Adoption Traditions and Travel Shots

According to Cora, MANY adoptive parents get their pictures taken in front of the fountain at the White Swan Hotel...why not?  It's a beautiful locale and it is a pleasant outing to walk through the ground floor of the hotel.  There are expensive pieces of art and furniture just sitting around.  The waterfall is beautiful and the Koi are fat.

We arrived in Guangzhou yesterday.  We saw an immediate change in Chloe.  She relaxed.  A LOT!  She still wants to be held by mommy (and who'd blame her?) but she resigns herself to being held by me, too!  Without too much fussing!  How awesome is that?!

Our train ride was a fun trip.  It was not nearly as cramped as the flight would have been, although our guide tried to make us miss the train by insisting we visit McDonalds before getting checked in to the train. As it was we were the LAST passengers aboard.  We were running from the McDonalds to get up on the concourse to go find the security entrance and run our baggage through and hurrying here and hurrying there.  ONLY TO FIND...there was ANOTHER McDonalds right next to the ticket takers entrance.  RIGHT THERE.  If we had JUST gone through the whole security thing and gotten in line to board the train we could have gotten his daughter's happy meal with plenty of time...but NOOOOO.  Anyway, the important thing is we made it...although some of our nerves were frame past recognition and some less than mature thoughts may or may not have entered my head, but it is not right to throw sesame seed buns at others while aboard the train, so I held back.

The country side was gorgeous...or what I could see of it at 200 mph (213MPH to be exact, thanks to Aunt Karen for the conversion)!!  The track bed was smooth and well maintained.  Our ride was like sliding along a smooth road in the snow.  It was awesome.  It began with snow from Changsha and ended with Banana plantations inside Guangzhou.  We are on Shamian Island in Guangzhou.  It is a bastion of Western design, which was welcomed by us westerners!  After Changsha's cold hospitality (particularly the snow) this place is a haven!

 These two photos are for Dad.  The only motive power we saw were these.  In the above photo you can see two engines in the shed, but I did not see those until I got the photos up on the computer.

 and the next photo is for Uncle Dennis.  I saw this bridge from the train and thought of the Narrows and knew I needed to get a shot.

I saw country side that begged for photos.  Sure, it was country side that other photographers have shot, but as my old photography teacher said, "you have to do all those shots yourself."  I want to do that!  The red clay and the broken buildings and the blue skies.  It's a beautiful land.  China is a nice place to visit.

I know that we were both ready to jump on a plane and go home yesterday morning.  But, after being here a night, we are both capable of staying log enough to see this through!  The room, the baby, the weather is all different and it is good.  We needed this, and I think Chloe did too.  She is thriving!  We love her!

Below you will see photos I took this morning.  On the way to her examination to get her visa to travel to the USA!!

 and then our walk around the Island.