at
least a dozen pictures. They were so giddy about it all, we were
all laughing by the end. Except Cole, see picture. Fun stuff.
Mary took us to a local restaurant for dinner, one we'd visited
before and we enjoyed a dinner of beans, potatoes and red chilis,
rice and noodle soup. And hot tea that we were, at last, able to
get sugar for. Despite the fact that our dish had twice the
chilis it had had before, and the noodle soup (which was for
Cole) was a half hour in the making, we enjoyed the meal (with
the help of some orange slices to help cool our tongues). A
quick walk back to the hotel and we were in for the evening.
Fatigue hit me like a ton of bricks and suddenly I could barely
stay awake. Trying to stay in the spirit of the coming New Year,
we discussed our options for ringing in 2009. We decided, by a
unanimous vote, that the real new year, for us, will begin at
noon tomorrow, so no worries. We'll toast 2009 over lunch
tomorrow. Tonight we slept. I was asleep by 7:30 and Andrea and
Cole followed at 8:30... needless to say we are up now (4 hours
later), working on this update, and had the pleasure of
witnessing the fireworks that went off outside our hotel window.
Quite a New Year's celebration, we think. |
"I love the water!"
Serious fun
Checking out the goldfish
"Check out my ride"
Leading the way |
