Welcome to Guilin

We left Nanning today and arrived in Guilin after about a four and a half hour bus ride full of parents, grandparents and babies. Our babies of course slept for only an hour of the entire trip. Guilin is a tourist destination for all sorts of nationalities. The big attraction here is the Li River. Tomorrow morning is when we head out for the big boat ride down the Li River to see all of its beauty. It is supposed to be well worth the trip to float down this river. Our only reservation about this besides taking two babies on a boat is that we have to take a 45 minute bus ride to the boat. Then the excursion lasts 4 to 5 hours, then it's back on a bus for another 45 minute ride back to the hotel. It just makes for a really long day, especially if the girls don't sleep a wink while were on the boat and end up out of their routine. I will have to admit though that this city is quite pretty and is surrounded by lots of water and scenery.

In addition, all of the adopting parents and babies went out for dinner together tonight. We were taken to a local restaurant for Chinese. Our guide, Samson, ordered for us. Everything is served restaurant style so everyone can sample the various dishes. The food was pretty good. Jan and I ended up spending most of our time feeding the twins and making sure they didn't pull something off the table though. The one thing that made it uncomfortable for everyone was the fact that the restaurant did not have AC and therefore we all sat there sweating. You can imagine sitting there in your only sweat and then you have a 15 pound baby on your lap sweating too. Not fun.

For those checking on the girls on a daily basis, below are some random pictures we took today. More to come tomorrow after the big boat ride.

Sydney crawling around like a maniac.


The twins down for a nap - finally.


Parrish holding one of the twins trying to get them to sleep.