Our schedule

My husband and I start out together. We will be joined by our twins on Aug. 6, and we will be joined by my brother and cousin on Aug. 13.

Aug. 1 -- Take an afternoon flight from Florida for San Francisco; overnight at Airport Hyatt
Aug. 2 -- Depart San Francisco for Beijing
Aug. 3 -- Arrive in Beijing; two nights in Days Chang An Grand Hotel
Aug. 4 -- Tour Beijing (Great Wall and acrobat show)
Aug. 5 -- Tour Beijing (Tian An Men Square and the Forbidden City and Hutong); fly to Nanning in Guangxi Province; two nights in Majestic Hotel
Aug. 6 -- "Gotcha Day" -- tour Nanning in the morning and then meet our twins at the Civil Affairs in the afternoon (and assume responsibility for them)
Aug. 7 -- Civil Affairs office in the morning for adoption registration, notarization and passport application; afternoon train to Guilin; two nights in Sheraton Guilin
Aug. 8 -- Tour Guilin orphanage (even though they were in foster care, they may know some of the children there)
Aug. 9 -- Li River Cruise in the morning; afternoon train from Guilin to Nanning; one night in Majestic Hotel
Aug. 10 -- Civil Affiars office in the morning to pick up passport; evening flight from Nanning to Guangzhou (third largest city in China, formerly known as Canton); five nights in the legendary White Swan hotel where we hope and expect to meet a lot of other families who are completing their adoptions
Aug. 11 -- Morning photo and medical exams for the girls; afternoon tour of the Temple of Chen
Aug. 12 -- Visit the Six Banyan Temple
Aug. 13 -- My brother and cousin arrive into Guangzhou early in the morning and we have our consulate appointment at 9:30 a.m.; they will stay at the Guangzhou Marriott; all six of us will have a Pearl River Cruise in the evening
Aug. 14 -- All six of us travel to White Cloud Mountain in the morning; afternoon visa pick up
Aug. 15 -- Take a train to Shenzhen (a "special economic zone" just outside of Hong Kong); two nights at the Four Points by Sheraton
Aug. 16 -- Visit Hong Kong Disneyland and take lots of photos!!!
Aug. 17 -- Visit Hong Kong and take a night flight to Honolulu (with change of planes in Guam); overnight at Sheraton Honolulu
Aug. 18 -- Tour Honolulu and take a night flight to LA
Aug. 19 -- Layover in LA -- possibly visit Disneyland and the California Adventure; daytime reservation for Westin LAX
Aug. 20 -- Take a night flight to Pittsburgh; interact with my family and friends; overnight at Airport Hyatt; my brother and cousin will return to work
Aug. 21 -- Leisurely breakfast at the Hyatt and then fly from Pittsburgh to Florida