Hong Kong ... Arrival in Guangzhou

UPDATE:  Pictures!

Harbour Plaza Metropolis, Hong Kong

Very westernized ... Hong Kong 

Breakfast in HK

Amelia's shop in HK

Amelia's shop carried Hello Kitty and more (Amelia's fav)

Leaving HK.  This is all our luggage .. not too bad for 7 people. 

Mom had the most of any one person.  lol

Kayli posing on the suitcase.

Getting all of that luggage through the train station.  

We helped our "new friends".  They had lots of small luggage. (Note - please get larger suitcases if you are traveling on the train)  The fewer the better. 

Life on the train ... we upgraded to coach, since it wasn't too much.  Here, we met up with 2 more adoptive families.  One family had the adoption shirt that I left at home.  They were adopting their first daughter and have 2 boys at home.  They were with another agency.  The other family used Lifeline.  They recognized me from my blog. lol  We were to ride the train together and then meet up with our guide.  

Since we were staying at a different hotels we went our separate way.  They had 2 boys with them and are adopting 1 little girl, 15months old.  We will share our "gotcha day" today with them and another Lifeline family that we have yet to meet.  Four girls total.  

Lobby of hotel in Guangzhou ... Holiday Inn Shifu ... it is nice. 

Dinner last night ... 

not too bad for gesturing. :)

Yes, I was even brave enough to try the salad ... can you believe it? 

Kayli and Ariel ended up with this, not quite vegetarian ... Ariel picked around the meat.  We did find out that it was beef though.  

Brian enjoyed the Sashimi and Saki ... we are all still well, PTL  

This is when Amelia had her big freak out moment.  Just 2.5 years ago she was so proud of how she could maneuver this thing.  (squatty potty)  Now she looked at it and cried ... "I don't want to use it".  UGH!  After this moment she decided she would like to stay in the hotel a LOT more.  lol This could be a long week. 

Street life in Guangzhou ... Kayli decided she didn't like China as much after this .. she says China is dirty.  Amelia didn't eat much last night ... I think this trip has triggered her senses of China life a few years ago and she is now remembering China ... hmmm.  Complained her stomach hurt and that she couldn't eat.  She was super great after arriving back at the hotel.  Ariel is super tired .. but enjoying it all.  They were a bit spoiled by the cleanliness of Hong Kong and indoor shopping.  

Yes, it is rainy here!  Mom is the only one that brought an umbrella.  (I never carry one)  We all have rain jackets though.  Apparently in the summer it rains daily.  As soon as we arrived in Guangzhou and met our guide we barely made it to the van when the downpour came.  

Our room at the Shifu

We got up early ... .Amelia woke up at 1:30 am ready for the day.  We had only been in bed for 1.5 hours.  She slept on the plane so obviously had gotten her rest.  Finally at 3:30 am I told her to go play in the bathroom with her toys and coloring book.  She happily sand and played.  :)   Next we went to eat at 6 am.  We were the first to arrive.  It was delicious.  We at fruit, fish, salad, curried veggies, samosas, cereals, mixed veggies, plus your normal breakfast food.

Then we visited the mall that connected to our hotel.  It had a skywalk to the train station.  There is never a dull moment here.  We videoed a segment about our train experience of things we wished we would've known.  We'll post that after arriving home.

All in all it went well.  It was interesting getting my littles to walk and slide their suitcase on a moving escalator.  They managed quite nicely, however, was a bit nerve racking.  Once the luggage was on board it was a breeze.  We enjoyed it.

We made it to Guangzhou.  We decided to venture out to eat with the locals and had a hard time finding a restaurant with available tables.  We ended up at a Japanese restaurant.  It turned out ok, however, Ariel and I both forgot to take a Mandarin cheat sheet ... so it made it quite interesting with what we got.  It was a good meal.

It is late.  I'm posting from my phone ... will upload several pictures in the morning.  Everyone is asleep but me. I've been preparing things for the girls tomorrow ... can't believe it is here.  We will meet them at 2:30 tomorrow.