Lions, Tigers and Bears...Oh My

Today was a very busy day for the Wood family. We spent a good part of the day at the local zoo. It was actually a much better zoo than I expected. Maddy did really good again last night, but she did wake up a little bit earlier than normal this morning. That was a good thing, since we had to be out the door at 0900 this morning.

After a quick bite to eat, we took a short bus ride over to the zoo. We walked around the zoo for probably a good 3 hours. Maddy did really good. She actually sat in the stroller for most of the entire zoo visit. At the zoo we saw some pretty cool animals, including a baby giraffe, and a panda. The Panda was pretty old. She is actually the great grandmother of one of the famous panda's at the San Diego Zoo. We had quite a bit of fun at the zoo. Maddy really wasn't to much into the whole zoo trip, but she did do pretty good.

Right after the zoo trip, Simon and Elsie took us to a local restaurant that serves food from Northern China. The food were we are at is more like the food you would find in a typical Chinese restaurant back in the States. Up North, like in Beijing, the food is made with flower instead of rice. It was perhaps one of the best meals I have had in a long time. We had two different kinds of dumplings, some BacChoi, Sweet potatoes, Sweet & Sour Chicken, some beef dish, and banana pancakes for desert. Wow, talk about good. I think I could of eating there every day. It was just amazing.

After the lunch (Which took us about 90 minutes to eat), we came back to the hotel. Several of us then took a taxi ride to the local toy market to pick up some toys as a donation to the orphanage (more on that later). It was once again just plain crazy at the market. Talk about wall to wall people. Oh, and the traffic is just crazy. If there was officially 3 "Lanes" of traffic, there was probably at least 5 different lanes of cars, with bikes going in all directions. Some bikes where even going up against the stream of traffic. People think traffic is bad back in the States should spend some time in China. It's just crazy. The traffic is do bad that most of the major roads in China are actually elevated. So, if you want to get from one part of Guangzhou to another, you take the local roads to a ramp that goes up to the elevated road. Then you take that to the part of the city you want to go, and drive back down to the surface streets. It is actually a very efficient method of getting around. We should think about that in the States.

While we were at the Market, Tina and Maddy went down to the play room for some R&R. Down in the play room, Tina was talking to some people who were wearing an OSU hat. Come to find out, they live about 5 minutes from my Mom and Dad's house in St. Louisville. Talk about a small world. It's just amazing who you meet over here!

Anywho, Tomorrow is going to be a really, really long/busy day. Some of us are going to be going to the different orphanages to visit. It is going to be about a 10 - 12 hour bus/van ride, so don't be expecting any major postings tomorrow. Tina is actually going to stay back with Maddy and spend the day with Karen doing some shopping. I think it will be best if she doesn't go back there. She has made such huge progress over the past week that we don't want to get her confused by bringing her back.

Well, It's time for everyone to go to bed here in China. More pictures and video coming in the next day or so, I promise! Here are the pictures from today.