Travel Plans

Last night after a long and eventful day, Steve and I checked our email and found our in country travel itinerary for the adoption trip to China. We've been anxious to get these plans for several reasons. One, it makes it really real. Two, we love to check out the places we'll be staying. And three, we needed to let my friend Lisa know where we're staying in Xi'an so she and Gary can arrange their stay with us.

Well, this is it. This is the Tianyu Gloria Plaza Hotel. Its a 4-star and looks like it will suit us just fine.
Here is the pool. Of course I have us lounging around and then I remember, oh yeah, we're picking up a nearly 2 year old boy. And if he's ANYTHING like Turner there will be no lounging to be had. It looks like a nice pool though and hopefully Quinn will like to take a dip.

After we meet Quinn on Sunday there will be variety of official stuff we need to do Monday- Thursday. Lots of paperwork and appointments to keep. We did find out that we are not allowed to go to the orphanage. I'm sad about that. I was hoping to see where Quinn grew up and take pictures. But then again, for me sometimes ignorance is bliss. (Lame, I know!)
On Friday evening we will be flying to Guang Zhou in southern China. There we will stay at Victory hotel. I did just enough investigation to be dangerous but not enough to be informed. That's pretty much a window into me.

Nearly everyone who adopts from China stays at a hotel called the White Swan. I had heard good things about Victory and thought I'd go the road less traveled by. Now I may have a tad bit of regret. Although it looks lovely, it is called a "historic" hotel. Ummm... I'm reading really old and really small rooms. Crap. There is a nice outdoor swimming pool here as well.

We will be seperated from our agency travel group (there are 6 other families picking up their kids at the same time as us) and since we are skipping the Bei Jing part of the trip we are already behind the eight ball as far as relationship building.

I am hoping that this choice ends up being a good one. We are within walking distance to the White Swan.

One really fun thing about our trip to Guang Zhou is that our friends Bryan and Cheryl will be joining us. They have been living in Bei Jing for a year now and they are good friends of ours. They are going to stay at our hotel with us and that will make it really fun!! So we will not be alone/isolated.

Saturday we have a bunch of meetings, Quinn has a medical exam, Sunday is a day off and Monday we have an appointment at the Consulate for official stuff. Tuesday we wrap up adoption stuff and Wednesday we head back to the US.

Let the games begin!!!