July 1, 2011~ On to Guangzhou!

Yesterday we traveled 4334 kilometers (nearly 3000 miles) closer to home when we flew from Urumqi to Guangzhou.  There was so much more of the area that we would have loved to have seen.  And while getting food was somewhat difficult with VERY limited English menus, we did love our street food!  

Daniel savoring some of our beautiful bread while Ian and I finished packing up.

Alfred gave us suggestions of what to see when we go back, from cultural interest areas to specific beautiful scenery spots to some adventure travel.  I made some notes and honestly hope that we will be able to return to Xinjiang in the near future.  We also gave Alfred some suggestions on areas to visit when he is able to come to the states one day, from some of the majestic scenery "out West" to the lovely wide sand beaches of North Carolina.  

The airport with the name in both Mandarin characters and Arabic writing.

Saying goodbye to our driver, Mr. Liu

Our family with Alfred.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, so we found a place to leave our bags (with Grandma) and then took the kids for a walk to get the wiggles out.  Luckily we found a moving sidewalk in an area that was not heavily used and lots of excess energy was burned off as the kids ran back and forth on it.  Eventually we made it back to Mom and just watched out the windows for a while.

T-rex clad boys playing with cars.  Doesn't get much better, or louder, than that.

DQ found that she didn't need words to enjoy a magazine.

Totally spellbound by all the action that goes on while a plane is "turned over" from one flight to the next.

We were hoping that would assist sleeping on the plane for our quad.  It worked for 75% of the crew.  Unfortunately our youngest was not so happy about being in flight and was pretty vocal about it.  Poor Ian.  I was trapped in a window and center seat with Darcy one row back on the other side of the plane and wasn't able to offer any help ~ not sure if Daniel would have quieted down for me anyway.  It was a long 4 1/2 hours, but finally the buildings of Guangzhou came into view and we touched down.  

After being warmly greeted by our guide Rebecca (she was also our GZ guide last year on Darcy's trip) we walked to another section of the airport to meet up with two other families from our agency that had just arrived.  It was nice to chat with them and hear about their experiences in their province.

After getting settled into our room, Ian hit the street to bring a quick dinner up to the room.  It may have been just from McD's, but mine sure tasted like a "cheeseburger in paradise"...

...we had promised the kids after all...