Journey with Julia

City tour

Because of the heat we opted for a "city tour" on the air conditioned bus today. So we all loaded up and took a ride. They drove us to the River Walk and some of us got off for a photo op. in front of the river. As soon as Ray took a pic of Julia and I in front of the river we went looking for shade. We found some in front of some sort of tourism booth, the two girls working there came out and of course Julia made some more friends. :) She is much more outgoing than her mama is...lol We almost got to have dinner on the boat but it was decided that it would be too late for the little ones. oh well....

Ray got some more pictures as we drove around the city and then we ended up at the "new Walmart" yup another outing to Walmart. Too funny. This one was nicer and had more to choose from, some things you're not likely to find in your local walmart. At least I found her some sandals that she'll keep on, though she keeps messing with them. We ended up at McDonald's again for lunch ( okay I'm even sick of McD's at this point you won't believe it but some in our group are even pickier than I am!) lol. I've managed to find something in our Chinese meals to eat at nearly every meal. Except last night, it was mutton and on top of that it was very spicy! So Ray took a walk after dinner and found the nearest KFC for some nuggets for me. But that's the first time I've had to do that on the whole trip so far! :) Julia slept through most of McD's again, it's that stroller any longer than 10 minutes and she's ready for a nap in it!

This afternoon was much calmer and we just hung out in the hotel. Tomorrow we are going to the museum and in the afternoon getting Julia's Chinese passport and then her paperwork for the Chinese side of things is complete. Tuesday morning (6 am) we leave for the airport and Guangzhou to take care of the US side of things. We only have 3 nights in Guangzhou and then we are on the plane home. We have loved our time in Changsha and Peter has done a super job of keeping us busy so that time doesn't stand still on us but we are all ready to move to the next step and be on our way home.

It's so hard to decide which pictures to post every night, not to mention finding time to load them all one at a time. The connection is much slower here than it was in Beijing. Once we get home I'll load everything into some online albums so that you can really see China through our eyes. Here you are barely getting a glimpse. It is truly a beautiful country and it's amazing to see how they have progressed so much in the last 50 years or so and at the same time their roots are so clearly defined here as well. Never have I seen the past and the present collide in quite the same way that they do here.

Well I better get some sleep, little one is restless tonight so I better try to rest while I can.