...then what to eat for breakfast at the Crowne Plaza's buffet. She usually opted for traditional Chinese foods like hot and sour soup or one of the many congee options. Max and I on the other hand, were always tempted by the many different choices like the pastries.
We decided to explore the city park that was down the busy road from our hotel. Just walking to the park was an adventure as scooter after scooter whirled by and weaved around us on the sidewalk!
After trekking through the noise and smog hanging over Zhengzhou, the tranquility of the park was a pleasant surprise.
Strolling along in a peaceful setting, we enjoyed seeing all of the interesting people, including the pretty bride and musicians playing or singing in nature.
As we watched this group, Cai Yun quickly made friends with this sweet little boy who had just been adopted by a couple from the Netherlands.
While chatting with this also newly expanded family, we received all kinds of curious stares, double takes, and many pointing fingers. Despite the widespread adoption of Chinese orphans by Westerners, seeing "foreigners" is still not commonplace for many Chinese. An older woman pulled up her cart to observe us with our new children and seemed to try and offer her advice, in Mandarin, as she felt was needed.
Cai Yun immediately spotted the paddle boats from across the park and expressed her desire to take a ride in one. She choose the large duck...
As we glided along in our duck, we enjoyed the massive water lilies and waving at others paddling by
Puuussshhh! Cai Yun had the easy job of pointing where she wanted to go while mommy and daddy did the hard part of paddling under the canopy of the boat on this steaming hot day!
We still enjoyed some sweet moments with our little Cai Yun!
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Driving Miss Cai Yun
We were surprised at Cai Yun's low threshold for heat and cold, as the Henan Province has both in a big way and we were told many orphanages in China do not have central heat or air conditioning. A lot of her issues with dealing with hot and cold is probably due to her low/almost no body fat and we can always see her start to visibly wilt when she is too hot, which she did after being at the park for only about an hour. After more steaming hot Chinese food for lunch, back in the coolness of the hotel and a nap, our silly Cai Yun came back and had wonderful fun trying to lure her new mommy and daddy in making all kinds of faces she created.
Later that afternoon, we ventured to the hotel's pool. We think this was Cai Yun's first time in any type of pool. She immediately took to the water like a cute little mermaid and thoroughly enjoyed herself!
Then daddy and Cai Yun took a long walk back down the busy sidewalks of Zhengzhou to get us dinner from McDonald's. This was inspired by Cai Yun's mention to our guide, while on our drive back from our visit to the orphanage when Cai Yun was talking endlessly about food, how she would love to go to McDonald's again and eat a hamburger and french fries. This was something she had only done a few times in her 9 years of life and were obviously very memorable meals for her. When they got back, Cai Yun excitedly acted out all of her adventure as she pulled out the treasured food. Just look at this satisfied customer!
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