Saturday

After breakfast this morning, Gene and I ventured to the East Victory hotel. There is an East and West. We are staying in the west. I believe the East is the main hotel, it has a larger dining area and the pool and exercise room. The pool is on the 9th floor and on the edge of the building. Wow! We walked over to the White Swan and met Ann and her family. I spotted her little Em with her blonde hair. They have a nice family and will have a lot of fun seeing Lizzie blossom.
Today was a boat regada, Cordelia called it a campaign. She meant competition, she is such a sweet girl. We guessed her to be 25, we asked her today she is 33. There is large boats, small boats and alot of the type that do rowing competions at large colleges. This took place on the Pearl River inland more. Very big affair with lots of fans to cheer.
We headed to the market, it was closed to cars. You didn't have to worry about crossing traffic. We started at a book store and bought the books Tara used in school, so her teachers can see what she was working on. Tara also picked out 2 videos for the computer.(total 84 RMB or $12.28) I don't think she has had a chance to play them yet. Here they charge you for a sack to carry your goods and we forgot to take our bag that Lucy gave us. Yesterday Cordelia put a lotion on Tia's mosquito bites, so we picked up a couple of bottles of it to take home. It helps to stop the need to itch. (they love Tia)We also purchased sore throat losenges and a powder for canker sores.(total 36 RMB or $5.26)It will be interesting to give new remedies a try. We stopped in a clothing store to buy Tara clothes, she picked out a frilly dress. It would have been $8 but I couldn't think of anywhere for her to where it. We will keep looking. When we returned home Gene was chasing the girls down the hotel hall and we got Tara's first hearty laugh. I needed to yell at them for running, but it was a good moment!
Curt likes to run the air cold. Tara is laying in bed reading her book with a jacket and blanket from Grma Chandler.
We took a few minutes to plan lunch. I rubbed my tummy and ask Tara if she was hungry and she shook her head yes. We headed to the White Swan deli, where the girls ordered. Tia had pork and noodles, Tara ordered for herself, hmmm not sure, but rice and fish and yes it still had the eye balls...oooh(at least she didn't eat it). When I went to pay for lunch Gene told me Tia was asking what Gene and Curt was talking about. Tara put her thumb and finger up to he eye in a circle and started laughing. If you look closely at Tara's plate(between the green spinach & fork is the eye) She was hungry, she made no bones about chowing down. We carried it to Lucy's...Yes the sign says to not bring your own food in, but Curt, Gene and I ordered there. There was another family at Lucy's with their 2 little ones, they were from Littleton CO. We were hoping to see some of the boats, but it was just too far from the edge of the river. While we were eating some models were being photographed, so I took a picture of it all.
MinJun called again this evening. She chatted with Tara, if only I could understand. We are excited to meet after 5+ years of emails.
Gene never spends time on the computer, but we are having major flooding at home and are trying to keep up with it all. Jeff has been helping sandbag Cedar Falls.
I forgot my camera on our outing today, so no new pictures. Gene wanted one of the bicycles carrying lots of goods from place to place. Hopefully later.