A Look Back: Guangzhou

I love when we get to Guangzhou!  It feels like home. :)  Plus, there were mamas that I had connected with online, that I would finally get to meet!

I love the Garden Hotel, the sights, smells... BREAKFAST! We even tried swimming once, but it was not a heated pool and even in this weather was COLD!

We went to all of the normal places: Chen Family Academy (for chops and some paintings), Pearl River Cruise (for the beautiful sights), Pearl Market (for wedding jewelry and fun stuff for mama), Zoo (cause you can never get enough of the animals), and Shaiman Island (for amazing deals and BAGS AND BAGS of treasures, Catherine talked me into getting a cab on the way home)!!

Stringing Emilyn's wedding pearls

Things that open to entertain Emilyn on the plane, but double as souvenirs!

Fun mama jewelry ($1-2 bracelets)

Emilyn's wedding pearls

Guangzhou zoo

Pearl River Cruise

Pearl River clown.. you can see Emilyn is thrilled. ;)

Pearl River

Lunch at Lucy's on the Island

We also hit the stores a lot to try out the crazy flavors they have.  We fell in love with Cucumber Potato Chips!!  Freshly squeezed orange juice from a vending machine was pretty fantastic also!

We also tried Cow and Bridge for the first time.  It was AMAZING!!  Super delicious food, ultra fancy, and CHEAP!

Catherine convinced me to "try a different way home" one day... We were in the "local" part of China.  We visited a few stores and got lots of crazy looks!  It was a FUN DAY!

 We had Emilyn's medical appointment, which she rocked!  Thank goodness the TB test came back negative so that we were able to have our scheduled Consulate Appointment and make her an American Citizen!

At the Consulate... No cameras or phones inside!

After the Consulate with some other Chosen mamas!

We even missed getting to breakfast at a decent time one morning.  This meant that the breakfast room (which is huge) was full! So they escorted us to the Circular Restaurant on the very top (30th) floor!!  We were a tad under-dressed, as everyone else was in business attire and we were planning for the zoo that morning!