Life in the big city

Today we had a day off from all of the official business, so we spent a couple of hours walking around the city of Guang Zhou. Tomorrow is our final appointment at the US Consulate.

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For those of you paying attention the internal GPS was dead on, we found the grocery store right where I thought it was. There are tons of electronics stores around. If you need an MP3 player just let us know. I bought Dawn the smallest Bluetooth headset I ever saw (Nokia) for $10 US. Wait 'til you see the next generation of cell phones, they are so small I couldn't dial them with my ham hands.
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We visited a park that had some lovely flower displays and this Mickey Wannabe. It's so bad I don't think the Disney folks would even be pissed off (looks kinda like the mouse from the original Steamboat Willie animation, for the Mickey Mouse buffs out there).

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The girls took a much needed nap. I used the time to have a Guinness on the banks of the Pearl River and enjoy the afternoon sun with a book. It's the most relaxed I have felt during the entire trip. I'm reading some Christopher Moore books, for anyone who has read him they know how completely out of his mind he is. Right up my alley.

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Later we joined our new friends Tom, Elizabeth and baby Molly for dinner. They are from Florida by way of Mass. (it annoys me that people mix up our accents, Boston accents sound nothing like NJ accents to me, anyway...) Elizabeth is the sister of our friend in Fruita, Paula (who has adopted 2 beautiful kids from Korea, Tess and Jack). Six degrees....

They are very nice folks. Tom whines incessantly though..."I'm cold"..."I'm sick"..."I need a fork"..."Elizabeth picks on me" ..."I want a camera just like Jim's" and on and on. (Just kidding, I know he'll read this and give me crap. He's really a good guy. You'd be hard pressed to find a guy that loves kids more than him. ) I'm glad we met them. It makes the trip much more fun connecting with someone like them.

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We are already planning on going to see them in Florida to take the girls on their first trip to Disney World. One of the most enjoyable moments in my career as a Dad was taking Grace to Disney World, holding her in my arms at the base of Main St., USA, whispering into her ear, "you know, Cinderella's castle really does exist" and seeing the look on her face when I spun her around and showed it to her. And I'll get to do it again with Livvie. Boy, this dad stuff is fun.