Hope: One Less: Free Day

The good news is that we have arrived in Guangzhou, China. It was a little tricky getting here. Our flight out of Champaign was delayed nearly two hours. They had to send us a new plane from Dallas because ours was having mechanical problems. We knew our connection in Dallas was going to be tight. We checked on other possibilities, but all of the Champaign flights were full due to the holiday weekend. We arrived in Dallas a little ahead of when we expected, but were stuck on the plane. They were having trouble with the jet bridge at the gate and had to call maintenance. We were finally able to get off at Terminal B and had to run to the sky train and run to our gate in Terminal D. We made it just as they announced the final boarding call. We were one of the last on the plane and took off about 5 minutes later. It was much closer than I would have liked, especially since they only have the one flight a day. The 15 hour flight from Dallas to Hong Kong was brutal, but we had extra leg room due to the exit row and they fed us twice. After a short layover, we headed to Guangzhou where we were greeted by our guide, Kelly. She has served as a guide for adoptive families for over 10 years. We learned we are her only family arriving this week for their gotcha day.

We had about a 30 minute drive to the Garden Hotel. It is very beautiful and we are thrilled with our spacious room. Despite being exhausted after the long travel day, I opted to unpack and get organized at 11 pm:) After a good night's rest, we had breakfast and explored the hotel. Today was our "free day." I think we were supposed to rest and relax. But instead we walked a couple miles down the road and visited two supermarkets. It is very hot and humid. We found everything to be very inexpensive compared to U.S. prices. This afternoon we exchanged some money into RMB and opted to do some more exploring, shopping, and sightseeing. We took a taxi to Shamian Island. The taxi ride itself was quite the adventure. There road structure is very different than in the U.S. I don't even know how to describe it so I'll just leave it at that. At Shamian Island, we walked around to view the historic buildings and chapels. We probably saw at least 10 couples that were having wedding pictures taken. There were quite a few white dresses, but we also saw a red dress and royal blue dress. Many of the streets are for pedestrians only. One of the streets was lined with large, intricate ficus trees. We picked up a few souvenirs and had an early dinner at Lucy's Bar and Grill, which is known for western cuisine. It was a popular recommendation among our fellow adoptive families. A great first day, but looking forward to the big day tomorrow.....