Travel Day

Our week in Beijing ended quietly. We spent the day at "home" although JJ did get Joy to take her back to the Pearl Market for another hour of shopping.

This is the front of the place we stayed. The unit includes the window on either side of the door (the one behind the car) and goes up 4 floors, plus a basement. We had the entire second floor for ourselves. Joy, Michael and their son have the 3rd and 4th floors. The first floor is the kitchen, dining area and a living room. In the basement we had the use of a ping pong table, but only tried it once. DH is standing in front of the Honda van we used most of the week.

Joy is a terrific driver - a very important skill to have when traveling around Beijing! Here's a picture on one of the lighter traffic moments. Notice how there is space between the cars and everyone is in their own lane? That doesn't happen when there is a traffic jam, which is most of the time!

We invited Alice to join us outside when we went to take pictures. I offered her my camera. Here are a couple odd pictures she took -

Her are our hosts, Michael and Joy, with Alice. I can't tell how much we enjoyed our stay with them. Michael's cooking is WONDERFUL! (which we realize even more now that we are on our own in Guangzhou). Joy is a phenomenal guide and both of them went above and beyond to make Alice feel comfortable during these first days of her new life. Alice called them, Aunty & Uncle, Chinese terms for adults who care for children, but I know there was some real affection going both ways. Deciding to stay in their home was probably the single best decision we made for this trip in terms of comfort, but also we have no doubt that it was the best thing we could have done for Alice.

And here is our fearless girl getting ready to take off for her first plane trip. She handled it like a pro!

Our arrival in Guangzhou was okay. Our guide and driver were waiting for us and it was a damp, humid trip to the hotel. Guangzhou is quite a bit warmer than Beijing and we saw our first rain of the trip. Weather calls for rain everyday for at least the next 5 days. Blah.