Touring and Shopping and New Tricks

What a fun, busy, HOT day!  We met our guide, Helen, in the lobby at 9:30 and boarded a bus with six other families to go to a couple of local destinations.

But first:  Good morning from China!  I'm getting all cleaned up and ready to go!!!

Stop one was the Chen Ancestral Hall and Guangdong Folkart Museum.  It was incredibly beautiful and filled with artists and artwork.  There were paintings, embroideries, bone and ivory carvings, glass etchings, and sculptures.  The art here in China is stunning.  Everything is handmade..... such patience and talent.  

Entrance to the area.

Beautiful carvings adorn the rooftops.  The traditional two lion statues guard the front doors.  You see these around a lot.  

My three kiddos in front of the male statue.  The male's paw is always on top of that ball.... symbol of power.  The woman's paw is always on top of her cub.  Sorry.... no picture of that one.....

Beautiful entrance. See that family?  They're mine!

Gardens.....

Gardens.... and check out the intricate carvings on the roof.  Gorgeous.

Joe dubbed this fella the Bob Ross of China.  See that oval platter beside him?  It's full of black ink.  He takes his hand.... the fingernail, finger tip, and palm and creates unbelievable artwork scenes.  No brushes - no nothing.... just his hand in ink.  Fabulous.  I could watch him work for hours.....

Here, Helen is talking with the guy who carves the "chops"..... these are name stamps with your name in Chinese characters.  Helen said that everyone has a chop and it serves as your official signature.... go to the bank to sign papers?  Use chop.  Very official.  Mary's orphanage actually gave us her name on a chop at Gotcha day, so we got one for each of the boys.  The animal on the top symbolizes the year your were born.... Mary and Jack were born in the year of the Rabbit.  Max is the year of the horse.  I am the Tiger.  Joe is the Pig.  Sorry, Joe.

Gorgeous blue etched glass.

My people.  See those stickers Mary is handing me?  We have gone through a LOT of those.  I'm pretty sure the Chen Ancestral Hall and Folkart Museum now has Tinkerbell stickers stuck to a few poles and benches.  Sorry about that.

At one point, we all looked down at Little Miss and she was sound asleep in her stroller.  Not only is this, according to Max...."tots adorbs" (totally adorable, maybe??)..... it means something very important in our family.  Sleeping in a stroller is a rite of passage - a necessity trait - of MUCH importance....... one simply MUST be able to sleep in a stroller in order to enjoy a day at Disney as a youngster.  Both of our boys slept SOUNDLY in their strollers at Disney.  We feel like this one will, too.  Get ready, baby girl.  You've got some fun times coming.....

Stop Two was the Pearl and Jade Market.  I spent so much time getting my pearls put together that I didn't have a chance to look for the jade.  Hopefully, there will be some in our stops tomorrow.

Pearl Market - one of MANY stores.

Stringing my pearls.....

Her hands moved mighty fast as she was putting those things together.  She's a pearl pro.

Adding the clasp.....

We were able to get Mary a pearl single strand (for her wedding day) and a bracelet and earrings for her teenage years.  I also got single strands for my boys to give to their future brides.  They thought this was very interesting...... My sister also did some pearl shopping today via Mary's mom.  Good day for pearls!

But I didn't buy them all......

They have quite the inventory.....

On the way back to the hotel, we discovered yet another favorite food of our girl:  she like the banana.

Once Mary was resting, Joe did what he does best.  Well, ONE of the things he does best.....

Because the boys were AWESOME shoppers today and didn't complain TOO much, we let them choose the dinner location.  So, this evening, I wound up here.

It's VERY different.  I just realized that I should have taken a picture of the menu.  Darn!  They not only serve pizza (which is delicious), but they also serve fried rice, shrimp, steak, mashed potatoes, many desserts, and onion rings.  They also put some funky stuff on their pizza.  We chose to be quite adventurous;  cheese and pepperoni for us.  Fried rice for the girl (surprise, surprise!)  

We're all winding down for the evening.  Actually - they're all OUT and I'm right behind them.  Tomorrow we go to the US Consulate to take our oath.  Very special day.