Shamian Island, Safari Park, and Consulate Day

Catching up on our blogging. On Sunday, 9 Dec, we did get to Shamian
Island. The White Swan Hotel is completely closed for renovation,
otherwise, everything else seemed pretty much the same. A couple of
the shops we remembered from 2008 had closed, but not many. We got
some shopping done. The Island was full of local tourists and wedding
couples. Lots and lots of pictures where being taken. It seems the
Island is even more popluar now as a weekend tourist attraction.
Unfortunately for all the shops, the locals are not necessarily there
to shop. The restaurants do well though. We found our favorite shop
owners, Dong and Susan. They moved their shop one building closer to
the church. The church had asked to use their old store for
classrooms and Dong agreed. Dong has opened a little Tea and Coffee
Cafe along with the new store location. Susan was selling ice cream
on the corner. Robin recognized her right away, but of course I said,
"I don't think thats her." Dong recognized us right away. He
remembered our family, what I do for a living, and even pulled out
pictures of us and him from our last trip in 2008. It was great. Of
course, we had our traditional tea time with Dong and as usual, the
tea and conversation was fantastic! He says "Hi " to Tina and Brian.
Dong said it would be another year before the White Swan opens. We
had lunch at Lucy's, but it was not that good and slow service. It
sure was busy though.

On Monday, we headed out with our Holt group to the Chime-Long Safari
Park here in Guangzhou. We arrived the same time as a large group of
school children. Boy were we a hit! They all wanted to try out their
English on us. Lots of "Hellos" "How are you?" and "What's your
name?" For the first half of the park, we rode a tram through an open
safari area, where the animals roamed free. I've never seen so many
of each kind of animal. As we would get close, zoo workers would
throw large pieces of meat to the lions, bears, tiger, or wolves to
get them more active. It worked! One elephant was trained to blow
water at people as they drive by. After the open safari, we walked
for several hours through the rest of the zoo. Our favorite stops
were feeding giraffes, feeding the elephants, and seeing the pandas.
Caelyn's favorite was the white tiger show.

Tuesday, today, found us getting up bright and early to head to the
U.S. Consulate for our oath ceremony and Caelyn's visa application
appointment. Everything went pretty smooth and we were back by 1100.
One more box checked and closer to home. For lunch today, we splurged
and ate at the Prime Steakhouse on the 4th floor of our hotel. The
food was excellent. Definitely a place we can't afford for supper
time. This evening we went back to Shamian Island to pick up some
items we had ordered and to eat at our favorite Italian restaurant--La
Dolce Vita. It was as good as we had remembered.

The past days have also been full of card playing, tickling,
wrestling, and laughing. We've also taught Caelyn some of the
essential sign language signs like "Dad", "Mom", "Caelyn", "weird",
"silly", crazy", "won", "lost", etc. The signs for "potty", "eat" and
"drink" will come soon enough! We just love her hearty laugh. We're
all ready to get home. It's been a long trip. Only two more sleeps.
We miss the rest of our family at home.

Please pray for my dad, Myron. He's had some complications arise from
the surgery he had back in August. My oldest brother is with him now.

 

Mom and Caelyn playing on Mom's phone at Lucy's

Tea with Dong (and his son Zachary)

One of our favorite signs at the Safari Park

Mom and Caelyn on the tram

Feeding the Giraffes

The flamingos