Halloween in Guilin

 It's Saturday morning here, and these photos are from yesterday (Halloween.)  We're adjusting to the time change, and all went to sleep very early last night, and woke up at 3:30 ish this morning.  As Forever Family Day approaches (tomorrow!)  we are surprisingly calm.  It seems very surreal.  I remember feeling the same way before we met Ariel.  But this time I decided not to worry so much and just handle things as they come.  Little Hao Yu has apparently been transitioned from her foster family back to the orphanage to prepare her for adoption.  That doesn't sound very fun for her, so keep her in your thoughts as she makes this emotional transition.  We'll do our best to comfort her and meet all her needs, and hopefully to make her laugh and smile.  We appreciate the support of all our family, friends, and America World Adoption while we meet our new daughter and help her settle in.  We hope to meet her foster family.  We have a gift for them and a letter that our friend, Yaoyao, translated for us.  Thank you, Yaoyao!  She also translated some other notes, including a note about Ariel - how she joined our family and her special personality.

The air quality seems pretty good here.  The weather is just foggy, misty, and cloudy.  We can still see some of the rocky steep hills that are famous here.  Our hotel is the Shangr-La.

Halloween at the hotel breakfast

Tai chi lady at the hotel

Reed Flute Cave scenic area

Inside the cave.  I rotated this, but guess it didn't take.  Very pretty. 

Elephant Trunk Hill.  Jeff held Ariel in the Ergo carrier while she napped.  He's practicing because we want to carry each girl in their own Ergo.

We walked through a funny light display in the Elephant Hill riverside area.  It had many figures of couples in various romantic positions, including Disney characters and Adam and Eve.  These white things I think were elephant trunks.

By the willows

Back in the city center, we had refreshments (that's spicy tofu) and looked at our Xi Yang Yang play figure set.  I was so happy to find it!  The lady brought the price down to 50 Yuan just for Ariel (ha ha.)  So worth it.  In English, it's Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf.  We'll play with them in the castle, dollhouse, and Fisher Price village at home.  Maybe Hao Yu will like them, too.

At the cosmetic store.  All the sales ladies wore hot pink devil horns.

We're off to Guiyang today.  We have a layover in Guangzhou.  Looking forward to meeting some of our new Travel Group friends in Guiyang!  We can all be nervous (or calm) together.

Thursday

We spent the day leisurely sightseeing in Guilin.
Reed Flute Cave and Elephant Trunk Hill, and walking all around. Tired and going to bed.

Sent from my iPad

Guilin at night

 Along Gui Lake where our nice taxi driver, Jacky, dropped us off.

 A touristy shopping street downtown

Before and during the flights

 Watching lots of Kai Lan's Trip to China (a favorite lately.)

 Douglas Heffernan, the shark

The last leg of our flights (Beijing to Guilin on China Southern).  Ariel & I were completely zonked on that flight.

Ariel dancing in Guilin

We made it here late last night.  Ariel & I napped a lot on the plane rides, but Jeff didn't sleep much.  So we let him rest today while we hit the town.  Here's a video of Ariel enjoying the pedestrian streets of Guilin.

Bilbo Baggins and last day of school

 After gymnastics, we celebrated with refreshments at Bilbo Baggins in Old Town Alexandria

with "Hobbit Girl" who napped heavily after gymnastics.  She'll miss the last 2 gymnastics classes, so we enjoyed time with the class (Miss Cris, Miss Debbie, Miss Yve, Miss Heather, Omar, Paloma, Gabby, Leo, Talia, Dennis, and Nathaniel.)

 We walked around Old Town and by the water.  Ariel dipped her feet in the City Hall Fountain a few times.

 Ready to catch the bus on her last day of school before the big trip.

Special weekend with Ariel

 We were going to visit Mount Vernon for the Fall Festival, but it was too crowded.  So we ended up at George Washington's Gristmill.  We walked around the grounds and creek side.