Pearl River Cruise

We had dinner on the Guangzhou Star last night, as we navigated the Pearl River.  There was a nice buffet dinner.  We got into the port about thirty minutes early and waited with several hundred of our closest Chinese friends.  When it was time to board the boat, a swarm of Chinese people overran the staging area.  It was the walking version of the streets in Guiyang.  Except that this time, bumping into the person beside you didn't require a police report.  Mia actually got a little bit scared.  People were pushing and shoving to get on board, even though we all had assigned seats.  We knew where we were sitting before we ever boarded, so we couldn't figure it out.  I thought that Annie might harm someone.  She's had all that she can take of the looks and the personal space compromises.  She's definitely ready for some Southern hospitality.  It was so bad, that I almost offered the guy behind me my jacket, because he was pretty much wearing it with me anyway.

 

The buffet started right away.  The moment we pulled away from the dock, our servers started bringing drinks.  So, we went to the buffet line.  Immediately, someone cut in front of Annie.  So...I kicked her in the foot.  Childish?  Yes.  Yes it was.  It felt pretty good to get out some pent up frustration, though.  It brought back bad memories of the guy that tried to cut in front of us at Walmart in Guiyang.  We boxed out hard after that.  A few more people tried to horn in, but Annie started throwing elbows like a power forward.  Eventually, we got the line thing figured out and we had a nice dinner.  Lots of food wasn't recognizable, but the majority of it was very good.  Of course, we couldn't eat the raw vegetables, but we still had plenty of food by the time that everything was settled.  I finally scored some chicken feet!  They were not as good as the ones at home, but now I can say that I've done it.

 

After dinner, the girls and I went to the top of the boat and the front of the boat to look around.  We watched the lights and felt the wind in our faces.  It was a pretty cool night.  The wind made our jackets mandatory gear.  We got to see the White Swan from the water and it was beatiful to see with all of the lights on.

 

After hanging out on the decks, we came back in.  A Chinese clown came in for entertainment for the last 20 minutes or so.  She did some juggling and balancing that was just entertaining enough to keep the kids' attention.  Mia went up to the front and got to be part of the act, along with some of the other kids in the audience.  She got to throw a soccer ball to the clown a couple of times and she got to balance a spinning soccer ball on her finger.  She thought that she was super-cool after that.  Kennedy was not so eager to participate.  She hung in the back and made sure that she didn't get picked.