Apples!

We took Timmy to Jonamac Orchards this weekend to go apple picking! He fell asleep on the way so Scott and I took ourselves on a driving tour of NIU, oh memories! He woke up when we stopped at the bookstore and had a really hard time understanding that the whole campus was our school.

Being afraid of the wind!

Apple picking was a success. Timmy told me yesterday that apples grow on trees and you have to wash them because they come from outside. The whole experience was a struggle for a few minutes while Timmy was afraid of the wind (just like Scott when he was a kid!). He got over it and had a great time.

Bakugan and the Zoo

Sad, sad grizzly bear begging for junk. :(

We went to the zoo on Sunday. Trips to the Shanghai Zoo never fail to make us sad. The overweight animals look so pathetic begging for human food from all the dumb people that throw bread and junk food at them. But it was a nice day and we wanted to be outside. Timmy wanted to see "elphants & mean birds." We've been watching Horton Hears a Who over and over so he now like elephants and mean birds (vultures), but at the zoo he thought every bird was a mean bird.

This is Timmy imitating one of the mean birds.

On an unrelated topic, can anyone explain to me how Bakugan works? Scott's co-worker bought Timmy a set of little magnetic triggered exploding ball toys and I just don't get it. What is the story behind it, and the strategy? Any help would be appreciated. Timmy loves the toys. He even calls one that looks like a bird, Mean Bird Ball.

Clean-shaven Scott at the zoo.

Cebu, Philippines...The Highlights

We spent a week in Cebu, Philippines at the Plantation Bay Resort with Scott's parents and our friend Lauren. It was sweet.

The pools were mix of some fresh water and some salt water, and there was a tiny beach that provided hours of entertainment when the tide was out. We discovered what we think is either a sea cucumber or sea slug, a blue starfish, endless crabs, at least one eel, etc. Timmy loved the water slide and swimming in general. He loves our friend Lauren and now thinks that any white girl that is not me is "Owen" (he had a hard time saying Lauren).

Timmy loved vacation.

We attended two luaus, complete with a roasted pig and, Lauren's favorite (heehee) "sexy male dancers in skimpy loin cloths" as the advertisement said. The food at the resort in general was okay, but nothing much I'd rave about. Although the donuts every morning were pretty good.

We took a day cruise to a white sand beach island called Pandanon Island. They roasted miscellaneous meats for us for lunch that were delicious. Then we went to a different island's coast to go snorkeling. It was awesome. The best snorkeling I have ever done. We got to feed the fish, so they came right up to us and I even got to see Nemo (clown fish) in his natural habitat. Cindy stayed on the boat with Timmy and they got to feed and watch the fish from there.

We ate lunch in this little hut on the island.

After all the worrying we had done the week before about earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, tropical storms and the like, we ended up with perfect weather. Timmy the whitest kid in China didn't even get sun burned!

Click here for the rest of our pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40693&id=1145683473&l=140e7d447e

Vacation in Shanghai

After our whirlwind tour of Beijing with Jim and Cindy, we embarked on three days of tourism in Shanghai. We spent Thursday at the flower market and Pearl Market doing some shopping.

We followed that up with picking up our friend Lauren from the airport and dragging her out to a fancy dinner at Kathleen's 5 restaurant on top of the Shanghai Art Museum. It was Jim and Cindy's wedding anniversary so we had to go out and celebrate. There was a great view of the city from the rooftop atrium. As we were eating building after building lit up with neon and LEDs. Some of us were not sure exactly what we were eating, namely Jim, but our best guess was some kind of internal organ like an intestine. It was an interesting evening.

The view from the atrium on stop of the Shanghai Art Museum.

Friday was the official first day of the holiday here in China and we made the dumb mistake of trying to go to Yu Gardens. I think every Chinese person in Shanghai was there. We left after 10 minutes of insanity. We went and did more shopping, got our hair washed and then had a huge Chinese dinner with our friend Lou Yun. We were in a private room with a huge lazy Susan full of too much food. Again Jim ate something odd, a chicken foot.

Lauren and Cindy experiencing the hair wash, complete with an ear cleaning for Cindy!

Saturday was a trip to the fake market on NanJing Lu to get some final gifts for people back home. We also took our guests to the grocery store to see the insanity that it is. After some spaghetti at home and relaxing we headed to the airport for our midnight flight and the beginning of the real vacation...Cebu, Philippines!

Lauren and I bought matching Uggs at the fake market.

Beijing Day Three: The Summer Palace

Our last day in Beijing we had just enough time to make it through the Summer Palace before heading back to the airport to return to Shanghai. There were ornate statues, hundreds of paintings on the ceilings of the walkways, a big lake, a guy writing mystery messages in Mandarin on the ground with water, crazy topiaries and lots of people - typical China. :)

Scott's parents, Jim & Cindy

Scott and I with one of the beautiful statues

one cool peacock.

