Gotcha Day part 1!

There are no words that can explain the emotions that today has brought!

But first, we will document the events leading up to Gotcha Day!

We left Beijing just after lunch on Sunday.  After an eventful drop off at

the airport in which we were directed to the wrong terminal, we made it to

our gate with about an hour to spare!  Not to say that the tension was

running high, but Ann Marie did say a few things under her breath that I

will not mention here out of respect to our younger readers.  We boarded the

Shenzhen Airliner for a 4-hour flight to Nanning and as we were the only

non-native passengers aboard we kept giggling to ourselves whenever the

stewardesses repeated information in English just for us!  The flight was

pretty uneventful, but we do have to brag on the food that was served! A hot

meal of chicken lo-mien, yogurt, a croissant and some type of jellied

vegetables were a welcome surprise!  After landing we were met by Mary, our

local guide, and hurried off to the Mingyuan Xindu Hotel in downtown

Nanning.  In contrast to Beijing, Nanning is very green and is one of the

main regions for produce and fruit in China and produce over 60 percent of

all of China¹s sugar.  The ride was made even more eventful as we learned

many rules of the road for travel in ChinaS.there are no rules! Okay, there

are rules, but they are not closely followed.  Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles,

Bikes are all fighting for the same space and remarkably it all works!

Scary, but it works!  After a dinner in the hotel we retired to the room for

some much-needed rest and to ready ourselves for Gotcha Day!

We awoke this morning at around 4:30 our time (yes, our bodies have still

not adjusted totally) and the fact that the beds are like sleeping on 1 inch

plywood does not help! 5 Star hotel, 0 Star beds! We mad it downstairs

around 8:00 this morning for a breakfast that was a mix of traditional

Chinese and Western cultures and very good!  Afterwards we made a trek to

the grocery just across the street for some goodies to stock the room and

had a blast looking around for about an hour. Our best moment came when we

successfully navigated traffic at the intersection for the first time!  We

looked like professionals!  Again, were right at home walking through the

isles of products so unfamiliar yet eerily we acted as though we fit right

in!  We purchased a few items and then made our way back to the hotel to

prepare (or wait impatiently!) for the big moment to arrive!

So I will leave you in suspense until Brandi posts the next entry I will

start writing as soon as I send this one out! So, till thenSS.

Michael (did that menu say Duck Feet?), Ann Marie (is there a soap that I

recognize?), and Savannah (I think I can eat noodles at every meal!) Kennedy

The only way to wait for a flight!

 The view from our room in Nanning

Helping Mom figure things out

Lobby of the Mingyuan Xindu Hotel

What? Me stress?