Going Wild

 Yesterday we spent the day at the safari park right outside of *Guangzhou*.  Our guide made the arrangements for us and a single mom who is here with her adorable two year old.  Coral and her friend Qi Jie were in, too, and that made it even more fun for us.  Maryn buddied up with Coral in an instant and Tenley walked with us or Qi Jie or helped with the two year old.  There were plenty of eyes to watch everyone in our group and that gave Tom and I the chance to hold hands every now and then.  A date at a safari park in *China* - go figure.  It was a really enjoyable outing, and I recommend it to all the families who will follow after us.  We started off on the tram tour which took us past open habitats for different animals by world regions.  The park trams share the road with cars driven by regular folks.  Fortunately, it was a little more orderly than it is on the regular roads here, and I only saw one emu-ish looking bird actually bumped by a car.  I'm sure it happens all the time, because the bird walked off like it was just another day in the park.  We saw the usual cast of characters seen at a safari park, I suspect, and some were exotic.  A lot of the animals had room to roam which made it seem less like a zoo.  We closed the afternoon with an elephant show at 2:30.  That kind of thing usually makes me sad.  I'm sure those elephants, if left in their own environment, would not have been playing soccer or basketball like we saw them doing yesterday, but as crazy as it sounds, I found myself wondering if that was enjoyable for them.  If only big game hunters would put their weapons down and start taking toys on safari with them, the world would be a better place.

The show went on through the afternoon rain shower, but we were dry under the roof of the amphitheater.  Afterward, the eight of us waited out the rain under an overhang before heading to our bus.  Our outing came to a close, and we dropped Coral and Qi Jie at a subway station just around the corner from the park so they could get to the airport.  I shed a few tears as I hugged them goodbye, blew them a kiss and the bus headed back to the hotel.  We had dinner at Lucy's, a well known restaurant here on Shamian*Island, and ended the night with four hands of *Uno*.  It's a great way to bring four people together with hand signals or limited language skills.  We played again tonight with four willing participants who graciously high five the winner of each round.  There was plenty of laughter tonight as tired kids were getting silly and tired parents were getting slap happy.  When the laughter reached it's crescendo, Maryn said, "I love this family."  We must be making progress.