Day 8: Walking hand in hand

Day 8 photos all have captions. The album is titled "Out and about in Xi'an": http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.bzit3mwn&x=0&y=-ds4q1y

*** ALERT *** No tissues needed! (I think?)

Today was relatively uneventful...thank goodness! We went to breakfast in the hotel per usual and I burnt my toast for the fifth straight day. I get one final shot to get it right tomorrow. Isabel did hurl while I was getting my plate. There was a little mess on the floor next to our table and the waitress staff pretended like they couldn't see it. Other guests saw it, especially the ones who were being seated at the table closest to it. They chose to go to another table. Leslie cleaned it up, and Isabel was fine. She ate well and was active all day.

She's playing in the room now...no more bump on a log. She opens drawers and walks around with a picture album of the family that we brought. Her favorite thing is the television remote control. Somehow she seems to know how to use it, almost always landing on CNBC. Not only did we adopt an adorable little girl, but we got a stock broker too boot! Her mama was proud when she changed the station to the Fashion Channel (yes, 24 hours of catwalk all day long).

We soon bundled up to get ready for a family outing to a department store around the corner. Isabel was ready to go and I put out my hand and opened the door to our room to leave. She walked over and grabbed my finger. I said "grabbed" Dad, not "pulled"...geez. We walked hand in hand out the door, down the hall, into and out of the elevator. What a great feeling it was. Up until now she's only walked at the orphanage and in our room. The experience was short lived as we ended up with noodle legs as soon as we got to the door to the street. My arms are getting tired. I woke this morning and felt like I had gone water skiing for the first time in years. These are muscles that I use periodically with Jackson, but this is getting ridiculous. We're going to pick up a stroller in Guangzhou and hope she'll sit in it. Anyway, the department store was much like what you'd find in the US. Most products were familiar and the prices were equal to or more expensive than the States. There were no bargains to be found. We bought a two handled sippy cup for $3.50 and left.

Isabel went down for a nap when we got back to the room and I decided to go explore the city and take some pictures. It's very interesting to experience being a minority for the first time in my life. While I've said the stares don't bother me I may have lied slightly. I'm not bothered by the reasons that they're staring, but there's just a smidgen of an uncomfortable feeling that I get when it's happening. So I decided to go incognito on my picture taking excursion. See the first photo and it'll be crystal clear. I put on my knit hat and pulled it down to the top of my sunglasses. I laughed on my way out the door because I guessed I stuck out even more now! Not many people here wear sunglasses because it's perpetually smoggy, and the hat...forget about it, I haven't seen one remotely similar in China. Pleasantly, I was able to avoid about 90% of the looks and enjoy the people and scenery. I just wandered and shot what I found interesting and/or meaningful. I aimlessly stumbled upon a Starbucks as well as the Wal-Mart Leslie went to the other day. It was nice to enjoy the familiar taste of latte. At one point on my walk back I found myself stuck in between lanes of traffic. A bus gave me a close shave, and a cab nearly missed my rear. I had my camera out and just pointed and shot from the hip to capture the moment. I made it back to the room in one piece, then Leslie got some alone time and hit the treadmill at the hotel gym, while Isabel and I colored Dora and watched her favorite..."Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo"

During my wanderings today I found another familiar restaurant, Pizza Hut. I reported back to Leslie and she gasped and said definitely, "We're going for dinner." So we did. It was about a half mile walk. Oh my poor arms. Part of me wants to get into a street fight in a few weeks to test these puppies out. Pizza hut was inside the entrance to the mall and the wait for a table was 20 minutes so we walked around for a bit. This mall was NICE...maybe top 3 nicest I've ever been in (don't ask me the other two). It was 6 stories high with not a speck of dirt on the floors or anywhere for that matter, and it even had it's own indoor ice rink. Now coming from the land of the Mall of America and indoor amusement parks I shouldn't impress easily, but I didn't know Xi'an even existed before we were matched with Isabel, and my preconceived notions have been blown out the window. Anyway, back to the mall. Something the Chinese seem to do that we don't do in the US is to group stores by type. Earlier on my walk on a street where a mob surrounded a police car (see photo) every single business on that block sold cell phones. On the first floor of the mall almost every store sold luxury timepieces (Rolex, Bulgari, etc.). Just an observation. I think I've arrived again at one of my trivial explanations.

Back at Pizza Hut we were seated and Isabel was on my lap. We began feeding her Gerber dried fruit pieces. Since we were at a 4 person table I slid her food over in front of the seat next to me and slyly slid her onto it. She didn't miss a beat. It was the first time out to eat where she was sitting on her own rear. It was nice. The waitress soon brought a high chair and I was able to move her into that without a fuss. Leslie wondered out loud if she'd ever had pizza before. That just made me chuckle. I joked that I'm sure they had pizza parties in the orphanage every now and then. After seeing what those kids were eating yesterday, I'd say with some confidence they may not even know what traditional Chinese cuisine tastes like, let alone Italian pie. Isabel is our little garbage disposer. She'll eat anything we put in front of her, except pineapple, which found its way onto our Supreme pizza. She loved every bite. There came a point when she was clearly finished and began to play with her food. I said "Boo" (not sure of the Chinese spelling) which means "no". She stopped for a moment, stared at me, and slowly resumed the "bad" behavior with a growing grin on her little face. She was testing us again and all three of us found it amusing. I think I've touted how nice certain things are in this city. You'd think I worked for the Chamber of Commerce. But I need to mention that had we not known this place was a Pizza Hut, we would've expected a 4 star meal based solely on the decor. There was chandelier lighting, marble and colorfully tiled flooring, and frosted glass and bamboo decorating the dividers between the tables. Oh, and the pizza was great. It tasted just like it does back home, and was much needed on day 8. We went down to Starbucks after dinner and Les got a latte. It was as close to feeling home that we could get.

That's all for today. Tomorrow we check out at noon and head to the airport where we'll catch a flight down to Guangzhou. It's supposed to be 75 and sunny...yeah!