A Walk In The Park

Since we have a few minutes here in the room before heading out with our guide (Catharine) this afternoon for a bit more sightseeing and shopping, I (Jody) thought I would go ahead and document our past few hours. We decided to go for a walk in West Lake Park, which is on an island almost directly across the lake from our hotel. We probably had to walk a little less than a mile to get over there, and it was great to do. The only challenge was the heat and humidity (I'm guessing in the high nineties with 100% humidity)...but that's just China in July.

Here is a look back at the Lakeside Hotel from the island...it was a very nice vantage point.


Here is Mom with her new boy...


It's great to finally see our 6 children in one place.


The park had some beautiful little enclaves with waterfalls and chinese structures...



And on the backside of the park, we discovered a little kiddie amusement park area with very old rides, and a "Sea World" type seal show. We couldn't read the sign to figure out how much it was, but Ming seemed to want to go in, so we paid our money (which turned out to be around $23...more than we thought, but not bad) and went in. It was really quite comical, but well worth the experience. There was one seal (which I have since named Uncle Bud the Lonely Seal) and the trainer showed off his 10 tricks or so for around 15 minutes...and that was it. Here's a glimpse at the "through the hoop" trick, and the roaring crowd...



As we were walking out, one of the families singled Madison out and wanted two of the little girls in a picture with her. This is exactly what happened when we were here three and half years ago, and it's nice to know Maddie is still a star!


We're now off for the afternoon. We'll publish one more post tonight before we crash into bed. It's been very encouraging to read your comments...so please keep that up. And thanks for your prayers. They are blessing us more than we'll ever know.