Just call me "MIss Spontaneity" . . . if you believe that . . .

Well, miracles CAN happen, you know, and this past week was the very proof of that! This highly organized, think things through completely so as to avoid the slightest margin of error girl, found herself surfing the internet last week and looking at airline tickets to random places in China while Jerry was testing the English level of some students for next year's classes. Let me first say that the one thing that surprised me the most when moving to this wonderful country was the extremely high cost of flying to destinations within the country. It nearly gives me, the extreme bargain hunter, a heart attack anytime we have had to fly in country this past year, to the point that I try not to even ask Jerry how much it cost until we arrive back home. . . so for me to be randomly searching prices of plane tickets was a strange fact in itself . . . but even stranger still?

I found tickets to a southern port city about an hour flight from here for $35 US each . . . one way. "Wow!" I thought, "I bet getting back home will cost a fortune!", so I checked and found that tickets home would be even cheaper . . . hold on to your hats folks . . . less than $18 US each to fly home! I thought for sure there would be no way to find a place to stay (well, to meet my hotel standards, which, yes, girlfriends, has not changed in the least!) would be impossible putting this ridiculous little pea-sized idea to rest at last . . . however . . . I found a wonderful web-site for discounted last minute hotel reservations in China and there, as if the heavens had opened up and the angels were singing the hallelujah chorus, was listed the newly opened in 2006 (read: assuredly meets LaWanda's hotel standard) Ramada Plaza (double confirmation of the standard being met) of Guang Zhou, China for $50 per night (read: gift from Dad cuz he knew it was time for the Joneses is get away for some family time by themselves!).

So . . . off we went for a few wonderful days in the even hotter, even more humid city of Guang Zhou, China! Here are a few pictures, i will post a few more shortly (we are having to get into our blog through the back door once again, so the process is a little time consuming and I can only post four or five pictures/post). We are so very thankful for the time away . . . as many of you know, sometimes you just don't know how convoluted life is until you step away from it for a few days to get some perspective. . . thank goodness Dad knows what it will take to get me to take those steps back . . . and he came through with flying colors! His little bargain-loving girl was quite pleased . . . and her husband? Floored by the spontaneity of it all!



Rachel enjoying the great pool with her new floaties

I love coffee as much as the next guy (well, maybe not you, DK . . . )
but I just couldn't make myself go in and check this one out.
I'm going with "the cat likes to eat coffee" shop, not the many
alternatives to the interpretation of this sign.

And here we found "rubber band street"
store after store after store of these bags of rubber bands.
Amazing.

Rachel finally figured out a way to keep everyone at bay . . .
if they can't see me, they can't poke at my cheeks and say the
same thing over and over to me in Chinese while I stare blankly
at the spot directly behind them and to the left!
She's brilliant, I tell ya!