Day 2 Adventures!!!!

"Wow... I can't believe we have only been here for one day. I got about 4 hours sleep last night which brings me up to a grand total of 4 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours. I went downstairs to put all of our adoption paperwork in the main vault and the boys at the front desk all greeted dad with a hearty hello. Apparently he had already made the rounds and given everyone Canada pins before I came down! We had breakfast here in the hotel overlooking the Huangpu River. The pastries in the hotel are to-die for....with strong coffee..... perfect. We spread out the map, picked a spot then got the fellows downstairs to call us a taxi. Taking a taxi through downtown Shanghai is CRAZY! No one follows the lights or stays in their lanes... Dad sat in the "suicide seat" beside the driver and Heather, Tom and I cowered in the backseat. Dad was jamming on his imaginary brake the whole time we were in the cab. Hilarious. We strolled down the Bund overlooking the river and looked at all the architecture from the time of the foreign occupations and concessions along the river front. Very cool. We wanted to go to the Yuyuan Gardens so decided to venture off the Bund into the neighbouring area...Heather and Tom were nearly run down by a delivery van and dad was almost hit by mopeds...three times...we crossed one street....with the light. I was laughing so hard; I wish I could have taken pictures but I was running for dear life. We wandered into the Old Street Bazaar. I cannot begin to describe this. Narrow alleys full of stalls and shops selling everything from high end gold, pearls and jade to touristy t-shirts and Mao kitch. It was absolutely jammed with people bumping up and into us, the air was thick with incense and the old buildings were covered in lanterns and red ribbons. We wandered around, tried a little bartering then ran into a chatty fellow named Liao at a stall who asked us where we were from and why we were in China. We had a good chat; he was very excited about us adopting two little girls and leaving the "busy city" for Wuhan. We asked for his recommendation for getting lunch. We had a best friend for the rest of our time in Yuyuan. He took us on a wild path through stalls and past streams of people up these stairs we would never have found behind a different store to the top of the buildings to look over the whole area. Then we went further into the maze to a tea house for locals where he ordered tea and dumplings for us. The woman who runs the teahouse,Yin, made us all kinds of different tea, chatted and laughed as we tried tea and Chinese. Tom tried to tell the woman ( in Chinese) that she had a beautiful daughter and wanted another dumpling but apparently ordered a "stupid prostitute" instead. We don't let Tom try his Chinese anymore........ I laughed so hard at the look on Liao's face... I thought he would die from laughing. We took a taxi back to the hotel (another adventure in Shanghai traffic) and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon recovering from our adventure at the hotel.

Dad has made another best friend in the hostess. We met her last night and she sat and told us all about her travels, her boyfriend from Ecuador and her life in Shanghai then listened to stories about Vancouver, snow and Quebec.. She remembered dad and greeted him like a best friend. Amazing how many people that man can befriend in a day. Had another great meal of kung pao chicken and desserts aplenty. I am now ready to pass out.What an amazing day!"