Day 7 - Adventure in the City - People’s Park and Wide and Narrow Alley

Ever lost a kid on a subway? Me neither.  More on that to follow …

Our day started like our last two days: breakfast at the mostly-Asian breakfast buffet at our hotel.  Micah downed 4 bowls of congee again, Nathan had a bacon sandwich, Claire ate 3 donuts, Hannah ate a little bit of a lot of food, Matt got to enjoy an omelet, and Deanna had peanut butter on toast.  The best part of the breakfast, though, was that Maelee actually ate something!  She had 2 yogurts (you drink them with a straw), a banana, and a glass of cold white milk.  Praise God!

After breakfast, we took all of the kids to the swimming pool.  Everyone thought it was funny that they had to wear a swim cap.  The joke is that Matt probably has more hair on the rest of his body than on his head, but whatever …. Swim caps it is.  We even got Maelee into the pool.  Deanna was apprehensive, but finally got her suited up.  Maelee enjoyed the warm kiddie pool, but not so much the bigger and colder adult pool.  Overall, though, the pool temperature was great for swimming.

We'll count that as a smile!

Hotel pool - the wait is over!

Kiddie pool time

In the afternoon we set off on our city adventure.  Maelee and Hannah were in strollers and the rest of us walked.  We hoofed it about a mile and finally reached People’s Park.  This is the fourth People’s Park that Matt has been to (Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanchang, Chengdu) and they all have similar characteristics: pretty scenery and flowers, a lake of some kind, a koi pond, a kiddie amusement park with overpriced rides, and PEOPLE of course.  In fact, the people are what makes a People’s Park a special treat.

Today, we saw people dancing, singing, playing music, playing badminton, playing hackey-sack with the weighted feathers, writing calligraphy with a water brush, taking glamour shots, and just enjoying the day.  Deanna joined in the dancing fun and the girls joined her.  Matt even joined in towards the end.  In the amusement park, we let the kids pick two rides. They rode a mini rollercoaster and did bumper cars.  Then, to top off our time there, we made our way to the koi pond.  The kids had a blast feeding the fish!

We've arrived.  Doesn't everyone look happy?

Dancing in the park

Maelee's first amusement park ride with the Marquette family!

Deanna and Claire recreating glamour shots some other girl just took

Feeding fish at the koi pond

Hackey sack with the weighted feather thing

Oh … I almost forgot … we were a spectacle to behold there!  A lot of people stared … some close, some far away … usually with a look of curiosity.  It’s actually kind of fun to snap them out of their trance with a sharp Ni Hao!  A lot of people liked to count our children.  They also liked to snap photos on their phones ... some discreetly, some not so much.  In fact, our family photo now resides on the phone of no less than 20 Chengdu residents.  If China had Facebook, our family photos probably would have gone viral.

Think we're crazy?  Check out this pic of a guy twisting and pulling molasses by hand.

How many onlookers can you spot staring at us instead of the guy?

Here's what it kind of feels like from the kid's level

After we had our fun at People’s Park, we decided to keep the good times rolling by hiking another ½ mile to the Wide and Narrow Alley shops.  This is a famous tourist destination in Chengdu filled with shops and restaurants.  If we thought we got a lot of stares at People’s Park, we certainly got more here.  The best actually was when either Matt or Deanna would duck into a store to check it out while the other waited with all 5 children.  We ended up buying a few toys there and ate a “German” restaurant.  Main courses tonight included onion rings, spaghetti, cheese pizza, and this spicy beef dish that nearly put Matt under the table because it was so hot.

Crazy big and busy intersection

Let's manuever 5 kids and two strollers through that.  Sure, why not?

Matt was happy the girls ordered chocolate milk.  He drank half of a glass from each of them!

By this point in the day, it was 6 o’clock and starting to get dark.  There was only one thing we had left to do: get back to the hotel.  We first found a taxi, but he was only willing to take a few of us.  So, Deanna, Micah, Hannah, and the stroller went in the taxi.  Matt, Claire, Nathan, and Maelee waited 10 minutes for another taxi, but one never came.  So the troop started walking in the direction of the hotel.  Within a few blocks, we came across a subway stop and thought we’d give it a go.  8 Yuan later, we are going through security, carrying a stroller down 3 flights of stairs and navigating our way through the Chengdu underground transit system.

Note to self: “Never try to get onto a subway train that’s just sitting there.  It's probably about to leave”  Sure, it seems like a good idea at first.  There was plenty of space on the train after all and no crowd was around that we would have to push through.  So Nathan hopped on and before we knew it, the bells started dinging and the doors started closing.  Matt jumped into the doorway and ripped the doors back open as best he could while Nathan slithered out.  It was almost like a scene from an Indian Jones movie where the guy rolls under the wall as it is closing.  Praise God Nathan got out and the train did not take off!

Two subway stops later, a train transfer, and 3 more flights of stairs and we finally made it to our destination.  Matt and Deanna reunited in the lobby and were grateful that everyone made it back home safely!

Matt and the kids were relieved to see their hotel in the distance after getting off the subway

Tomorrow, Lord willing, we are going to go to the Panda Base.  It is another big to-do in Chengdu.  The only bad part is that you have to take a taxi some 45 minutes to get there.  I’m hoping we can call a cab big enough to fit all of us, but I have my doubts.  Please pray for us!

Blessings for today:

-        Maelee ate something!

-        We didn’t lose anybody today … especially Nathan on the subway!

-        No one had a major temper tantrum while we were out in public.  In fact, Maelee sat perfectly quiet the entire time we were out.

-        The kids finally got to swimming and let off some energy.

-        Maelee cracked a smile or two.  I may have even heard a little laugh in the bathtub … I think she is warming up to us a little bit.

-        Maelee crawled for the first time for us.

-        The kids got to experience a lot of big city Chinese culture today.

# Matt's Post