Beijing Day Two: Great Wall, Great Fog, & The Olympics

Our second day in Beijing took us to the Great Wall. The weather that day was not optimal for viewing much farther than your hand in front of your face. We had a good morning on the Wall with Timmy doing some physical therapy on his healing, no longer casted leg by climbing for a while. We were planning on taking the toboggan down the wall, but it was closed due to the rain. We got to wear some sweet ponchos though.

Timmy climbing the wall.

Diaper change on the wall.

After the Great Wall we headed over to the Olympic park to check out the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. The whole place was pretty amazing. We self-toured the inside of the Water Cube. Although really neat, time has already started to take it toll on the weird plastic-y material that its made of because the place looks a little bit dirty now. Again we wished the fog would break, but it was still a great experience.

Beijing Day One: Tiananmen Square and One Long Noodle

We arrived in Beijing on Monday morning and began our site seeing in Tiananmen Square. Being that it was three days before the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the place was buzzing with preparations for their monster of a parade. Red flags everywhere and little silver marks on the ground where thousands of people would be standing for the festivities on Thursday. Timmy got in on the Communist pride action, see above.

We attempted to then go to the Forbidden City, which is located next to the square. The entrance that faces the square was blocked off for the parade route and we assumed that meant we could not go inside. We realized later that we needed to enter from the other end, oh well, I guess we missed out on that site.

We decided to go for an early dinner at the Noodle Loft. We had seen this restaurant on Discovery Travel and Living channel, on Anthony Bourdain's show, No Reservations. It is famous for its long noodles. Scott ordered the dish called One Long Noodle. Literally it is one noodle that is probably between two and three meters long, all wound up into one bowl. Pretty cool. The rest of the food was pretty good too.

Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

We took Timmy to the Science and Technology Museum today. I think we are spoiled for museums in other cities because we come from Chicago where all the museums are world-class. This one I think would have been a little better suited to maybe a 4 or 5 year old. The architecture of parts of it reminded me of the waterfront in Milwaukee near the art museum there.

Timmy did love watching a temporary exhibit they had where you could purchase your own little race car and watch it race around on a track. The second best attraction was not even an attraction at all, it was some kind of mystery yellow lifting machine thingy that Scott doesn't even know the proper name for. It was stashed in the corner under an escalator and Timmy thought it was the coolest.

Checking out the mystery machine and learning about pilot valves like a good little engineering student.

Watching the cars on the track.

There were fish in there under the floor.

Xiamen Highlights

Our long weekend in Xiamen was good. It was really nice to get away from the now familiar Shanghai sights. Here are some highlights from our trip...

Day 1: After insane amounts of transportation (taxi, bus, plane, van, ferry & tram) we arrived finally on Gulong Yu, an island right next to the island of Xiamen. Both are located west of Taiwan. Our hotel in Gulong Yu was the only 4 star hotel on the island, but was definitely not what Scott and I would

consider 4 stars. There were no elevators!!! We were on the third floor, so that got a little annoying with Timmy and stroller in tow all the time. The island itself was only worthy of a day trip, but we enjoyed the time anyway.

We were traveling with 7 of Scott's coworkers, all young/our age single people. They were

traveling cheap, so they stayed at a hostel. We joined them for a few meals and got to experience what traveling cheap means to a twenty-something Chinese person! Some of the places we ate at I would have never thought to set foot in, much less actually eat at. The first meal in Gulong Yu was delicious. Since these islands are in the ocean, lots of seafood. Some

good, and some gross.

Day 2: We took the ferry back over to Xiamen and found our new hotel, much nicer. We searched the internet on our phones for "American Restaurant Xiamen" because after two cheap Chinese meals, we were ready for a burger! We found some place called the Red Armadillo, but it didn't exactly have an address. We decided to go anyway and hunt it down. After an hour long taxi ride, and glorious tour of the southern coast of the island, the taxi driver dropped us off on the side of the road. We had no idea where this place was. We started wandering and after about ten or fifteen minutes, a really sunburnt white guy yells down the road at us, "Red Armadillo?" Sweet. We followed him to his home, which I should have taken a picture of because I can't even begin to describe it. Definitely not your normal restaurant. He was an American expat, who has been in Xiamen for 8 years. The food was delicious, and we talked to the owner (sun burnt guy) for a while. It was super relaxing, complete with Jimmy Buffet on the stereo and a view of the beach.

