Yesterday was a jammed pack day filled with 3 tours, lots of shopping, and then one heck of a fireworks display right in front of our window (15th floor) in celebration of the Trade Festival ending.
Nicole is still adjusting to her pacifier; progress is slow. She munches on every part of it except the piece that she should be chewing on.
She does have one pair of sweatpants, which tend to slip off her because they are to big.
Nicole loves getting on Jim's shoulders.
We started our day off having breakfast near the waterfall.
Went to the lounge area to wait for the rest of our group for the day's tours.
Nicole does very well on bus rides, she looks at all she can while riding.
Our first tour was a Buddhist temple, the "Six Banyan's Temple" which is a famous Chinese pagoda built 1,400 years ago. Below is a painting of the complex.
We tour around, stopping to take a few pictures.
The smell of incense was everywhere and below is one of the several areas where incense was being burned.
Next was a short stop at the Provincial Arts Craft Store where we picked up a few more
souvenirs such as paintings done by fingers.
Afterwards we went to the Provincial Folk Art Museum, which is one of the best preserved Qing Dynasty buildings. We picked up some more paintings done by finger and then returned to the hotel.
China has just finished a major Trade Festival and in celebration they put on one spectacular fireworks display right in front of our room! There were 3 large barges anchored in the river in front of our room, which contained the night's fireworks. There were also several tour boats all lit up with bright lights.
The fireworks display was huge and lasted about 45 minutes. There were a lot of
fireworks patterns that neither of us had ever seen before. It was really spectacular and loud. The building was shaking from the noise and Nicole slept through it all.
By the way, we have taken 985 pictures so far, all in digital format and plan on burning them to CD for our families and friends. Tomorrow we will be getting up very early to start our journey home so there won't be a posting for today's events unless we get to do it tonight.
This has been the most fantastic experience we have ever had. We are with our very beautiful daughter and having the time of our life with her. Pray that we have a safe journey home. The Good Lord has blessed us so much and we truly are thankful
Our love to all.