Day 2 -- The Yellow River Scenic Area

On his last trip, David and my dad decided to take a taxi to the Yellow River Scenic Area. This is perhaps the Chinese equivalent of Mt. Rushmore. I should know more about the history, but will have to look it up when there is a spare moment. The guide told us they were the heads of two emperors, Huang and Yan, but that's all we know.

This trip he was determined to go back and he convinced a few in the group to join us, even our guides decided to add it as an attraction. As soon as we arrived and left the bus we were whisked onto a hovercraft boat and taken out onto the Yellow River. Unfortunately, this happened so fast that this is the only picture I got of the hovercraft.

The boat took us out to a sandbar that appears when the tide goes out. 

Fortunately for us we timed it well. When we landed and disembarked there were many Chinese there to offer us rides on horses and ATVs. David, of course, could not let the opportunity pass. 

See us way out in the distance? That's probably right about the time that I'm telling him to slow down. I kept reminding him we now have 10 children, we can't afford a stay in a Chinese hospital.

You can tell he wasn't really listening. 

After spending more than a week in two big cities, Shanghai has a population of 22 million and Zhengzhou 9 million, it was nice to be out of the city. The park area had many beautiful paths and it was the perfect spring day to enjoy them.

There was even a peacock farm. Mazie really enjoyed feeding them. She got a big kick out of throwing the corn kernels.

It was one of the few times that she wasn't crying. There were fewer tears today, but still plenty of them.

We spent quite some time just walking and enjoying the weather. The plan was to try to find the way to the top of this.

At every turn there seemed to be more stairs. David would tell us not too many, just about 50 or so.

I'm glad he's not the one teaching our kids math. We never did find the way to the top, but we did find one of these.

And instead of finding the path to the top, we found this...

I can't believe he convinced me to do this.

He was so nervous he borrowed a stroller for the baby.

There was some sort of temple at the other side. I know there are probably many prayers being offered there.

Thankfully we made our way back down the mountain and only had to cross the bridge one way. The view from the bottom was much nicer in my opinion.

The bridge is in the background. The large pole in front was actually a giant speaker which played Chinese music. It was a beautiful park. 

Little Mazie was in good spirits with Dad on this second day, but cried whenever he left or Mom touched her. This was harder for me than I had anticipated. I knew her transition would be difficult, but was a little unprepared for so much, so very much, crying. It was hard to want to mother her and to have her turn to Dad, and it was hard to see so many tears. I knew the bond she had would make this difficult, but in the long run will be good for her.

I'll post about our third day in Zhengzhou when I get another spare moment. Thankfully, she has really turned a corner. She's laughing and playing, she only cries when she's tired. She still prefers Dad, but is happy with Mom. It has been so wonderful to see her finally feeling happy again. There is undoubtedly a long way to go with bonding, but it has lifted my spirits to see her smiles and hear her giggles.