Saturday, December 23rd - Off to Guangzhou

Around mid-day we flew to Guangzhou - Leah's first plane ride. Let me tell you. If today's 1.5 hour flight is any indicator of how our upcoming 3 flight/17 hours in the air travel day is going to be, then we'll just chose to stay here in China until she's 5. Normally she's been really sweet, and we keep saying how she's easier than either of our boys, but she did not like being cooped up on the plane. She finally fell asleep for the last 30 minutes, but we're really going to need a better strategy for the long flights coming up.

That being said, when we got off the plane we felt like we'd arrived in paradise. Chongqing is known as the "foggy city", and that's no lie. It's so gloomy, it makes Seattle seem like a sunny place. Guangzhou is 70 and sunny with palm trees. You should see our hotel. It's a suite on the 25th floor overlooking Shamian island - built up during the British occupation. All of the homes are colonial style, and traffic is limited on the island. We're right next door to the US Consolate where we'll have a meeting to get the final visa paperwork done the day before we head home on the 29th.


Leah's first airplane ride. Picture taken before she became a nasty little beast.


View from our hotel room at the White Swan. If you're ever in Guangzhou, stay here.


Leah playing on the floor of the hotel room. She really dug the mirror on the wall. We've found that she loves mirrors. Any time she's near one she wants to get close and touch it. She starting licking this one. We think she's pretty vain about her looks. ;-)