Today is a nostalgic day.........

At 1:35 p.m., PST, February 22, 2005, one year ago today, our United Airlines 747 lifted off from San Francisco enroute to Beijing. This was the beginning of the most wonderful adventure of all of our lives. I am taking this opportunity to acknowledge an anniversary that changed all of our lives forever.

Those of you who are grandparents, know the feeling of seeing a new grandchild for the first time. Also, the excitment leading up the event. Well, sit back for a moment and imagine those feelings multiplied by 100; no 1,000.

Here we were, on our way to one of, if not the most, mysterious countries on earth. A country that has a 4000 year history. We were to see things that we never could have imagined. Then, add to that the excitement of adding a new grandchild to your family. I don't believe you will ever top the experience. I am teary-eyed simply thinking about it all.

I have been attempting to share the places we saw and the things that we did, but believe me, nobody can capture the essence of China. It is a definite "see for yourself experience".

Having a grandchild from another culture has proven to be a learning experience. The one thing that has proven to be a fact is, a child, is a child, no matter from which part of the world they come.

Our granddaughter has not been around that many other kids on a regular basis, but she still does numerous things that every kid does. This has lead us to believe that the world is a small place.

A prime example is, thumb sucking. She didn't suck her thumb for the first two or three weeks, then, all of a sudden, she discovered her thumbs. This is probably not the best example, since experts say it is a natural response for a child to suck. However, it does show my point.

Now, let's move on with the trip.

In my last post, we had just arrived in Guilin. We were seeing our hotel for the first time. What a gorgeous sight. As I said, it was a five star hotel.

The picture I posted is from a postcard that we received. Okay, I know your thinking, "yeah, all of those postcards make everything look better". Well, this was not the case. This place was better than the picture.

Directly across from the hotel was the Lijiang (Li) River. You could take a stroll at your leisure. Also, not two blocks from the hotel were some back streets that dipicted the true life in China's large cities. These were away from the tourist areas. Of course, remember, the tourists in China, especially in Guilin, are mostly Asian, not Westerners or Europeans. We were an oddity.

Most of the shops in these areas were open-air. They had roofs, but no fronts. There were, however, some fairly normal looking shops.

One of the most interesting shops that we visited was a Chinese pharmacy. They had everything from ginsing root to ground toad. This is not an exaggeration. My son and I spent several hours touring the out-of-the-way areas, while mommy and grandma got to know the baby.

The next morning we were off to the most scenic tour of our trip. A cruise on the Li River. We went from Guilin (Guilin city, as the Chinese say.) to Yangzhou. Visit the website I have provided for more information.