All 5 kids seemed to enjoy it. We saw lots of animals up close and personal and got to feed elephants, giraffes and goats. It was 90-95% chance of thunderstorms all day which kept the locals away and it isn't yet summer vacation in China so that also kept domestic visitors to a minimum. There were many times that we thought we had the park to ourselves! Usually, the park is wonderful but is madness as far as the number of people. One of the interesting thing about the Chinese culture is their total lack of belief in taking turns or standing in line. Usually it is a free for all with people literally pushing people on to or off elevators or subways. We enjoyed having a quiet day. We only had about 10 minutes of heavy rain and that happened to be when we were indoors eating ice-cream anyway. It was incredibly hot and humid but it just reminded us of our growing up years in Mississippi. It also gave us good reason to have ice cream 3 times yesterday!
Ian's SWI had warned us that he likes to run off or perhaps just that he is easily distractible on outings and so I was worried about losing him but we had no problems at all. He would occasionally test boundaries some but he showed absolutely no defiance or sneakiness with it. Again, I will say it was a huge blessing to have such an empty park. :) Usually all of thee available trains are running and it only looked like one or two was running yesterday.
We had our pick of seats at the shows and durin the dinosaur exhibit, we had only our own kids screaming with delight (fright?).
Now, on to some not so good news. It looks like Tim and I will have to separate for a little while. :(
The American Consulate is still saying that the visa system is down. It has to be fixed in Washington, DC and since it is now way past working hours in the US, the likelihood of it being resolved today is low. That means staying here until Monday for Tim and Ian and having me and the rest of the kiddos going on to HK and leaving as scheduled. We could all stay but that would mean paying for the two rooms here and the 2 in HK. You have to cancel 1 week in advance for HK and obviously it is too late for that. So by us going we can just keep the smaller room here for Tim and Ian and the rest of us can go ahead and do the days at HK Disney as per the plan. I'm not thrilled about it; I don't like dividing the family but I also hate to disappoint the littles and not let them see Disney. If it isn't resolved by Monday that means changing the flight plans too. Ugh. There is still a chance it will work out in the next few hours...
Anyhoo...I'll update as we get info. We appreciate the good thoughts and the prayers!
Praying that the system is fixed and you are reunited quickly! Love this blog!
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