More China

The Bund area at night

The antique market where after we bought something little, we were swarmed by other sellers because they knew we were softies!

See here we are on our coffee break

And here we are on our beer break

Our train trip

Here is the really long line to get a taxi after getting off of the train in Hangzhou...we found the Chinese don't really wait in lines....it's more like they just push forward.

The high speed train sign said we were going 323 km per hour...in miles that's...ummm...really fast!

The whole time in China Colin and Elizabeth took us to amazing restaurants...spicy Chinese, dumplings, Indian, tapas, even Mexican...only once did we lower our standards and eat McDonalds! (It was the only option in the train station for breakfast!)

Crazy train station in Shanghai...it was huge and packed and very new...and quite orderly and well planned.

CHINA here we are!!

I can't believe we got to go all the way to CHINA!! But that is the benefit of having relatives who live in far away places...we get to visit and explore new areas! Chris' brother, Colin, and his wife, Elizabeth, have been living in Shanghai for over a year and they were SO generous to give us miles for airline tickets to come visit them...THANK YOU!! It was an awesome week!!

I put this picture in a bit prematurely...see you really need to know the background story first. You need to understand what our strenuous itinerary was like during our week...Colin and Elizabeth were amazing tour guides but they really had us stressed out with trying to fit everything in...here is a sample day: Wake up and slowly get ready, stroll around an amazing part of the city while getting lots of interesting information from our guides, stop and have a coffee, walk around some more, have a foot massage, stop and have a really good lunch, walk around, play pool or darts and have a beer, take a nap, go have cocktails somewhere, then an amazing dinner. See, it was a really stressful week!!

And the story behind this very masculine picture of Chris is that we were ordering drinks one night, this very pink drink in a fragile and dainty glass is set before us, Chris says to me, "Oh your drink looks good", and the bartender (who, by the way, is British NOT Chinese) says, "No that's YOUR drink!!"

We took an overnight trip to a smaller town outside of Shanghai, Hangzhou, which only had about 5 million people (as opposed to Shanghai with 25 million people!!) It was really pretty with lots of trees around a nice lake. There weren't very many westerners there so we got LOTS of curious looks!

Another view of the pink drink! Elizabeth and Colin with one of their friends (the Einstein looking fellow!)

More...

Oma and Ali enjoying "Harry Potter"

Elizabeth and Opa reading "Madeline"

Here are the Lalaloopsy girls...they fell in love with these dolls and then wanted the dresses (to be like their cool neighbor friends)...My friend's Mom makes these wonderful embroidered characters and then I sewed the embroidery onto dresses.

Oma & Opa Babysit

Thank you so much, Oma & Opa, for coming here to babysit so that we could go on our trip! It sounds like you all had so much fun..."low" tea parties in the afternoons...

dyeing Easter eggs...

making bunny cakes, playing at Dream play, going out to eat, and lots more! The girls had a great time with you guys and we knew that they were in good hands while we were away!

Egg Hunting

Ali is cheering on Lizzie while it's the younger kids' turn to find eggs...

Here is Lizzie so happy with her bag full! It was Ali's turn next and they both got lots of candy! I love these little town activities...they are so cute!

Grandma & Grandpa

Thank you for coming to visit us, Grandpa & Grandma! We had so much fun taking you to our town's Easter egg hunt, staying in a hotel with you so that we could go swimming, and going shopping for Lalaloopsy dolls! (pictures coming of the Lalaloopsy craze!)