Tuesday March 16

Not a whole lot to blog about today.  After we got up and had breakfast we needed to stay in the room a couple of hours while Bill went to the US consulate to apply for the visas.  We filled out the paperwork yesterday but they like families to stay in the room just in case there is a problem with the paperwork.  After that we did a little shopping on the island.  On our way to Lucy's for lunch we saw this statue, I must have missed this one when we were here adopting Alicia.  I love the statue, it is a lady playing the violin and some kids following behind her.  PJ seemed rather scared of the statue, it would have been so cute to see him "blending in" with the statues.  Further up the path we came across these school kids doing some kind of drills outside.  After lunch some of us went shopping off island with a guide we hired from the area (she has a website called red thread china).  She is a very nice lady and knew exactly where to go to find good deals.  We all found what we were looking for and paid 1/3 or 1/2 of what we would have spent in the island.  To get there we walked through the Qing Ping market.  The items there are used for medicines or soups.  Anyone care for some dried lizard?  We walked passed a section where people were selling pets (yes we verified they were for pets).  So I had to take a picture of the cute puppies.  Our shopping guide said they cost 300 Yuan which is equivalent to about $50.