Holiday Inn Shifu

Just wanted to say a few words about our accomodations. It is a wonderful hotel, the staff is very friendly and helpful, as I have said before the rooms are huge, there is about 10 tv stations in english and our dvd player hooked up to the tv to play endless scooby doo and full house marathons. One of the bellhops (Frank) has become Craig's buddy, he has helped on many occasions. The beds are hard but we find them comfortable, the internet service works well, (.15 per min, $15 max per day) . The bathrooms are nice with an enclosed shower and a large tub, they give you 2 free bottles of water everyday but the shops right outside the hotel sell water for about .25 a bottle.The food in the cafe is good, the other restaurant has eel, shark fin and pigeon on the menu so we will not be eating there. The laundry is expensive but there are so many places on Shamain Island that will pick up and deliver your laundry for 1/10 the price. It is a fun 15 minute walk to Shamain Island everyday as we pass all the shops, there are several McDonalds near our hotel, I am sure we will try it once before we leave. We have never been scared or worried about walking anywhere around the hotel. We do need to remember to bring the Hotel information with us as the taxi drivers don't speak or understand english very well.

That's it for now we are off to buy Ruthie some clothes.

Talk to you all again soon.

March 1st

Good morning all
It is March 1st here so I am sending out a happy birthday to my mei mei (little sister) Suzette, we love you and miss you and are looking forward to your visit in a few weeks.

Well it has been almost 4 whole days since our family was completed and her is what I can tell you about Ruthie so far: She is strong willed with a tight grip on things, she loves to throw things and have you give them back to her so she can throw them again, she loves to be picked up and laughs every time, she is a good walker, loves to play with her new toys, she is a very good eater, she will come to you if you hold your arms open, she loves to touch everything, she is ticklish on her feet and belly, she is teething, she sleeps well, last night when I rocked her to sleep I thought she was out and went to put her down she grabbed on to me with both hands (first hug from her), she cries out when she is hungry, she has little cries 10-20 times a day as she is grieving leaving the only life and people she has known so far in her young life. This isn't everything but I will leave it there for now. We should have more pictures posted by tomorrow morning your time

Bob, Jessie, Craig, Ruth and Kara

lazy

Well we went back to Shamain Islan again, but it was already 7:30pm so we took a taxi (a whopping $1.25) The driver on the way back took us the long way so it was $2, but it was an interesting drive. Craig fell asleep in the taxi and Ruth is taking her last bottle of the night. The Hard Rock Cafe closed so that saved us some money. We plan to take a taxi to Sports City tomorrow, they are supposed to have the best Olympic souviners. It is about 1/2 hour away. Not much else planned for this weekend but shopping and taking pictures, we will post as many as we can. We finally figured out how to view the blog and read the comments from hear, thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers and words of encouragements. We would not have been able to do this without our friends and family (and generous credit card companies). We understand the weather at home isn't so great so I don't think I will get any sympathy for the sunburn I got yesterday.
Take care for now, talk to you again soon.

Friday afternoon

It is 4pm and we are loungeing around in our hotel room. Ruth just woke up from a 3 hour nap, sounds pretty good right now. We just posted some pictures, hopefully no one is offended by the toilet but in many places this is what the toilet looks like. We have not tried to use it but we are curious how you actually use it?. Ruth had her physical today and it went well, she is about 24 pounds and healthy other than the repaired lip and clef palate. We went to a Chinese restaurant on Shamain Island for lunch, it was very good (and a whopping $17). We are getting ready to gear up to stroll the streets looking for bargains and take some pictures. We had to go to the bank of china yesterday to exchange money and saw some new stores, converse, tupperware, a honey store, chopstick store etc. We are going to look for Olympic souvenirs and some teas to bring home. Tomorrow we will do the big shopping on the island, most likely at the stores that take credit cards as we have spent far more cash than we thought we might but many places did not take credit cards. We will need to buy a few more outfits for Ruth, the first ones we bought were a little small. We did make it to the Jade market and bought a Jade bangle for Jessie to wear and pass on to Ruth when she is older. We will stay close this weekend, Monday our guide will take all of our paperwork to the consulate and we will go back Tuesday for the ceremony and pack for an early flight Wednesday. Our flight leaves at 8:30 am, so we need to leave the hotel by 5:30. We arrive home at 1:30 pm (after we pick back up the 13 hours we lost on the way here). After customs and such we hope to be home by 5pm. The plane ride will be another first for Ruth, wish us luck.
Talk to you all again soon.

Bob, Jessie, Craig, Ruth and Kara