Pictures!

Yesterday after Caleb woke up from his nap, we decided to venture out and explore the hotel a little bit. We walked outside and saw the waterfall and the pond with lots of bright fish in it. Any time Caleb sees a small animal, including a bird or a fish, he yells "woof-woof!" at it. This is hilarious to see. We haven't seen any large animals, but we've seen some pictures of some and some statues and to these he does a very guttural "rooaaarrr." The zoo should be a lot of laughs with him!!

Here is the rooftop pool. It is not on the top of the 30th floor, but is accessed from the 4th floor. Notice the sunbathing beds around it. I find myself kind of wishing it was the season to use this pool. Its not quite warm enough here just yet!

There is also an outdoor playground across from the pool, but it was too wet to use. There is an indoor playroom for toddlers and Caleb did enjoy that!

Last night we ate at a local Mexican restaurant with our group. It was delicious! Caleb loved his quesadilla! I didn't take any pictures there, but I wish I had. It seems so funny to see Chinese people dressed up as Mexicans, but then again, Mexican people may think its funny to see white folk dressed up like them in our restaurants at home, too!

Today (Sunday here) we went shopping. We went to a local mall where they have wholesale pearl, turquoise and jade markets. The mall was HUGE. Steve wasn't a big fan of all the jewelry and souvenir shops, so he went with some of the other guys in the group and walked around with the kids while the ladies did our shopping! This is the mall. Six floors!! Shops all crowded in everywhere!!

 

This is the pearl market. They had beautiful pearls in natural and dyed colors. 

 

After this, we went to the Chen Clan Academy (Also called the Cantonese Folk Art Museum). Here they had beautiful artwork for sale as well as custom made stamps, jewelry, Christmas ornaments and souvenirs. We saw a LOT of beautiful stuff and did some shopping! It was rainy, so the pictures don't do it justice! This is the view looking out from the museum at the street.

This is looking at the museum.

The museum was a large building that went around the outside of a large courtyard in the middle. This is taken standing inside one part, looking out through the courtyard to the other part of the building. Everything on the building is hand made and took many years to complete. It is hard to see from the pictures but it was an exquisite structure!!

 

 

This is what Caleb thought of all the shopping! Snoozefest!!

 



 

We came back to the hotel and had lunch in the room and put Caleb down to nap. It has been thunder storming like crazy! We are supposed to go to the zoo tomorrow, so we are hoping the weather clears up. If not, we are planning to swap it for another shopping day scheduled for Wednesday before we leave. It would be fantastic if we could get some good weather for both days!!

 

This is the view from the living room of our suite in the hotel! (Taken yesterday before all the thunderstorms came in!)

 

 

 Also taken from our living room window looking the other direction.

Taken from the 30th floor window. They have a restaurant up there that turns as you eat. Our first morning here, the breakfast on the main floor (that comes with the room) got too crowded, so they sent us up to the 30th floor for breakfast (at no charge!). It was beautiful!!