Surfing in Beihai

Today was a really nice day! It was supposed to rain today but it never did, it was overcast but that helped to keep the sun from beating down on us. It was about 90 degrees and very humid. Our clothes would stick to us as soon as we would go out. We are very close to Vietnam here to give you an idea of the region, it is about 2 hours away.

Today we started off by going to the Pearl and Ocean Products Market. It is a wholesale market for pearls. At first our guide thought that it was not going to be good prices or that they would be fake, but it turned out to be a good place to buy pearls. We bought several necklaces and bracelets for Meigan in different sizes. There were literally Millions of strands of Pearls. You would tell them what you wanted and they would string them up for you. These Pearls are famous world wide! We also visited the Ocean Products part and found thousands of squid laying out to dry (with the flies hovering around them), we found dried starfish, sea cucumbers, dried fish stomachs, dried snakes, dried lizards, dried fish, dried rays, dried sharks, dried sea horses, dried scallops and shrimp, and dried everything else that can be found in the sea. It smelled wonderful and Brian dragged Jodie through under protest.

Then we went to the aquarium. We took our guide through it who had never been to an aquarium before. We saw tons of fish, we let Meigan feed the sea turtles with a long fishing pole with a fish tied to the end, went through a tunnel under water that had sharks and rays and saw alot pretty sea life.

After a short nap we took Meigan to the beach on the South China Sea. They have a stretch of beach that is called Silver Beach because the sand is so white and fine. There are tons of little, little crabs that live in the sand and as you walk they scurry into their holes they have burrowed into the sand. It looks like thousands of ant holes. The crabs are about a quarter inch big or smaller. Jodie did not want to take off her shoes, but did. We put Meigan in her swimming suit and she got into the water with Brian. At first she did really well in the sand and water, but after a few minutes she changed her mind. She did not like the waves coming in at her. We sure did get alot of funny stares from the people on the beach. The beach was pretty crowded and they were all taking our picture.

This is not a town that many adoptive parents and or americans visit, and so we have gotten alot of stares while we have been out. Or people will just come up and stand next to us and stare not realizing they are being rude. They will ask our guide if Jodie is the mom and she simple replies yes. They will also make comments in the back ground without speaking to us that she has her mother's eyes. They would say she looks chinese but she has her mother's eyes or something similar. We used the baby carrier today and it helped to keep people from wanting to hold her, but it is so hot on that we quit using it later in the day when we weren't in crowds.

After the beach we went to dinner with our guide and driver at a local seafood restaurant. It was right on the ocean's edge and we ate outside about 5 feet from the ocean. To order our food, we went inside and walked past all of the fish tanks filled with tons of different fish, eels, shrimp, lobsters, and turtles to select what we would like for dinner. We settled on boiled shrimp and chicken and broccoli and bok choy. The shrimp was very good, and the broccoli is the best Brian had ever had. The bok choy was very good also. We did not try the chicken, it did not look like chicken. They left the head attached to the body and also the foot, which our guide proceeded to pick up and tell us that it tasted better then the chicken itself and took a couple of big bites of the foot. I had to pick up my camera and take a picture of her just to prove she was doing it and she just laughed at me because I thought it was so weird. We had a good time and dinner was good.

After that we came home and gave Meigan another bath to remove all of the sand and then she decided she wasn't tired anymore and so we played for a while. It was alot fun to see her personality and have her smile as she played with Jodie. She is asleep now and that is where we are headed, we hope you have a wonderful day.