More Sightseeing in Lanzhou



Mommy and Anna

Cici and Anna

Today we had a day full of more sightseeing!  We are waiting for Anna's passport to be completed, so we are hoping everything will be ready by tomorrow as scheduled.  We went to the Gansu Provincial Museum and saw everything from dinosaur bones discovered in this province (with music
from Jurassic Park playing in the background) to pottery to Buddhist statues to bronze artifacts found locally.  It was nice, but museums are tough places for kids (as we were traveling with the other sweet family adopting) and everyone was getting a little tired toward the end of the tour.  At one point we stopped in the museum's coffee shop to take a break.  I noticed someone staring at Anna and then start talking to his friend about us (I assumed).  I was starting to get a little annoyed
because he just couldn't stop staring - please!!!  But then it was such a touching moment, because he turned to us literally with tears in his eyes and said that we were "angels" in his eyes.  I didn't really want to get into the theology of who angels actually were and had he read the Bible or Billy Graham's book on angels...so I didn't interrupt...but he was so touched with the idea that sweet Anna was being adopted by us.  He asked where we were from and then told us he was from Lanzhou, and he just kept saying over and over that we were "angels" and that our baby was so lucky to have such a wonderful life ahead of her.  It was very kind of him to take the time to share with us, and he was obviously very moved.

Anyway, after that we drove over to take a look at the Yellow River, which actually looks kind of more like a brownish color...but it is impressive to see with the mountains rising up behind it.  One interesting thing we saw were the sheep skin rafts.  I had heard this name thrown out, but I was picturing some weird wooden raft covered with sheep's wool.  However, that is not what a sheep skin raft is...it is a wooden raft with a sheep's skin (no wool attached) blown up like a balloon to allow it to float...we were told that the largest raft had about 600 of those attached to it! You can tell by the picture that Anna was rather disturbed by the whole thing...

By the river there was a little store that sold some things made locally, so we bought a couple of things for Anna.  We bought a wall hanging with a pink peony (the national flower of China - who knew?) and a pair of embroidered shoes made in the city where Anna lived for the past 12 months.
One final big accomplishment of the day was that Anna rolled from back to tummy and back over all on her own - all that working out is totally paying off!

What a day!