Day 8

We flew from Shanghai to Guangzhou on this day (Friday). The Shanghai airport was wonderful. It was easy to navigate and they were child friendly. K was a little pro traveler. She did great on the plane. It was a very rough and turbulent 2.5 hour flight. It was also very cramped… I sat in the middle seat and J had an aisle seat. A Chinese woman had the window seat. The seats were very small and there was NO leg room. And that sucker was HOT. It’s like there was no air circulating?? Ugh. The hardest part was keeping K away from the woman sitting next to us. She just wanted to spread out a little bit :) Also, she thought it was fun to kick the seat in front of us. We had to try to keep her busy and distracted so she wouldn’t constantly kick it. Until the dinner service came through and the man in front of me refused to put his seat in the upright position…. I couldn’t even get my tray table down… then I just smiled and let that sweet baby girl kick away. Amazingly, even with the language barrier… he finally got the hint and put his seat up! :)

We arrived in Guangzhou and our guide, Jack met us at the airport and we were driven to our hotel.

The Garden Hotel is gorgeous and we had a nice BIG suite to spread out in! After the small room in Shanghai, this felt heavenly!!! Home Sweet Home for the next 5 days.

Outside hotel at night

In the lobby

Front desk

View outside of our room. The chairs are the outdoor breakfast area.

Some of the garden area outside

View of the back side of the hotel

After we checked in and settled into our room, we walked to the Pizza Hut that was just across the street from our hotel. The pizza was good, but definitely different than here at home.

After dinner, we walked over to the 7-11 to get stocked up on snacks for the room. We were all out of Snicker bars and Cokes! It was an emergency situation!! :) Inside joke: Rachel and I almost lived on Snickers and Cokes while we were there :) We couldn’t imagine how in the world we gained weight while we were there! Ha!

The Benningtons didn’t arrive until very late that Friday night because their flight from their daughter’s province to Guangzhou was very delayed. We didn’t get to see them until the next morning at breakfast. We were very excited to get to see them again! And to get to meet their beautiful girl! We’d skyped with them, but we hadn’t got to meet her in person! :)