Today we got up a little later than usual, but still managed to make breakfast and the bus for the group tour to the Yuntai Park. Really beautiful place. It's a botanical garden. It's continues to amaze me at the amount of care and attention to detail that these people give to their parks and their streets and shops, for that matter. This park had every blade of grass trimmed perfectly. I hope the pictures do the park justice. NEWS BREAK of the day! Little Natalie lets me hold her hand while going up and down the steps now!!!! Of course, when she's back on level ground, it's back to moma. It has progressed to the point that now, if we are only going down a few steps I can actually grab her and set her down the steps without her screaming bloody murder. Mom still can't get very far away. Steph has made a few attempts to create some distance between the her and Natalie and just as soon as Natalie realizes Steph's out of reach, she wells up. She loves her moma! There were several groups of young school children at the park. They are so cute and are very happy to see us! When we are within shouting distance, it's "Hello", "How are you"? "Good morning"! We have a few pictures of these groups also. After the tour, we had lunch at a Brazilian BBQ restaurant. It was very similar to the one we've been to in Tulsa, except it cost about $7.00 US dollars per person in stead of $50.00. I didn't' particularly care for it, but Natalie and Steph loved it. After lunch we did a little shopping back on the island and got ready for the "Red Couch" picture.
It's a tradition to take a picture of the children in your group on the "Red Couch" at the White Swan. The irony of this is that every couch I have seen in the hotel is red and I really don't know which one is "The" red couch. No matter. This process was a hoot! Again, I am not sure the pictures will do this justice. There are 10 girls in our group and most of them didn't understand the significance of the picture, in fact, they could have cared less. All most of them wanted to do was to get back to their family. Little Natalie was one of the most vocal! I am sure that she will appreciate it when she's older. Natalie looked beautiful in her Chinese dress as did all the other little ones!
After the pictures, we had dinner at Lucy's again and again, poor service, good food. Natalie had chicken noodles. She cleaned her plate. This little one can really eat! We did a little shopping after that and all the store owners tell us how pretty Natalie is and how good looking I am. It's a ploy to get you to buy stuff and it works. Then it was off to bed to get ready for another day of fun. Tomorrow our guide goes to the American Consulate to finalize our US paper work. Hopefully that will go well and if so, we only have to go there in person to do a
few "swearings" and "interviews" and then we are thru over here!
We plan to go shopping at an antique mall tomorrow. The haggling is too much fun!
We hope you're well! God Bless!
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