August 16, 2006 Grace’s Visit To The Lake Forest Park
This morning we woke up to a very beautiful Grace. She did her usual routine of stretching, yawning, stretching again, yawning again, curls her toes, flopping left to right, and then rubbing her eyes before she opens them to see us. All we can do is look in amazement, as this is the exact same morning routine for Mommy. Daddy laughs and cannot believe there will be another “flopper” in the house. Oh well…. good thing she is so “darn stinking cute”. We had breakfast with Brad and Kimberley, a couple we’ve met from Georgia. They are here to adopt their precious daughter Hannah. Hannah is very shy and quiet, but boy does she love her cheerios. Every morning while eating breakfast, Daddy gives Grace small bites of food from the buffet. Yesterday it was cheerios and watermelon; today it was banana nut bread. I think she really likes the banana nut bread, because after her first bite she perked up and looked straight at the banana nut bread like it was candy. Grace liked it so much she ate the whole piece, so we grabbed a couple more for her to munch on when hungry. Around 9:00 am, Katherine, our wonderful guide sauntered into the restaurant and said a great big “HI” to everyone. While we finished up our breakfast, the topic of discussion was “What would we like to do today?” We decided to visit the “Lake Forest Park”. So we say “Hi Bob” to our driver, and load up into the van for our daily journey.
Lake Forest Park is located on the northern side of Fuzhou, and sits within an exclusive neighborhood. To get there we have to drive up a narrow winding road, which is okay except that there are other cars driving on this road and they are going in the opposite direction. It was sort of like playing “dodge ball” in cars. If one comes at you, just dodge around and continue driving. But, be sure to look out for the cars behind you as they too are playing dodge ball and will try to sneak around before you can get back on the road. Let’s just say, Bob is one heck of a good driver. If I had to drive on that road, I probably would have flipped out. Anyway, Lake Forest Park is very beautiful and reserved. There are many different trees, plants, and nature trails. Be careful where you step though, a snake might decide to play “dodge ball” and run across your feet. One ran across Sarah’s feet and freaked her out. Of course I did not see it, but did see something slither in the brush just to the side of our walkway. This of course did not go over well for Candie and Katherine as we all agree snakes are not our favorite. We visited the bird arboretum and saw many different type of birds walking, flying, or just looking for food. Grace got to see a bird show and get her picture taken with exotic birds. She was very excited and waved her hands in the air when she saw the “Toucan” birds.
After walking around the arboretum and seeing all the birds, we decided to walk along a trail and saw the sign for a luge ride. Kevin and I thought it would be fun to ride it, so we all headed up the trail. The luge ride is similar to what you would see in the winter Olympics, except that it runs on a metal chute instead of ice. It winds up the hills about 250 feet gradually, and then at the top it drops over like a roller coaster and you are racing down the hill through turns till you get to the bottom. If you want to go fast - just push the lever down, if you want to go slow - just pull the lever towards you. It was a blast. Once off the ride we went to the lake to see the Banyan Tree and sit in the shade while I fed Grace. Mommy, Candie-Gram, and Kevin fed the “koi” fish with some of the banana nut bread. The koi fish were fighting over each other to get to the food, and that was quite a sight to see. When Grace finished her bottle, I handed her over to Candie -Gram for a Kodak moment with a pagoda that sits in the middle of the lake. As you can see Candie-Gram and Grace really like one another, since they both looked at each other and just smiled for their pictures. Back at the hotel Grace took a nap so Sarah, Candie and Kevin took a walk through the city nearby. Sarah came back with a blow up zebra that Grace could sit in and float around in the pool. When she woke from her nap we headed down to the pool where cousin Kevin did laps around Grace and she sat kicking her legs and slapping her hands on the water while reclined in her floating zebra. Well the night is winding down and Grace is taking a nap as we write today’s journal, so we are going to call it a night. Enjoy the pictures. We miss everyone and can’t wait to see you all, Kevin talks about Brad and Jack all day and can’t wait for them to meet their new cousin.
