Good Bye Beijing....Hello Chengdu

We departed out hotel at 8:20 a.m. for the Beijing airport and our flight that will take us to Amelia. I'm excited to be going and ready to leave Beijing.

Although we enjoyed ourselves, the weather was less than stellar and our hotel accommodations left a little to be desired. I don't mind older hotels, but I do mind a moldy bathroom. Steve preferred to use the lobby restroom over our own room. I wouldn't even let Elise touch ANYTHING when she came in there. What does that tell you. But, I can put up with anything for a few days. Hey, I just got back from sleeping on the ground for 10 days and my restroom was none other than Mother Nature's Best! But, I will advice anyone to stay away from the Novotel Peace Hotel. The service is fair (took three phone calls to get extra towels), the rooms are a little on the dirty side and the bathrooms are just pretty gross. Just thought I'd share.

A view out our window on a Sunday morning....SHOCKING...no traffic or people walking around. A very rare sight!

Although our room was below par, we did have a very interesting view out the back of the hotel. It appeared to be an alley that had a lot of "activity" into the wee hours of the morning (remember that we were suffering from jet lag and I was up with Elise from about 2 a.m. on the first morning). Then at around 6 a.m., they would bring tables outside and sit around and eat breakfast. Very strange, yet entertaining. We were continually looking out too see what was going on.

A very "quiet" back alley at 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning.

While waiting in the lobby for our bus, my sister, Candy, took a stroll to the local market for a Diet Coke. On the way out, she ran into her "favorite street vendor" (the same one she was waving at two days earlier) and struck a bargain on some Beijing 2008 Olympic paraphanalia. It seems these two bonded over the waving incident and another incident that I hadn't mentioned. So let me digress for a moment. After Candy waved at this particular vendor and got our morning off to a good laugh. We continued to sit in the lobby waiting for our guide. Well, Elise left her purple blanket on the floor over by a piano. She just dropped it and forgot about. This could have been a disaster, if you know what I mean. So, Candy, being the good auntie that she is, went over to retrieve the blanket for the Empress. Well, when she picked up the blanket, she started swinging it over her head like a lasso or something. Well, the lady street vendor was cracking up laughing at her.

So, back to the story. When Candy returned with her purchase and told me that she only paid one yuan for it, I sent Steve back out to buy me 10 more of them (for party favors etc.) Well, she would only sell him five for 10 yuan. So Steve, being the kind of guy he is, just walked away. So, I sent Candy back out. Well, she was able to get (7) for 10 yuan. Steve was indigant! He looked out at her and threw his arms up in the air like, "Why not for me?" We were all laughing and he looked out the window at the street vendor and she was just laughing too! Again, another good laugh to start our day

Driving to the airport was uneventful and we quietly sat and watched the city pass by. We boarded our flights with little or no problems and retrieved our luggage without incident in Chengdu.

Are we there yet????

We met our guide and he escorted us to the hotel and checked us in. Then we had a very brief meeting to discuss the events of tomorrow and dinner plans.

Chengdu reminds me a little of Hong Kong, but less crowded. It's a bit more spread out. Very metropolitan. I think I'm going to like it here.

The Crowne Plaza hotel is very nice. We may have to change our room since we have only one king size bed and not much room for Amelia's crib. We'll see how it works out tomorrow.

King room at the Crowne Plaza

Nice bathroom!!!!

Andy, our guide, took us to Pizza Hut for dinner! Yippeee! It was wonderful! But I will have to go in search of Hot Pot since Sichuan is famous for this particular dish.

Pizza Hut dinner!

We went for a swim at the pool to keep Elise awake tonight. She made it to about 8:30 and she's snoozing in the middle of the bed. Hopefully she will sleep past 5:30 a.m. One can hope!

We leave at 8 a.m. tomorrow for the orphanage. I'm getting ready to pack the gifts up and head to bed. It will be another busy day.

Keep us all in your prayers. I'm not sure what to expect, but I trust that God will handle it all for me since I know he is much more capable than I am!