Tuesday April 23rd

Last day in Guangzhou...Emmie woke up at 3:30 am with a little fever and gave her some Tylenol.  She seemed to act fairly normal otherwise and was smiling, laughing.  So we figured maybe she is just teething and will be OK.  We took a cab to Shamian Island where seven years ago when we started this process we had expected we'd be staying at the "famous" White Swan hotel with it's red couch that all the Chinese adopted babies have had their picture taken on.   The White Swan is closed for reservations : ) and unfortunately many of the shops on the island are closed due to lack of business.  However we still got some souvenirs and enjoyed the colonial architecture.  The island is a popular place for weddings due to the scenery.  There were lots of people exercising in the parks.  Some people say it reminds them of Savannah, Georgia. 

After about 15 days in China we had managed to avoid "squatter" toilets but on our last day on Shamian Island I'm afraid that's all we could find when Maddie desperately needed to go. We looked for the nicest restaurant we could find.  I had to help Maddie take her pants off to go and meanwhile was wearing a Emmie in a baby carrier and I then had to try to go myself while holding Em - challenging but mission accomplished!

In the afternoon we needed to buy more rice cereal for Emmie so we took a cab with no problem to Carrefour.  But could not get a cab on the way home.  It was very stressful holding two kids and groceries and going from corner to corner trying to hail a cab.  It was very warm outside and Emmie's fever was making her feel hot again.  Several taxis passed us  in stead of stopping.  Later we learned that the time we were from 3-4 pm was a changeover of shift hour.  We saw a man and woman at a kiosk with "wall street" written on their name tags.  Don't know what they were selling but hoped they spoke English - and they did! So we asked them for help and suggested that maybe our hotel could send a cab and we'd pay the fare round trip.  But then another taxi pulled up shortly thereafter and we paid him a little more since he was technically going off duty.  The people at the kiosk were so nice.  We offered them a tip for their help but they refused.  This is in contrast to another guy who deliberately ran in front of us to take a taxi even though he saw us with two kids and groceries.  Made it back in time for 4:30 meeting with Lee in the lobby to get the paperwork and Emmie's visa we would need for the flight home the next day. 

Michael promised Maddie one more dip in the pool so he took her swimming while I started to pack our bags.  We hit the Exec Lounge one more time for "dinner" of free appetizers and drinks and chatted with a table of Brits there for the trade show.

The 2nd to the last pic below is of our friend Mike and baby Kona who is standing in front of the White Swan being renovated.