China Trip - December 22, 2004
Today was our last full day in China. Nature marked the event with a snow storm -- only the second snowfall this year. We started our morning as usual with a bath for Elisa, which she continues to enjoy immensely, sporting her newly acquired Buddha belly from constant feeding.
Elisa imitating Daddy's hair. It will be nice to see her hair grow out over the next few months. Also, notice how fat her cheeks are getting.
Today, Yulin had us moved to a different breakfast room, which we were happy about because the other room only served until 9am, and the new room serves until 10am. Helpful for new parents who are not yet efficient about getting ready to go out the door with a baby.
The breakfast table is an opportunity for the parents to swap baby stories. And apparently also an opportunity for the babies to swap parent stories.
After breakfast, I played Mr. Mom again for a few hours as Vicki went to the International Bookstore to buy some books, particularly for her father. It is the largest bookstore in all of Asia. Our tour guide, Fay, was nice enough to take Vicki there personally. Fay also was the one who took me to the hospital for an eye exam -- so she's really shown us amazing hospitality. While Vicki was gone, Elisa and I played, and when it was time for her nap, I just made a bottle. She played a little longer, and then picked up her bottle again, brought it over to me and signaled for "up". So I picked her up and walked her to sleep with absolutely no fuss. So she's figuring out the routine. The picture below shows the outcome.
After Vicki got back from the bookstore, she took over with Elisa, and I headed out on the tour bus for our visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. This is the famous memorial in the center for the square, with Mao's tomb behind that.
This is the outer gate to the forbidden city. The famous Mao portrait is an oil painting that has to be re-done every year.
This is one of the inner gates to the Forbidden city. The entire Forbidden City, including 9,999 palaces, was built starting in 1206 over a period of only 15-20 years. It was the permanent home of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
This is one of the residential palaces. Many of the scenes from the movie "The Last Emporer" were filmed here. Inside, above the throne, the Emperor would customarily place a piece of paper behind a panel. On the paper, he would have written the name of one of his sons who was to be his successor. Upon the death of the Emperor, they would take out the piece of paper to find our who was to be the next Emperor.
This evening, Yulin and Bob organized a farewell dinner party at a restaurant near the hotel. These are the young girls that traveled with us. From back to front: Caitlyn, Isabella, Julee, and Georgia. Becka, an 8th grader, was also with us. Elisa would just light up whenever she saw any of these girls.
Pat and Julia
Ian, Val and Amy
Melinda and Rebecca
Alfred and Rebecca
Ross and Donna
Note the "I love daddy" shirt.
Michelle and Charlotte.
The party included some entertainment. First, they had a magician that did excellent "slight of hand" card tricks. Elisa watched the whole act intently, and particularly liked joining in on the clapping.
Then they had the dance called the Opera of the Changing Faces. Elisa got a little scared by this one.
At the end of the evening, Yulin and Bob presented a good-bye cake, and everyone had a piece. It served double-duty as a birthday cake for Bob.
Tomorrow we begin the 32 hour-long journey home, so it's time to do a little packing and sleeping.