Day 11 - Guangzhou - Six Banyan Temple & Liuhua Park

Okay, we think we missed a day there somewhere.  Starting with the first full day in Beijing, we have now been here 11 days, so we are skipping one day ahead today to Day 11.

Lisa and Bennett got up early to go for a walk and get some coffee.  Unfortunately Starbucks does not open until 7:30 on the weekends, which left Lisa at the mercy of the lame hotel coffee and a disappointed Bennett.

After another extravagant hotel breakfast buffet (we are going to gain weight on this trip), we headed out to the Six Banyan Temple.  It is a Buddhist temple.  Our guide arranged for the monk to give our children a special blessing.  It was kind of intimidating to be at the feet of the three massive Buddha statues during the blessing.  The blessing was something high on our must do list for the time in Guangzhou.  We'll take all the blessings we can get. 

While Mark and April checked out another building in the complex, Bennett decided to use up his blessings with Mommy and go poop in a squatty potty again.  20 minutes later, we were wondering what happened to them.  Meanwhile in the stall, Bennett asked Mommy why China does not have regular toilets between his screaming of "Don't drop me in the hole!".  Lisa eventually staggered out for fresh air and told Daddy he owed her big time.  Bennett felt much better even though Mommy would not sing or read a story to him during his leisurely sit.  If Lisa hears "Mommy, I'm not done yet" one more time in a squatty potty she is going to cry.

We stopped at a government run crafts center on the way back to the hotel and bought a Chinese chicken (long story) and a nice tea set.

Bennett and April both had mostly great behavior today.  They got along great and are really bonding as brother and sister.  They are holding hands and wanting to sit next to each other on the bus.  Daddy is going to need a new back after carrying April most of the time and Bennett leaping onto his shoulders as soon as April gets down.

Daddy hit the roof when he went to the front desk of the hotel to complain about someone smoking down the hall with their door open.  Many clerks later, he determined that our floor was a smoking floor and the desk clerks had lied to him & our guide when they explicitly stated our room and floor was non smoking when we checked in.  We had to switch our room which was a pain in the keister since we had already unpacked and the kids were half asleep. We did get comped for free internet for our troubles but were not successful in lobbying for a suite.

After the room swap we were tight on time so hit the deli next to the hotel.  We finally determined we could buy french type stuffed rolls for 1/6 the price of the similar sandwiches.  Courtesy of the sausage roll and the fact that soda was cheaper then the water, April has now discovered hot dogs and Sprite.  Bennett went to the bathroom with Lisa (again) and left his 2nd hot dog unattended, which did not last long for our newest food fan (this was her 2nd one).  He was quite bummed on his return until Mark bought him a 2nd one.

In the afternoon we went to the Liuhua Park.  It was very hot and not as nice as the parks we toured in Nanjing.  We did have a nice tea tasting ceremony afterwards.

April is starting to repeat English phrases we are working on with her - such as "all done", "more please" and "thank you".  She is also singing the alphabet song.

Tommorow we are going shopping with Ann from Red Thread and plan to stimulate the Chinese economy (even further).