Day 13

Another fantastic day in China.  But we have begun the countdown to when we come home.  We are ready to get back to the USA, be with friends and family, and have some form of normalcy return.   Today we went to the Guangzhou zoo and safari park.  What a fantastic zoo.   Lots of each kind of animal, and you can be interactive with them as well.  You can buy meat to throw at the tigers and lions so that they move around and you can watch them eat.  You can hand fee giraffes.   Very cool!   This zoo does a lot of breading, so we were able to see lots of baby animals, from elephants to tigers.   We saw tiger cubs smaller than a house cat... so cute.  The safari was great as well.  One of the couples in our group said this safari was much better than Disney's Animal Kingdom's safari.  The ride here was much longer, many more animals all over the place.  Once again, there were workers there feeding some of the animals to make sure we would see them being active.   We didn't take photos of the safari, but we did take some very cool video of it.   But the highlight of the day was the pandas!  They probably have about 20 pandas that we were able to see, and many of them were awake and moving around. Something I learned from my sister, is that they sleep A LOT.  So it was special to see them awake, playing, and eating.  Don't worry Tracy, I have lots of video for you.   Tonight the group had a pizza party and enjoyed everyone's company.  Mayah was showing her dancing moves at the party with daddy's help.  She showed off the sprinkler, churning butter, driving in reverse, and the ever popular Q-tip.  

Mayah showing how cool she is on the way to the zoo.

This was a very impressive structure.  When this was completed, it was the tallest freestanding tower in the world. It currently ranks as the 3rd largest tower in the world.   Look how it dwarfs the buildings next to it. 

Here are just some of the babies that can be viewed at the zoo. 

Miriam feeding the giraffe.  She put the twig in her mouth and the big guy came and took it. 

Our whole group at the entrance of the panda cove

One of the many pandas here.  I was glad he smiled for the camera when I asked him to do.  Either that or he was just chewing his lunch with his mouth open!

Miriam and I at the panda cove.  The guy in the background was just relaxing, enjoying the afternoon sun.

One more panda picture for Tracy!

Mayah fought her afternoon nap and ended up never going down.  She finally went to bed after her last bottle of the night.  She was so over tired.  Hopefully she will sleep through the night, but I doubt it.