Trip to Consulate and Zoo

We are in much better spirit today! Yesterday we were feeling homesick. Our friends were leaving, and we were just bored with the waiting. Today we feel we're over the hump and riding downhill now. It was an eventful morning. We started out the day early. After a quick breakfast we met our guide's sister Lily. Our guide Kelly could not meet us this morning because she had to take another family to the airport. Lily was very nice and accompanied us to the US Consulate for the oath-taking ceremony. It was quick and painless. We were finished by 9 AM.  Then what else could we do but go to the ZOO!?

Sun rising in downtown Guangzhou on our way to the Consulate.

Cool looking curvy building

Walking the busy sidewalks

We arrived at 8:30 AM and we were done by 9.

Last stop for adoptions before leaving for America

Never too busy for a family picture!

Our guide Kelly on the left. Kelly's sister Lily on the right.

Since we have nothing else to do we went to the Guangzhou Zoo. It is one of the 3 largest zoos in China and only 7 dollars, yes $7 total, for all three of us to get in!

We had not been to this zoo before, and we were very glad we went. Took our minds off the waiting to go home.

Arayla has her map. What should we see first?

Just me or does this tree look like a heart with love shining through the middle?

Funny sign time! Here are a few we saw in the zoo.

Brealcfast?

I know the feeling, Mr. Bear

Be a civilized tourist, mmmkay?

Let it be known that many Chinese people follow this rule like they follow traffic laws, which is not at all. We saw people feeding animals all over the place.

These trash cans for "other waste" are next to each one for recyclable stuff like plastic bottles and aluminum cans. We found it funny that there is a shirt pictured here. Couple questions must be asked. Do they have disposable shirts in China? ...and... Do these shirts get put in the wrong trash can on a semi-regular basis? 

The picture on the sign is of children catching goldfish to take home as pets.
Goldrish?  Heappy?

Enough signs, Yah Yah! Let's see some animals!

First up, the Tigers.

Gave us a big yawn

Magnificent animal, but sadly trapped in a small cage. :-(

Looked like this tiger was about to pounce.

Then he lay down and watched us.

Biggest one we saw. There were lots of opportunities to get close-up looks at animals in this zoo.

Mama and baby hippo

Going in for a swim

Wolves

Brown bear

We were within about 15 feet of this guy. He was sitting on the edge of a concrete moat on the other side of the bars.

Evidence of people feeding the animals, We also witnessed illegal feeding of monkeys and pandas.

White Lion

Adorable little red pandas

People were dropping food to them which is why it's sitting up. People NOT being civilized tourists!

Kangaroo

Giraffes

This is actually a legal feeding. Good job, people. Very civilized of you.

Rhinos

Zebras

White Deer

Camels

Elephant

We loved these beautiful flowers that looked like they came from a Dr. Seuss book. 

Continuing with our Zoo theme for the day, we walked to this neat place near the hotel, Zoo Coffee.

Decorated in a zoo motif with stuffed animals all over,

Gorilla greeted us

Sat surrounded by oversized stuffed animals

Arayla laughs at everything so no problem!

It was a special treat to end our day.

We don't drink coffee so we got delicious mango smoothies.

Thanks to a coupon from our friends, we got 2 smoothies for the price of 1.

Back at the hotel room Arayla let me hold her in my lap for a long time. It was glorious!!

I will leave you with some Arayla laughing that is guaranteed to brighten your day. Love you all. Thanks for praying. We really felt uplifted today. Tomorrow is our last day in Guangzhou. We will be packing up and getting ready to leave for HOME early on Saturday!! We will be flying from Guangzhou to Hong Kong and then from HK to Dallas. Our last flight from Dallas into Nashville is scheduled to arrive at 6:20 pm on 11/22. See you soon America!!