Busy Day

Today we planned to do a bit of sight seeing, but it was pouring rain in the morning. We walked around the hotel for a bit and played in the room until around 11:00 am. Then we took the metro to the Barbie store, which was high on A's list of things to see in Shanghai. Six floors of Barbie! There was a neon pink escalator and a winding staircase with clear boxes all the way up to the fifth floor. Every few boxes there was a box with a Barbie in it dressed in a hot pink outfit. The inside of the elevator looked like a hot pink curtain. I would LOOOOOOVE to be able to post pictures of it, but guess who forgot the camera? That's right, A! The very person who wanted to go to the Barbie store in the first place! She ended up buying the 2009 and 2010 Shanghai Barbies to take home.

After that we went to the underground children's market. Yes, it's underground and its HUGE and filled with every kind of children's toy, shoes, and clothes you could imagine. That's where Cara finally got her purse! She wears it everywhere now. I didn't really buy anything else because I thought it was kind of expensive. A lot of it I could buy cheaper in the states. After the market we went back to the metro station and B bought Cara a Hi Bao doll. It's the doll that represents the Shanghai Expo. He paid a little over $2.00 and she loves that thing, too.

I had a killer headache, so we went back to the room to rest a little before dinner. The smog and pollution makes my head hurt so bad I practically feel like passing out. I hope it's not like this in Guangzhou. We went to a different restaurant for dinner, but it wasn't as good as the place we ate the last two nights. Those are the pics of Cara eating noodles. She's crazy for them! Then we went back to the room where we're playing now before bed.

The picture of the lanterns was from last night. We went to Old Shanghai, which is right by the Magnolia Theater where we saw the Chinese Acrobat show. The show was very good and I recommend it to anyone going to visit Shanghai. The market was fun. It was filled with lots of little shops and restaurants and went on forever. Cara had her first taste of strawberry ice cream there. Chinese people don't really like cold food, so she would make a horrible face when she tasted the ice cream, but then she wanted more.

Cara is a girly-girl. She likes purses, bows, and cell phones. If her bow gets a little crooked she wants it fixed. I didn't bring nail polish because I thought she was too little, but I think she would love to have her nails painted. She is nuts about her dad and definately prefers him over anyone else. She is talking a lot more, but usually just does it in the hotel room. Denise, our guide, made us a Chinese language cheat sheet so we have quite a few important phrases to use with her. She loves hide and go seek and could play it for hours if we let her. She eats just about anything and is happy most of the time.

Tomorrow we will visit a Chinese garden, but I think that's it. I'm starting to get tired and am ready for the next leg of our journey.