After lunch, we went to the beach. Due to a recent typhoon, the water wasn't what we

considered swim worthy. So we played in the sand, walked down the coast and watched 4 different engaged couples take wedding pictures on the beach. In China it is a thing to hire a photography company to take pictures of you

and your fiance in different wedding attires at different locations. Many are like costumes, some are more traditional wedding garb. Either way it was fun to see. While we were people watching the brides, everyone in Xiamen was watching us! Timmy seems to create a scene wherever he goes. Its really annoying. On our last day Scott and I both actually hit someone for touching Timmy because she wouldn't back off.

Day 3: We went to the 10,000 stone botanical gardens, but we didn't stay long or take very many pictures. It was ridiculously hot, so much that Scott and I were drenched in sweat and the whole place was full of stairs. Not exactly fun with the stroller. Not to mention the intrusive people that want to touch Timmy. This is where the hitting incident took place. So we made a short loop through the gardens and retreated back to our hotel for some AC. After some shopping with our Chinese friends, and lunch at the highest Pizza Hut in the world we came home.

For the rest of our pictures, click here.

Long Weekend!

So Scott has a random day off on Monday for some type of power shut down at his company so we are going with 6 of his coworkers on a trip! We will be flying south the city of Xiamen (She-Ah-Men) which I am pretty sure is also the name of the island it is located on. Its a beachy place and is said to be in the top 5 most beautiful cities in China. Yea! I will of course be taking a lot of pictures so stay tuned. We'll be back on Monday.

It will be interesting to travel with 6 young single Chinese people and Me, Scott and Timmy. Already we are staying at a different hotel than them because they are going cheap and roughing it at a not so nice place. Yun Lou (our friend/translator/angel that I have mentioned before) didn't think we would like where they are staying. So this could be interesting. I hate being the snobby, rich foreigner because we are not rich, just not as poor as the average Chinese person. I am snobby I suppose, but I still don't like the label! :)

Day Tripping

We spent today in Hangzhou, China today with Scott's co-worker, CF and his wife Sara. Her name is not actually Sara, and she doesn't answer to Sara, so we are not sure why CF introduced her as Sara. We probably can't pronounce her Chinese name. Anyway, it was the most beautiful day outside and the city itself was absolutely beautiful. The day started out a bit iffy though.

About 30 minutes into our 2.5 hour drive from Shanghai to Hangzhou, Timmy puked. This has never happened before. This was not like a baby spitting up, this was a fountain of milk, stomach acid, and a few pieces of banana. It just kept coming. We were in CF's car, and thank goodness for the weird fact that every car in China has removable seat covers with Snoopy on them, otherwise his Kia would permanently smell like vomit. Also, thank goodness I brought an extra shirt for myself, or I would have been either smelly or topless all day! Don't worry, Timmy's fine, we think it was a bad banana. Ten minutes after the incident, he was hungry and smiling.

First, we took a boat to the middle of West Lake, which is the big attraction of Hangzhou. Timmy spent the whole ride saying "boat, boat, boat." It was his first time on a boat and he just learned how to say "boat" a couple weeks ago. He ran all over the island and loved stopping to look at the water.

After lunch we hiked around the Lingyin Temple area. It was so beautiful. What a difference from Shanghai. The flowers and greenery went on and on and there were hills with gorgeous buildings tucked between them everywhere. Azaleas were in bloom everywhere. Despite the fact that the whole area was created to honor Buddha, it was amazing. It was almost too bad that there were Buddhist icons and alters everywhere, they took away from the natural beauty.

We took a lot of pictures, too many to post here, so check them out at this link: (you DO NOT have to have a facebook account to view them) http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=428564&l=3dc00ddcd0&id=1145683473

Shanghai Botanic Gardens

Scott, Timmy & I spent Saturday morning at the Shanghai Botanic Gardens. It was a perfect day outside, although you wouldn't know it by looking at the amount of clothing the locals were wearing. I swear, most of them were dressed for 40 degree Fahrenheit weather when it was in the mid 70's and sunny! The poor kids, their parents make them wear multiple pairs of pants and countless shirts and sweaters, even when its nice out. I just don't get it. AND the grandma's on the playground always comment (in Chinese so I don't know exactly what they are saying...) that Timmy is only wearing a pair of jeans. They are appalled that he doesn't have ten more layers on.

Anyway, back to the gardens. So the weather was perfect. The gardens were huge, I have a blister on my feet from walking so much. There was a bamboo garden, some cool Japanese maple trees, and endless annual flowers. The azaleas were in full bloom, but we missed the tulip displays by two weeks. Bummer, because I had heard they were awesome.

The best part of the day for me was this little boy who, when he saw me, Scott, and Timmy started jumping up and down, screaming and pointing at us. He was so excited to see foreigners, it was like we were famous or something. So I decided to jump up and down and point and smile back at him. It was hilarious, it only made him scream louder. Fantastic.