Day 7 - Hello from Guangzhou!

Well, it was an early morning but we made it! And it was crazy from the start. I got up at 5:30 and showered and dresses, the got Miss L up around 6:15. We intended to check out of the hotel, eat one last free breakfast at the hotel, and then meet our guide and driver. But upon check-out, my credit card was declined (love the security measures, but I called them to tell them my China dates), then L had a blowout diaper and ruined a fresh, clean outfit. So, I ran into the lobby restroom to change her clothes and then met my guide who ushered us into the van. No breakfast. Thankful for Cheerios - toddler superfood!

Me made it to the airport and my guide checked us in. My departure gate was unknown, so we went through security until something posted on the monitors. I let L walk everywhere but she was also being plenty naughty, laying on a dirty airport floor and taking her shoes off. At the last minute we had a gate change, so I scooped her up and we hiked to the other end of the terminal where we waited even longer for our delayed flight.

Once we boarded, the crying and screaming started. It was ugly. She was scared, tired, hungry for real food, you name it. She wailed during takeoff until I could get a flight attendant to bring her some juice to refill the bottle that she downed all too quickly. To my surprise, they still serve meals on domestic flights here, so some rice and a hotdog-type meatball were scarfed down quickly and that stopped the sobbing for a while. But after that it returned. She fell asleep only maybe 15 minutes prior to landing. Sigh. This mama had had it!

We have arrived at the China Hotel and I am connected to the wifi and now I can blog in realtime from my guest room. Yay! As soon as I post this, I'll get onto FB and read all your comments. Sorry you can't comment here. Sometimes blogging on the iPad won't let me get to the tools screen where I can allow you to leave comments. I'll go back and try to do that now that I have some free time while L sleeps.

My guide left and didn't give me her cell number or a list of restaurants or shops nearby. Not sure where to go for dinner. It might be McD's right outside the hotel. Sad but true. In the meantime, we'll seek out the playroom on another floor and hopefully we'll connect with other families!

Oh, by the way, if you're looking at my list of posts and notice I'm missing Day 6, nice catch. I usually write my posts when L is down for the night and then post in the morning from the lobby of the hotel in Xi'an. Well, that obviously didn't happen this morning with our early departure. Not much happened yesterday. We just stayed in and played and packed. As you can see by the picture below, she started to tolerate the bath. Let's see if she actually enjoys it tonight in a new hotel!

Tomorrow afternoon is L's medical appointment at 2pm local time. We'll see what that's like.

A cute shot through the curtains in our hotel in Xi'an.

L in front of her first airplane!

Checking out of our room in Xi'an.

Starting to tolerate the bath in Xi'an.

Eating some sweet bread (much like Hawaiian Bread) before our flight to GZ.