Day 18

Sitting down to reflect on the things we did today, it is hard to remember what we did today vs. yesterday...good thing we have taken lots of photos.

This morning, we went to the Guangzhou zoo. We honestly debated if it was worth it or not. Already on this trip we've done the Bay Aquarium in San Francisco, and the Zhengzhou zoo (for what it was worth). We knew it would be hot and that Seth would be cranky. But, we figured he'd be cranky here in the hotel room or at the zoo, so we might as well get out.

As it turns out, it wasn't a bad zoo. The animal care standards are still different here, but maybe we've been here long enough that we're getting used to it. Still, it is sad to see two lions sharing a cage that is 1/4 the size of our backyard. No wonder they were pacing around so much. The kids got to feed some giraffe, which was fun. One thing that is different about the zoos here is that you can get pretty close to the animals. We got some good photos of tigers and elephants and the like. They just had twin pandas delivered here, and we got to see those, too.

As with all our excursions, the local people spend almost as much time looking at the Americans as they do the animals. Of course, the fact that there are 6 families traveling in a pack doesn't help. We do put on quite a show.

We've enjoyed meeting some other adoptive families and getting to know them. It is encouraging to see other kids arounds Seth's age who are close to his size. Of course, every kid is different, and it has been fun to see the different parents learning new things about their kids. It's kind of a rough way to be introduced to people, because no one is at their peak. You can tell that all of us are strung out from travel and from new babies, etc. But, it helps having folks who "get it."

In the afternoon, everyone went swimming. Seth seemed to like the pool, and Ruthie was a lot more comfortable. She let the girls carry her around (but not Kris) and she stuck her head in the water. Elliott has made two new friends here, another 9 year old boy and a 7 year old boy. They hung out all afternoon, and then the three of our families all went to dinner.

There is a Thai place just around the corner that we had heard about, so we went out there. They have live music and a fun atmosphere. Kris and Anne both enjoy Thai food, so we were looking forward to trying it. When the hostess saw our three families with all our kids, we could tell that she did not want to seat us. She offered us the VIP room, for an extra 1500 yuan (about $250). She said otherwise we would have to "wait long time." One of the guys with us walked back in to the restaurant and saw tons of empty tables, so we passed on the VIP room and ended up sitting on the balcony. As hot as it is here, it was not unpleasant to sit outside (we're starting to get used to the smokers). 

This place had a huge menu, and all of the items that we could recognize looked good in the pictures. Between the three families we ordered a little bit of everything (not including the large selection of seafood that was swimming in tanks at the front entrance) and everyone seemed generally pleased.

As we were leaving the restaurant, the band was out in front playing more music. We couldn't resist shooting a little video. Aunt Jennifer, this one is for you: 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21147169/Video.MOV