Wil finds his soul mate...

Day 12

OK, maybe that is not fair, but his connection with the six year old female chimpanzee at the Guangzhou zoo was something very special.  We have fondly referred to Wil as our little monkey since he was very, very young.  We recently learned he is born in the year of the monkey.  Upon entering the zoo, his eyes met those of a local chimp just 2 months older than he is, and they began to run back and forth along the front of the monkey exhibit.  Back and forth for a very long time, until she began a sort of peek-a-boo game with him where she hid and then came out to see him.  Unbelievably cute.

Photos from day 12

(If you can't see the Flash slideshow above, click here.)

The zoo itself was really fun.  We could get much closer to the animals than in the US and people were actually feeding them.  We saw the hippo eating, and the llamas up close.  Christopher really wanted one to spit, but could not make it happen.  The big cats were amazing.  Siberian tigers, leopards, roaring lions, lion cubs wrestling and getting a bath from mom, and even Ligers.  Yes, a cross between a lion and tiger.  One of our kid's favorite signs of the day was for the donkey.  Chinese somehow translates it into english as a Domestic Ass.  You can imagine their reaction.

After the zoo, we all needed to rest, and get something to eat.  We had one last round of souvenier buying at Jordan's shop, and we decided it was time to take advantage of the McDonald's delivery service. Our happy meals were delivered to our hotel! Nice!

Dinner tonight was to be our last outing with our tour group.  We boarded a dinner cruise on the Pearl River for a 2 hour trip.  The Guangzhou city lights were bright and beautiful.  Big stadiums built for the Asian games lined the river, along with the tallest building in China.  The food for dinner was interesting to say the least.  During our travels we've discovered lots of chicken dishes, and most of them have small bits of chicken cut up, but pieces of bone are left with the meat!  Mostly the kids ate corn on the cob and a bit of rice.  Our favorite "specialty" of the night was fried chicken feet.  One member of our group tried it, gross.  There was a silly clown doing some juggling, and Christopher got in on the act.  Anna Mei liked the loud Ricky Martin music playing and did some dancing.

As for Anna Mei, she sits on the bed laughing at the moment.  She is crawling and standing  She loves to sit on her brother's laps and play. When she is angry she balls up her fists and lets us know how she feels, but it never lasts very long.    

This is the last we would see Brian, Jeanne, and their daughter Willow as they were flying home by way of Hong Kong.  They would board the speed train tomorrow  Willow is a sweet girl with a huge appetite.  Willow took to playing with Wil.  She bonded well with Jeanne, but was not sure about Brian yet.  We were warned this could happen, and she was gearing up for the long trip home.

We are dreading the 25 hour travel time home ourselves.  Tomorrow we have a free day to relax and pack, and Thursday we leave at 5 AM China time from our hotel.  That is 5 PM your time, and we land in Newark at about 5 PM eastern standard time.  This will be the last leg of trip, and we are ready to get back to some baseball, american food, our own beds, our pups, and to family and friends. This will be our last entry from China and we are very grateful to all of you that have logged onto the blog each day to read about our journey.  Anna Mei will soon meet all of you!