A not particularly eventful day

We didn't do much again today. This was the third in a row of what are deemed "free" days, which basically means nothing was planned for us. After breakfast, Melissa, Henry, Mae and I were going to try and take a water taxi across the river to an area our room faces since we see them (the water taxis) going over there constantly, and it looks interesting over yonder, at least in the distance and through binoculars. So we asked the concierge how to get over there and whether it was worth it and he said it's mostly bars and restaurants and there's not much to do during the mornings. Instead, we again walked around the island and did more shopping, then Henry and I spent a glorious and much needed 3 hours at the pool while Melissa did a little more shopping and Mae napped. In the meantime, Val was out exploring part of the city on foot and then took a taxi back. Walked to a Thai restaurant for dinner tonight with almost the whole group of 17 families (with fairly low expectations, given the fact that we're now sick of Chinese food -- actually, here, it's just plain old food), and ended up having the best meal of our trip. Val and I each got the slightly spicy bowl of green curry with prawns (shrimp) and vegetables, Melissa got the pad thai (noodles), and Henry got the baked rice with shrimp. We also got a side of plain ol' garlic bread and the most amazing thing called peanut butter pizza. It was basically very thin pastry with a hint of peanut butter in a glaze on top. Not what we expected but extremely good. Today we had the nicest weather yet after another very humid morning. In the afternoon, the sun came out, the humidity dropped substantially, and a nice breeze rolled in. It made for a really pleasant stroll home after dinner.

Missing Charlie desperately at this point of the trip . . .

Here are today's pictures. Like yesterday, there aren't too many -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/caira/sets/764367/

However, for your viewing pleasure, as an added bonus I finally uploaded all the pictures we took from our very first day after remembering today that I had never done that. So check us out, all fresh-faced and dreamy-eyed -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/caira/sets/710763/

From Guangzhou and until tomorrow,

R, M, H & M