Shamian Island~

Today was a fun day!  We headed to Shamian Island after breakfast.  This island was owned by both the French and the British in years past, and the architecture proves it.  It is nothing like any other of the buildings in China.  It was such a beautiful place, although a bit cloudy today.  The pace was slower~ the retired elderly playing in the park, wedding and engagement pictures were being taken,  and families enjoying walks and much shopping.  The gardens here are so beautiful and they have bronze statues everywhere!  Here are Scott and I having some fun with the statues ;)

The shopping was cheap here.  We bought lots of gifts for Sophie, to give her over the next several years. So much, that Scott also bought another suitcase to take all of our stuff back home!  We bought her traditional Chinese dresses, a handmade quilted blanket, a stamp with her English and Chinese name carved onto the bottom, shirts for the boys, a mahjong game, jade and pearl chop sticks, her name in calligraphy...the list goes on!

Here we are watching the artist carve Sophie's name onto the stamp we bought~

To end our day on the island, we ate at Lucy's.  It was so good.  We sat outside with Jack and watched the locals playing hackey sack.  Scott actually bought 3 of these for the kids from the locals.  He even played with one of the ladies!

Today was also great in that we have started to meet some other families adopting.  In our last hotel, we met 2 families on our last day.  Here, there are many more families, all with their new children, playing in the hotel.  It makes it nice to talk and let the kids run around.