Oh, we walked

It was raining and raining when we woke up on Thursday morning. I started to have a little panic attack thinking we would spend yet another day trapped in the hotel room. The malls that are around here are like 5 stories of stores that all sell pearls. That might get a little old after a while. David and Maggie went down to Starbucks while I sat in the room and waited for a call from Amy or Lineker if there were any problems with our paperwork. There were none so we had the rest of the day free. Argh!

It had basically quit raining so we stowed our super sized umbrella in the stroller and set out. Our umbrella was not as large as the one at the teahouse however. We decided to go to the park across the street first--Liuhua Park. Because the streets are very wide here, sometimes there are underground tunnels to get people across the street. We went down about a hundred stairs, found what we thought was the right staircase and went up, only to find that we weren't in the right place! Back down the stairs and then up the right ones. I was sweating by the time we got to the park. Because it rained a good bit, it was very humid but not burning hot outside which was nice. The park was huge and very beautiful. I think it might be kind of fun to be an old person in China. You know, you get to go to the park every day and gossip with your friends and play hacky sack and dance with each other. That might be an alternate plan to Kimberly's and my original plan to move to Miami and wear caftans and lots of gold jewelry and have lots of cats. Oh yeah, and be leathery. We walked around the park for a long time and Maggie fell asleep. China is not very handicapped friendly. There are lots of steps everywhere and not too many ramps.

The park was very beautiful though. (I have to add a side note that I just thought I smelled a dirty diaper but then I realized it was my feet. EW! Antimicrobial shoes, my FOOT.)

We left and decided to walk over the the Six Banyan Temple and yes, I realize that I called it the Seven Banyan Temple the other day but I do not feel like going back and changing it. We walked and walked. Like a hundred miles. We went through all these cool little neighborhoods with little restaurants and shops selling all kinds of interesting stuff. I thought it was kind of cool that all the shops around the temple sold all kinds of incense and Buddha figures and such. We got ALL kinds of stares because there was not another white face to be seen for miles. Especially 2 of them with a Chinese baby. But it wasn't uncomfortable because I was staring as much as they were. I got a thumbs up from several old women and Maggie got many smiles. Maybe it was because she was bundled up to her eyeballs. When we got near the temple, you could smell the incense. This man without a hand showed us where to buy tickets so of course, we had to give him some money. Inside the temple walls was beautiful and very peaceful. The Six Banyan Temple is the tallest pagoda in the area, I believe. You can climb up to the top but since we had a sleeping baby in a stroller, we opted out. We just walked around instead.


If you look carefully at the Buddha statues, you can see that there are food offerings in front of them. Apples and cans of Coke and Sprite. Hee. David said they have to be offerings of sweets. I think if I were Buddha, I'd be requesting some cookies or cake instead of fruit. But that's just me. There were a lot of people lighting incense and praying. Very interesting. We also saw a cat which Maggie was very interested in. That bodes well.

Then we walked over to the Bright Filial Piety Temple which was about the same. Also peaceful and incense-y.


Our Buddha pictures from this temple are very blurry for some reason. They were HUGE though. Amazingly huge. Then I was ready to go back so we started walking back. Then David hailed a cab, thank GOODNESS. It felt like we had been walking forEVER. But then when we got back to the hotel, our fare was 70¥ which is about 90 cents. I guess we had only walked half a mile. Ha! I am officially a wimp.

When we got back, we dined on McDonald's. I tell you what, McDonald's doesn't taste as good at home as it does here. Then we played for a while and Maggie fell asleep on David. I looked over at her at one point and she was sweating bullets. She had beads of sweat all over her head. Kind of disgusting. We put her hankie over her head and watched Buffy. Then I fell asleep too. When Maggie woke up, she and I went out in the hall to play with Brooke and Emma. I think Emma was really feeling good yesterday. She was smiling and laughing and she let me hold her. She likes to be slid down the wall too. Maggie was not happy with me when I was holding Emma.
This picture is for you, Mom and Barb.
This picture was taken upside down.
This is not a great picture of Maggie but I wanted you to see her dimple!!!

We ate a TON of junk food from Danny's for dinner last night--potato skins, garlic bread, breadsticks, and chicken nuggets. Then I felt sick so Maggie and I packed up in the stroller and went for a little walk. There is some kind of Italian delegation here so there were about a million stylin' Italians in the lobby and there I was with no makeup on and my Old Navy shorts and t shirt. And my baby in her pajamas! Then we did the usual bedtime routine with the Chinese lullabies except David kept making me laugh because he thinks the first song sounds like an old timey record player. I put Maggie down and she made one little peep and went to sleep! David flipped me off. BWA! Then we watched some more Buffy, David fell asleep and I watched 1 more episode.

Maggie woke up screaming at 2:30 and about scared me to death. I leaped up out of bed because I thought it was morning. I squinted at the clock and realized what time it was and waited to see what she would do. She went back to sleep. We have GOT to get a baby monitor when we get home. I don't know if I would hear her in her room at night when I'm sleeping.

Today we are going to go to the other park and start packing. We have to be in the lobby at 3 to go to the Consulate. Then we get Maggie's passport and visa and we are DONE! I am going to be sad to say goodbye to everyone tomorrow. They are all going to be rushing to get to their flights when we get to Hong Kong so Brooke and I decided we would say goodbye tomorrow before we leave the hotel.

David gave Maggie a bath this morning. He did a very good job. I've started bathing her with a towel over me because she splashes like a tidal wave now. We are going to eat Chinese one last time for lunch today. Well, I guess that's it for now. I probably won't update until tomorrow when we are in Hong Kong because I won't have time to tomorrow morning. Well, unless I get on the ball and do it tonight. We shall see but don't count on it.