Last Full Day in Guangzhou

Hi all,
back again. This will probably be our final post from China. Tomorrow we have a late check out at 3 pm since our China Southern Flight doesn't leave for LA until 9 pm... Yippe...Sydney's bed time...should work out perfect for a while, but we are all going to be so messed up for a few weeks...UGH! Today we did the swearing in ceremony at the Consulate. All I can say is that I really hope that they do away with this part of th process...it is really silly. getting all the families, babies, everything together with only diapers, and some cheerios(as you can't bring anything into the Consulate) only to go up 5 escalators, to sit in a room, show your passport and some guy ( he looked like a lounge singer) come out with a microphone and asked everyone to repeat three lines...done. He disappeared into thin air and we were all give the babies visa, then back on the bus... is this REALLY necessary? Can't we ask Don Ho to come to the WS and do it there, they can knock off several hundered families at a time doing it this way, heck, I will even pay for his cab fare and lunch! So silly. Anyway, we also went to a market that is off the beaten path of the "local" shops in Guangzhou. Not the horrible street fair one that everyone here has told us about, but another type. This one has some pretty gross stuff out for sale. Tiger Legs they were selling for the claws(you can pick the claw you want and they would cut it off for you)...UGh...a monkey skeleton, snake skins, dried bugs, embyos of some sort(maybe bird?)...and of course all the fungus you could want. The people down this small street were not too keen on taking photography so we had to go undercover a little. It didn't work very well as the video was of people's behinds...LOL but we did get a little of it. We also bought some pearl jewelry here..yes real. I bought 2 necklaces(one black one pick with white smaller ones surrounding the pink in a daisy shape) and a pair of earrings for 35 yuan...that is less than 5 US Dollars!!! If I would have known I could get these prices, I would have never bought anything from the Pearl factory in Beijing. Don't get too excited though, these pearls would probably be of the lowest quality and bottom of the barrel, but they still looked great and we tested all of them to make sure they were real and not plastic. We went to Second Street restaurant for dinner tonight and it was EXCELLENT. Big Juicy Ribeye with broccoli and potatoes, french onion soup(not the best but still good), and bananas flambee...yummy! Sydney had a bowl of Spaghetti with butter and chicken in it, I couldn't shovel it fast enough. She also sampled the soup, and daddy's custard( hated that for some reason, spit it back out twice!) She was good in the restaurant tonight. Another good recommendation when you get sick of going to Lucy's to eat. We got back to the hotel at about 9 or 9:30 pm and she played for a little while until she went to sleep. The cough was better today for sure after dosing her with Dimatapp this morning and Benedryl this afternoon. We wanted to see if the benedryl hyped her up or if she would get drowsy in case we needed it for the plane ride..drowsy won! We have a pretty easy morning tomorrow...nothing to do until 3 when we leave...except pack of course. we are buying another suitcase for our purchases. The "POLO" suitcases they have here have a great name on them but don't be fooled, these are one time use only cases that usually fall apart if they make it home at all...scarey , isn't it?
We will shop tomorrow for the last time...spencding the Mao money has been a lot of fun...yuan goes so far compared to our USD. We may be able to post again from LA when we get to Embassy Suites on the 16th, but I can't promise :( Then we leave the next morning for Houston TX...home Sweet home. We will probably look like Zombies when we get off the plane, but you understand! We hope to have her dressed in something really special when we get off the plane, BUT we shall see how that goes. Can't wait to see everyone!
PS How cute is this picture of Sydney sleeping? Can you say Angel? I just took it before I finished the post.